Clipping Board » Other ─ There is currently no cure for this disease of the country and society...
Just read an article by Han-Tang Chinese Medicine practitioner Ni Haixia titled 'Avian Flu and Influenza'.
While reading it, I felt as if I could hear the sound of blood vessels bursting. There are some things I must say, so I’m writing this article.
Dr. Ni’s argument is that the ancient wisdom in Zhang Zhongjing’s *Treatise on Cold Damage and Miscellaneous Diseases*, written during the Eastern Han Dynasty under Emperor Xian, already provided solutions for all wind-cold-type illnesses. Therefore, modern doctors who fail to learn from this ancient text and instead rely on foreign-made Tamiflu vaccines are misleading people and harming the nation. To prove that Zhang Zhongjing’s prescriptions can treat avian flu, he says:
*"How to prove the absolute effectiveness of the above Chinese medicine? It’s simple. Readers, please buy some of the Chinese medicine I mentioned and some Western Tamiflu, then go to a park or a chicken farm and sprinkle both on the ground. You’ll see that the birds will choose to eat the Chinese medicine—not a single foolish chicken or bird will opt for Tamiflu. This is Mother Nature. Just like when your cat or dog is sick, they’ll eat grass to find their own cure—they’d never take Western medicine unless a vet forcibly injects it into them. Readers can also leave both medicines on the dining table overnight. The next morning, you’ll find that the cockroaches only eat the Chinese medicine, not a single foolish cockroach will touch Tamiflu. This is why cockroaches have survived on Earth for over a billion years without being wiped out—they’re far smarter than humans, even they know how to make the right choice."*
To be honest, this passage only proves that Dr. Ni’s reasoning is muddled and his logic flawed. He commits a false cause fallacy by linking two unrelated events, yet fails to demonstrate that Chinese medicine can treat avian flu.
If I were to scatter some chicken feed alongside Zhang Zhongjing’s prescription and observe the chickens choosing the feed over the ancient remedy, then following Dr. Ni’s logic, I could argue that chicken feed contains natural healing properties superior to Zhang Zhongjing’s formulas—even the chickens know how to choose!
Is that really the case? Anyone with a sound mind can see how absurd this reasoning is, yet Dr. Ni builds his argument on it!
As for whether the wisdom of ancient people from over 2,000 years ago can treat avian flu, let me first share a story about Yuan Mei.
The Qing Dynasty poet Yuan Mei recorded bizarre encounters and tales in his book *What the Master Would Not Discuss*. He described meeting a man whose lower limbs were swollen like giant sacks, forcing him to carry them on his shoulders while walking with great difficulty. Yuan Mei speculated that the man must have provoked some supernatural entity and was thus punished.
By the time Yuan Mei wrote this book, he had already earned the *jinshi* degree (he passed the imperial exam at age 24). When I read this passage in middle school, I didn’t interpret the man’s condition as supernatural. Instead, I thought: *"Oh, it’s probably elephantiasis caused by filariasis!"*
In just over a century of scientific progress, diseases once attributed to ghosts and gods by a *jinshi* scholar can now be roughly guessed by a middle schooler. This is the result of science’s tremendous advancement in understanding the causes of diseases.The Nobel Prize in Medicine this year was awarded to the discovery made over a decade ago that Helicobacter pylori exists in the stomach. This revealed that the primary cause of gastric ulcers is the damage to the stomach lining caused by substances secreted by H. pylori, which then leads to erosion by stomach acid, rather than the previously believed notion of excessive stress.
If a doctor, over these past ten-plus years, failed to acquire this new knowledge and continued to believe that "excessive stress" is the main cause of gastric ulcers, then no matter how much medication they prescribed to patients, they would still be unable to effectively cure the gastric ulcers.
Medical knowledge has undergone such tremendous changes and advancements in just ten or a hundred years—how, then, can we expect medical knowledge from two thousand years ago to treat today's diseases?
Western medicine was introduced to China during the Ming and Qing dynasties, and wastewater treatment technology was introduced during the Qing dynasty, leading to a significant increase in the average lifespan of Chinese people from 37 years to 60–70 years. Traditional Chinese medicine, over thousands of years, failed to raise the average lifespan beyond 40 years. When the tomb of a noblewoman from the Han dynasty was excavated, studies on her remains revealed that she had suffered from multiple chronic diseases during her lifetime and had not received proper treatment, leading to a far from peaceful death. If even a noble, who had access to extensive medical care, faced such conditions, how much worse must it have been for commoners?
So, can the *Treatise on Cold Damage and Miscellaneous Diseases* from two thousand years ago be used to treat today's avian flu? All I can say is: wishful thinking.
Source: http://edumeme.blogspot.com/2005/10/blog-post_30.html
Chinese Traditional Wisdom Cures Flu? Think Again!!
While reading it, I felt as if I could hear the sound of blood vessels bursting. There are some things I must say, so I’m writing this article.
Dr. Ni’s argument is that the ancient wisdom in Zhang Zhongjing’s *Treatise on Cold Damage and Miscellaneous Diseases*, written during the Eastern Han Dynasty under Emperor Xian, already provided solutions for all wind-cold-type illnesses. Therefore, modern doctors who fail to learn from this ancient text and instead rely on foreign-made Tamiflu vaccines are misleading people and harming the nation. To prove that Zhang Zhongjing’s prescriptions can treat avian flu, he says:
*"How to prove the absolute effectiveness of the above Chinese medicine? It’s simple. Readers, please buy some of the Chinese medicine I mentioned and some Western Tamiflu, then go to a park or a chicken farm and sprinkle both on the ground. You’ll see that the birds will choose to eat the Chinese medicine—not a single foolish chicken or bird will opt for Tamiflu. This is Mother Nature. Just like when your cat or dog is sick, they’ll eat grass to find their own cure—they’d never take Western medicine unless a vet forcibly injects it into them. Readers can also leave both medicines on the dining table overnight. The next morning, you’ll find that the cockroaches only eat the Chinese medicine, not a single foolish cockroach will touch Tamiflu. This is why cockroaches have survived on Earth for over a billion years without being wiped out—they’re far smarter than humans, even they know how to make the right choice."*
To be honest, this passage only proves that Dr. Ni’s reasoning is muddled and his logic flawed. He commits a false cause fallacy by linking two unrelated events, yet fails to demonstrate that Chinese medicine can treat avian flu.
If I were to scatter some chicken feed alongside Zhang Zhongjing’s prescription and observe the chickens choosing the feed over the ancient remedy, then following Dr. Ni’s logic, I could argue that chicken feed contains natural healing properties superior to Zhang Zhongjing’s formulas—even the chickens know how to choose!
Is that really the case? Anyone with a sound mind can see how absurd this reasoning is, yet Dr. Ni builds his argument on it!
As for whether the wisdom of ancient people from over 2,000 years ago can treat avian flu, let me first share a story about Yuan Mei.
The Qing Dynasty poet Yuan Mei recorded bizarre encounters and tales in his book *What the Master Would Not Discuss*. He described meeting a man whose lower limbs were swollen like giant sacks, forcing him to carry them on his shoulders while walking with great difficulty. Yuan Mei speculated that the man must have provoked some supernatural entity and was thus punished.
By the time Yuan Mei wrote this book, he had already earned the *jinshi* degree (he passed the imperial exam at age 24). When I read this passage in middle school, I didn’t interpret the man’s condition as supernatural. Instead, I thought: *"Oh, it’s probably elephantiasis caused by filariasis!"*
In just over a century of scientific progress, diseases once attributed to ghosts and gods by a *jinshi* scholar can now be roughly guessed by a middle schooler. This is the result of science’s tremendous advancement in understanding the causes of diseases.The Nobel Prize in Medicine this year was awarded to the discovery made over a decade ago that Helicobacter pylori exists in the stomach. This revealed that the primary cause of gastric ulcers is the damage to the stomach lining caused by substances secreted by H. pylori, which then leads to erosion by stomach acid, rather than the previously believed notion of excessive stress.
If a doctor, over these past ten-plus years, failed to acquire this new knowledge and continued to believe that "excessive stress" is the main cause of gastric ulcers, then no matter how much medication they prescribed to patients, they would still be unable to effectively cure the gastric ulcers.
Medical knowledge has undergone such tremendous changes and advancements in just ten or a hundred years—how, then, can we expect medical knowledge from two thousand years ago to treat today's diseases?
Western medicine was introduced to China during the Ming and Qing dynasties, and wastewater treatment technology was introduced during the Qing dynasty, leading to a significant increase in the average lifespan of Chinese people from 37 years to 60–70 years. Traditional Chinese medicine, over thousands of years, failed to raise the average lifespan beyond 40 years. When the tomb of a noblewoman from the Han dynasty was excavated, studies on her remains revealed that she had suffered from multiple chronic diseases during her lifetime and had not received proper treatment, leading to a far from peaceful death. If even a noble, who had access to extensive medical care, faced such conditions, how much worse must it have been for commoners?
So, can the *Treatise on Cold Damage and Miscellaneous Diseases* from two thousand years ago be used to treat today's avian flu? All I can say is: wishful thinking.
Source: http://edumeme.blogspot.com/2005/10/blog-post_30.html