The Divergence And Convergence Of Chinese And Western Medical Thought In The Context Of Holism

Western medicine has always had a tremendous impact on traditional Chinese medicine,even to this day.However,regarding the contradiction between traditional Chinese and Western medicine,most people believe that traditional Chinese medicine is a pseudoscience according to the norms of modern science.That is because western medicine follows the ideological tradition of Western science to understand the essence of things through layer upon layer reduction with reductionism as the main method,while traditional Chinese medicine,based on the Huangdi Neijing as its source and theoretical basis,in accordance with astronomy,geography,anthropology,and philosophy,is characteristic of viewing medicine with a holistic perspective,which coincides with the holism of the mid and late 20th century.At that time,the introduction of holism and its application in the scientific community formed a new scientific development trend,which had self-evident influence in quantum mechanics,chaotic science,and systems science,in spite of reductionism still widely used in practice.Based on the core viewpoints of holism and its current development,this article proposes that the future direction of medical development will inevitably lead to the integration of holism and reductionism,as well as the integration of Chinese and Western medicine by further exploring the root causes of the contradictions between Chinese and Western medicine.First of all,this article discusses the ideological characteristics of traditional Chinese medicine,with the representative theory of the five movements and six qi,the theory of yin and yang,the restraint of the five elements,and the analogical thinking of the Shennong Classic of Materia Medica as the core,demonstrating the fundamental differences between traditional Chinese medicine and modern Western medicine in the way of thinking.These contents are the basic parts of traditional Chinese medicine.This holistic thinking includes not only the three talents of heaven,earth,and human beings,but also the Qi and form of the human body.With a high degree of generality and a wide range of scattered coverage,it is broad and subtle,making it very difficult to apply it in practice.Therefore,it is hard to present accurate and standard effects through reduction,as in Western medicine.For example,the theory of Five Movements and Six Qi has a specific calculation process,unlike mathematical analysis,which can obtain accurate results through accurate calculations,as the laws of natural change have diverse influencing factors,emphasizing "not to extrapolate by numbers,but to refer to images",which also reflects the strong integrity of the Five Movements and Six Qi Theory from a side perspective,with forces other than the sum of parts.Once the Five Movements and Six Qi Theory is fully mastered,we can achieve the effect of diagnosing live or death without the aid of instruments and other intermediaries.In addition,this paper expounds the characteristics of modern western science such as analysis and reduction,mathematical physics and chemistry,to further introduce background,meaning,and development,as well as the difficulties in modern times.The characteristics of modern western medicine are fundamentally consistent with western science,following the development path of reductionism,emphasizing experimental observation,anatomical analysis,and physical and chemical analysis of biological phenomena,as well as the shortcomings of reductionism.Moreover,the contradiction between Chinese and western medicine after the introduction of learning from Western involves the metaphysical nature of the concepts of traditional Chinese medicine,such as the difficulty in verifying the existence of Yuanqi,The Soul,Sanjiao,and meridians,which is difficult to detected by scientific methods,as well as the ambiguity in the diagnostic criteria of traditional Chinese medicine,and the incompatibility in the location and treatment site of traditional Chinese medicine.Under the influence of systems science in modern times,western medicine has developed a holistic approach,such as the reticular structure of brain function,then found an immunologic holistic approach as the emergence of more syndromes and systemic diseases,all of which indicate that medicine will move towards a holistic approach in the future.Based on modern holistic thinking and the future development of medicine,the integration of Chinese and western medicine has not only occurred at the practical level,but also the theoretical level.However,the integration at the theoretical level inevitably involves the fact that the most basic concepts of Chinese and Western medicine hardly fully achieved,leading to confusion between theories,so it is necessary to focus on the two concepts to seek solution.