Where does this information come from?
A quiet reflection – what actually did or does make it into texts?
In our own society – did the tried and true home remedies ever get written down, or were they passed across time through oral tradition?
How would this look in the medicine that we practice?
Is it that when a person consulted a practitioner, whatever era, they do/did whatever they could at home first, and after waiting and seeing – then gradually going up the lines of intervention, till eventually the local medicine man/woman is /was sought after?
What this may mean is that a lot of assumed knowledge contained within the culture of Chinese medicine is not only missing due to the language and intercultural dislocation, but also – there is a level at which the books and paid employment starts from.
Maybe before this – it is embedded within the culture and the language and the assumed practices. It may well be that a lot of what was originally passed down is now not – due to a number of ’modern’ influences. Often information falls in and out of fashion . .
We can tell that even in our food production/consumption – and the state of home gardening/ preserves. Who does now know how to feed their family without shops?
Our forebears grew what they needed to eat – and we all now go to the local supermarket. Having become so highly dependent on others, we are now also unable to go back to basics if needed. Is there even the space around the home dwelling to do so?
This can be seen to have happened in all human endeavours – where if lucky, we may have retained one or two skills – sewing our own clothes/curtains or repairing metal/wood implements?
When looking at information regarding any topic – we may have technology – but what about what used to be passed down as important – is it no longer so – or is it just redefined as being ‘old fashioned’ and ‘unscientific’?
We may find that over time we are thus left with just a coded system that may not hold the keys to understanding or even practicing our medicine as expected.
This is before we speak of the political changes that swept through the land and destroyed so very much of what had been revered in China – hence what is even allowed to be accessed. Some of the family traditional information was retained. Some escaped the Communist rule and made it out to the West.
Dr John Shen was one.
Dr John Shen (the founder of the pulse system Dr Leon Hammer speaks of) was most known for his pulse system.
Feel the pulse, yes;
but before that, observe the physiognomy, the stance, the smell, palpate about – everything tells us something – and without the immensity of his experience and personal observations we are left with but a few apparent gems that have been written down.
I have taken a few of the instances of teachings he gave and worked with them.
Cupping the cold out is one of these. Doing this creates a profound change – far greater than anything I have observed in my three decades of using needles or moxa alone.