4 - Interpreting a classical Chinese medical text

Summary

Zhang's style of knowing was marked by the way in which he related to the ‘experience of the ancients’ (gurende jingyan), which became obvious already from the first two lessons in our round of seminars (20 and 21 April 1989). These lessons concerned the first paragraph of chapter 66 of the Basic Questions (Su wen) in the Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon (Huang di nei jing). This paragraph, which outlines the basic principles of the ‘phase energetics’ (wuyun liuqi), includes a number of concepts that are central to Chinese medicine: various notions of change, the concept of shen (Spirit, Spirits, Spirituality), numerological considerations, qi (Breath) and xing (Form), and yinyang. Zhang's mode of interpreting these concepts appeared to be incoherent and subjective. His reading of the text was sometimes non-linear, and I often failed to see the relevance of what he said. Only later did it dawn on me that his learning was directed at making sense of ‘experience’ (jingyan) – the experience of the ancients as recorded in the text – and its application to modern practice. Clearly, the relation to everyday practice of a canonical text was not like that of a modern Western scientific theory. The text was relevant to medical practice, but it was used and interpreted in unusual ways. A pattern or, rather, a variety of patterns can be detected which may be considered characteristic of these Chinese medical ways of relating text to practice. I propose to distinguish the following ones: the indirect mode of interpretation, the authoritative mode, the justificatory mode, the mode achieved by recourse to everyday life, and the creative mode.