The Significance of The Thought of The Unity of Heaven and Man in Traditional Chinese Medicine to The Construction of The Post Epidemic World Volume 3 - Issue 3

Du Hongwei* PhD

Doctor of Philosophy, Qiongtai Normal University, China

Received:June 26, 2021   Published:August 02, 2021

*Corresponding author:Du Hongwei, Doctor of Philosophy, Qiongtai Normal University, Hainan, China

DOI: 10.32474/OAJCAM.2021.03.000161

Abstract PDF

In the post epidemic era, the world is facing more complex economic and ecological crises, human health problems, international conflicts and world security, which force us to reflect on the misunderstanding of human mind: globalization intensifies the gap between the rich and the poor and regional disputes between countries, and developed high technology puts mankind in a more unsafe military threat. Many disasters let us see the weakness of human nature: modern mankind has not established a “spiritual home” matching the “ideal country” of material civilization. While challenging nature, mankind is also destroying the relationship between man and nature, which affects individual health, social order and human destiny. Highly developed modern science and technology and diversified political theories do not give human beings enough ability to repair the sick world and sick society. We need the philosophy of traditional Chinese medicine: starting from the causes of diseases to solve social problems. Traditional Chinese medicine believes that to solve health and social problems, we must first establish “heaven man induction” to strengthen human spirit.

Keywords: Philosophy of traditional Chinese medicine, heaven man induction, system theory, philosophy of life.

At present, the whole human being is helpless in the face of the sick world. How to get rid of the global health and safety crisis? In different exploration, Chinese medicine philosophy has given us better inspiration. During the anti-epidemic period in 2020, Chinese doctors rescued many viruses infected people, of which TCM has the highest curative effect and the cure rate is close to 100%. As early as 2003 SARS outbreak, Guangzhou traditional Chinese medicine has created a record of zero death in the treatment of patients. Traditional Chinese medicine believes that health issues should be considered in the social and natural systems. In Chinese culture, “heaven” represents truth and highest moral standards, represents nature and all things in the universe, represents supreme laws and power will, is the concentrated embodiment of ethical justice and wisdom spirit, and a great system that dominates the fate of the world. Traditional Chinese medicine believes that the relationship between man and heaven is a natural relationship that influences each other. To solve health problems and social problems, we should first establish “heaven and man induction”: people should maintain intuition to understand themselves and perceive the natural laws and establish harmonious relationship between people and heaven to achieve “unity of nature and man”. If the harmonious relationship between man and heaven is destroyed, disaster will occur in human society.

The clinical process of traditional Chinese medicine is the process of reflecting the induction of human and nature. TCM regards human diseases as the result of comprehensive influence of physiological, spiritual, and natural factors, which can achieve the purpose of treating diseases by mobilizing the natural potential of human body. Traditional Chinese medicine emphasizes individual differences, and the right medicine. During the epidemic, the use of herbal medicine to improve human potential to overcome the virus reflects the nature and scientificity of traditional Chinese medicine. Modern medicine gives patients to machine equipment. The drug dose does not reflect individual differences. It isolates the disease from the natural factors of the patients. The disease is isolated as organ disease. This is anti-natural. Therefore, it is not scientific at the philosophical level.

The verbs commonly used in modern medicine are “disposal”, “operation”, “laboratory examination” and “Anatomy”, which embodies the consciousness of local and external treatment. The most used terms of traditional Chinese medicine are harmony, rationalization, rest, and maintenance, and tongjingluo, etc., which embodies the overall consciousness and pays attention to the inner mental concern. The medical thinking of the integration of body and mind in traditional Chinese medicine embodies the special advantages of the theory of “heaven and human induction” and the theory of integration of nature and human.

In traditional culture, traditional Chinese medicine plays the role of psychological care, life guidance and medical popularization. In the process of medical treatment, TCM doctors will unconsciously transmit spiritual values and promote the correct way of life. Therefore, it is trusted by patients, and has personality charm and discourse authority. The diagnosis method of watching and asking ensures that doctors and patients can communicate deeply and establish trust relationship. Doctors will guide patients to establish confidence in overcoming diseases through psychological hints. Modern medical statistics show that only 15% of the factors that determine human life span are genetic, and 60% are related to lifestyle. Traditional Chinese medicine advocates prevention as the main, treatment as the auxiliary, so that the human body and mentality to maintain natural peace is the best treatment.

Traditional Chinese medicine does not advocate relying on surgery or drugs to eliminate symptoms. The key is to find the cause of the disease according to the symptoms and adjust the system state causing the disease. Traditional Chinese medicine philosophy holds that people’s medical and health problems are directly related to family conditions, public environment, ecological balance, group status and spiritual factors. In clinical practice, traditional Chinese medicine will maximize the use of human self-coordination ability and activate the immune system to achieve the purpose of cure. Traditional Chinese medicine does not pursue profits. The cost of acupuncture and herbal medicine is low. It cannot create wealth for companies and hospitals like western medicine. Difficult and miscellaneous diseases are often treated with simple methods, so that ordinary people can see a doctor. This kind of humanitarian behavior is rejected by the modern medical system. Although the real traditional Chinese medicine is on the verge of extinction, its valuable thought will become the permanent spiritual wealth of mankind.

The modern European Enlightenment made science replace witchcraft, superstition, and theology. At the same time, it also made mankind lose the fear of nature and the sacred sense of life and all things. Modern scientific and technological civilization has destroyed the harmonious relationship between man and nature, and the ecological environment has deteriorated. Human society is in the survival crisis brought by natural punishment due to the development of high technology. Behind this crisis, there are reasons for human spiritual values. First, human beings have violated the law of “unity of nature”, and secondly, they have lost the foresight of nature law.

The medical principle of prevention in traditional Chinese medicine requires doctors to have foresight of the development of things. Ancient Chinese philosophy and the theory of the book of changes include the thought of prediction and attach great importance to the development of human foresight. The theory of heaven man induction increases man’s perception of himself and of nature. Anatomy cannot prove the existence of human meridians, but traditional Chinese Medicine found it in ancient times. Meridian theory has proved its scientific and important value in clinical practice and explained the supernatural and rationality of “heaven man induction”.

Chinese philosophy holds that all things in the universe contain Yin and Yang, which are both opposite and combined with each other. At the same time, all-natural things contain five basic elements, namely gold, wood, water, fire, and earth, which are called five elements. When the balance between yin and Yang and the five elements is lost, the galaxy will collapse, the society will be disordered, and the human body will get sick. Traditional Chinese medicine believes that modern scientific and technological products, electrification equipment, military engineering, weapon research and development and other things have the attribute of Yang, which is the fire in the five elements. Excessive Yang Qi intensifies social contradictions, and extreme phenomena continue to appear in the world. From the perspective of traditional Chinese medicine, the spread of diseases and social unrest are due to the obvious decline of human self-restraint and rational thinking, and human beings have destroyed the harmonious relationship with nature. How to improve the sensing ability of heaven and man? Chinese traditional culture contains the principle of heaven man induction. Its practical activities have the functions of promoting physical and mental harmony and enhancing heaven man induction, such as meditation and meditation of Buddhism and Taoism, and the artistic cultivation of calligraphy, painting, tea ceremony and flower path, which help human beings understand the mystery of the cosmic spirit and open their internal potential.

Human nature induction makes human intuition and the system of the universe integrated and obtains the sense of existence and real freedom. As the philosopher Begaye said, “if nature is the subject, it must be the inner existence of the universe, and it will show the existence of the universe, and thus freedom.” At the level of psychology and philosophy, the concept of heaven man induction is like Plato’s idea theory, Kant’s innate judgment and Husserl’s theory of spiritual phenomenon reduction. It shows that the thought of heaven man induction has the universal significance of cultural identity between the East and the West and social practice. Confucianism regards benevolence as the spiritual connotation of the induction between heaven and man, and the thought of the unity of heaven and man has become the criterion of self-discipline of gentlemen and emperors in previous dynasties: everything should conform to the will of heaven, which is the public opinion. Chinese people often say that when people do things, heaven is watching, and this day is people’s conscience.

The value of traditional Chinese medicine is to look at the problem of life and health from the perspective of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism. Starting from the philosophical view of the unity of heaven and man, the human body is regarded as an organic social organization, and the problem of life and health management is corresponding to the national management principles: health needs rationality, the desire to exercise power, and the “society” of the body needs to abide by rules and self-discipline.

Seeking the balance between various systems of the body and maintaining the harmony of body and mind is not only the way of traditional Chinese medicine, but also the way of political decisionmaking and business. It should become the ideological method to solve the world crisis after the epidemic.

The thought of “harmony between man and nature” is a summary of the ancient Chinese culture. Due to various historical and political reasons, the relationship between human beings and nature is still contradictory. Until today, China and many parts of the world are still being punished by nature. Chinese people often say that “nine out of ten natural disasters are man-made disasters”. It is necessary for us to find a way out of the world crisis from the perspective of mankind itself. In the post epidemic era, mankind needs to strengthen the awareness of ecological protection and establish a new world order and international relations. At the spiritual level, mankind needs more strict ecological awareness, scientific ethics awareness and life values. The world needs a return to peace.

In the era when power determines the world pattern, those in power are responsible for the future of the nation and the fate of the world. Therefore, they should be a group with more political rationality and philosophical speculation. The social and political center should be composed of wise men representing justice ethics, such as Plato’s Republic, to let the world live under the domination of rationality. This rationality should be based on the harmonious relationship between man and nature.

Buddhism holds that the human mind is the root of everything. The root cause of the world crisis is the conscience of political decision-makers. If the social decision-making class and the elite of the times lose the moral bottom line, mankind will have the possibility to ride Noah’s Ark. Facing the crisis of globalization, contemporary scientific elites are spending a lot of money to develop the immigrant Mars program. People with a little mathematical knowledge will know that the cost of sending a million people to Mars is enough to solve the ecological problems and child poverty of the whole earth, and it is difficult for groups lacking moral consciousness and spiritual values to build a happy home on any planet. The way out of the world is not outer space, but mankind itself, human mind, and the philosophical spirit of the times.

“The heart is not responsible for the chaos in the world”. The classic of traditional Chinese medicine Huangdi Neijing has the following discussion on heart disease: “the heart is the monarch of the body. If the monarch is unknown, the twelve officials will be damaged”, “the heart is responsible for spiritual management”. Traditional Chinese medicine believes that the heart is not only an organ, but also a leading system. The national decision-making institutions are the heart of the leading social institutions. If the national spiritual value goes wrong, the whole society will decline. Human progress needs wise social managers and political elites and needs to lay the ethical and moral foundation of the national leadership with the thought of the unity of heaven and man.

With the rapid development of modern social civilization and backward cultural concepts, mankind has become a giant of science and technology and a dwarf of the soul, unable to control the greed and ambition promoted by the development of science and technology. Some scientific and technological achievements aimed at peace have turned into human disasters. The philosopher Lao Tzu believes that human beings’ excessive commitment to the research and development of tools and technologies will encourage utilitarianism and cunning. When man’s natural simple mentality is destroyed, his technology and wealth will not benefit mankind, but will threaten world security.

One of the misunderstandings of modern society is that the irrationalism of artistic creation overflows into political and scientific and technological innovation (such as politician Trump and scientist Masco). Their common feature is the lack of traditional Chinese medicine systematic thinking and the irrational use of world order and human destiny as the premise of decisionmaking. The common hidden dangers in modern globalization are that the week are in power, the ambitious are in power, the morally deficient are rich, and the intellectuals and social elites are far away from politics, which is the tragic root of human society. As Plato said, “the punishment for refusing to study politics is that you will eventually be ruled by people weaker than you”. Intellectual elites should not escape social responsibility. Chinese Confucian culture holds that a gentleman should obey the orders of the world and act on behalf of heaven. In other words, the intellectual elite should have a sense of social mission, which is the political consciousness and management spirit based on “heaven man induction”, which condenses the trust of the people.

I believe that all good people are willing to contribute to world peace. The post epidemic era should be an era when wise men dominate the world. This is the hope of mankind and will be a historical necessity, because this wise man is all peace-loving mankind, and they will be a new spiritual species.

• Understanding the truth is the key to solving the problem. Traditional Chinese medicine diagnosis of diseases should be considered comprehensively with many factors such as living habits, interpersonal relationships, professional characteristics, and geographical environment. This is the most effective concept of “overall operation” and big data idea, and the best model to understand the truth of diseases and solve disease problems.

• When human beings do not find the right direction, Lao Tzu advocates “doing nothing”: there will be greater gains without too much gain. This is also like the viewpoint of traditional Chinese medicine: over treatment will aggravate the disease. Avoiding war, slowing down resource development and alleviating international competition are an effective attitude for mankind to solve the world crisis. Clinically, the wisdom of traditional Chinese medicine to make good use of the situation without bleeding is worthy of reference by international experts.

• In the post epidemic era, facing the cold war thinking and divided international relations, mankind needs the power to unite the world. The sense of heaven and man is the soil of human empathy and empathy in the heart. The awe and love for all things in nature help human beings come together” “Heaven man induction” will stimulate people’s internal potential, which will be transformed into people’s creativity, artistic perception and literary critical spirit, and become a spiritual force conducive to the development of human moral consciousness and self-discipline.

• Plato reminds us that everyone should care about politics. And Chinese medicine inspired us that politicians must be wise men. In an era when politics determines the fate of the world, the world is in danger of being manipulated by a few people. Intellectuals, while giving power to the week, accused the government of incompetence. People complain about the lack of conscience in society, and the concern about politics is the conscience every citizen should have. In the post epidemic era, we should strengthen the awareness of human peace and strengthen the decision-making power of the UN agencies. Let the world have a strong heart and a rational mind.

• The most important task of modern philosophy is how to return the spirit to mankind itself. TCM theory is the epitome of ancient spiritual wisdom. It absorbs the spirit of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism, and the essence of Huang Di Nei Jing and the book of changes. Traditional Chinese medicine theory attaches importance to the importance of human natural potential for disease treatment. It is not only a criticism of modern scientific and technological determinism, but also an expansion of modern medical theory “The theory of “unity of heaven and man” and “induction between heaven and man” dialectically integrate materialism and idealism. It inspires us to return to the natural system to look at life and world problems and creates a new world outlook and methodology. It is a life philosophy of multi-dimensional wisdom and advanced consciousness and should become the worthiest ideological system in the 21st century.

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