Who wants to learn about Chinese language, culture and medicine for free?
I am (very nearly) done with finals for Fall term 2007! Hurrah! I am currently working on a couple of articles to publish over the next few days concerning what kind of gifts to get your favorite Chinese medicine student. In doing research for that I ran across a half-written article that I should have just published ages ago.
It occurs to me that many of you may not know about the phenomenal resource that is MIT OpenCourseWare. For those of you students about to start break, here’s an opportunity TO NEVER STOP THE ENDLESS FLOW OF INFORMATION INTO YOUR BRAIN. Ha! Seriously, though, this is an excellent effort on the part of a major educational institution to reduce the number of restrictions on people to get a quality education. MIT, a prestigious institution by any measure, has made the majority of their courses available ONLINE for free. You just have to go download the packages onto your computer and follow the instructions included in the “read me” file. If you have any technical problems, there are plenty of resources there to help you through any issues. It doesn’t substitute for real-time learning, of course, but it’s a wonderful thing nonetheless. The courses include notes, slide shows, audio, video, extensive bibliography (some of them annotated) links galore and even test materials. I have worked through a course before and can attest to its usefulness. For those of you skeptical that this kind of learning would work for you, just try it!
For my readers there are several courses of relevance, including:
- A four course language series followed by a two course series in Chinese culture - these include audio and video resources, an online book, assignments and loads of other resources. I have heard great things about this course. I’m going to begin it this break along with beginning the Rosetta Stone program (Chinese I). Along with interacting with my professors and spending time with other Chinese language speakers, it’s as close to immersion as I’m going to get without paying some serious money. :) There is also a streamlined Chinese language series for people who speak some Chinese but need help with reading and writing.
- Traditional Chinese Literature: Poetry, Fiction and Drama for those of us interested in delving deeper into Chinese cultural traditions.
- Government and Politics of China. I think understanding where the government of China is today and where it’s come from can help us to more fully understand the landscape of our medicine. For instance, are we going to be able to get herbs imported in the next decade? What might influence our ability to do that?
- A class about the experiences of Chinese people as they lived through the big changes of the 19th and 20th centuries.
- A course about the “human side” of medicine which I believe refers to the more philosophical issues inherent in medicine. What is a doctor? What is a patient? What does it mean to be in one of these roles? It looks like it focuses on Western medicine, but valuable nonetheless.
- An anthropology course called Myth, Ritual and Symbolism that would be of interest to anyone seeking to open their minds to the more symbolic ways of looking at reality. Great for people just starting in Chinese medicine.
- A fantastic looking course on Medical Anthropology which should be of interest to people in any medical discipline.
- A history course about East Asia and its impact in and influence on the world.
- Here’s a link to the whole Division of Health Sciences and Technology section of OpenCourseWare, any of those classes could be of interest, particularly if you are interested in integrative medicine.
No classes on Chinese medicine, as such, but such great information that can really enhance your overall complex of knowledge relevant to your studies. If you take a course, let us know how it goes! If you would like to read more articles like this one, be sure to subscribe to this blog via RSS feed or via email.
Eric
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Tags: chinese-language, cultural-differences, education, internet, Learning, studyRelated posts
If you’re not memorizing, you’re not paying attention
Note: I’m working on write-ups of the AAAOM conference in Portland. I’m writing something about Nigel Wiseman’s talk on Chinese medical translation and my general support for his ideas. I’m also writing about the national student organization meetings and my renewed optimism and excitement concerning the viability of our profession in the US. I’d also like to talk about a few new companies I had contact with and discuss issues around purity and quality of Chinese herbs.
I was just reading an article in the latest National Geographic magazine about memory. It is an interesting article as a whole, but more importantly it really got me thinking about the role of memorization in education. The article talks about the times before easily available printed material, when most everything had to be memorized if it was to be accessed at some future date. One sentence in particular really struck me - it’s actually a quote from the author of The Book of Memory: A Study of Memory in Medieval Culture 
“In a world of few books, and those mostly in communal libraries, one’s education had to be remembered, for one could never depend on having continuing access to specific material.” (Mary Carruthers, in National Geographic Magazine, November 2007)
It is my understanding that to this day, memorization of texts is still a valued (and even expected) component of Chinese medical education in China. All of my professors that learned the medicine mostly or entirely in China can recite maddening amounts of text verbatim from many classical texts. Additionally, they have memorized uncountable phrases, rhymes and poems used as mnemonic devices for various types of information. It’s amazing, quite frankly. We’ve had a few conversations in classes about this subject. One generalization I’ve heard is that for the Chinese, memorizing the material is primary and you are not expected to form opinions about it until you’ve had it in your memory for some time. The idea, I think, is that having the information coded in your head allows you to make connections between that text or information and other texts you are reading as well as between the texts and your clinical experiences. If you don’t have that information ready at hand - er, mind - then you’re not going to be able to make those connections as easily if at all.
There’s a serious amount of resistance to this notion among most US-based Chinese medicine and acupuncture students I am acquainted with. Most of us know that we need to memorize things in order to pass tests - but few people seem to see solid memorization of material (and continued renewal of that memorized material to keep it solid) as a foundational aspect of their educational program. The first year of study at my school doesn’t involve much memorization. It’s mostly about acquainting students with the cultural and philosophical foundations of the medicine, while getting their feet wet with basic Western and Chinese medicine concepts. There are few tests of one’s mental rigor, though lots of great intellectual growth takes place regardless. The second year, then, is a rude awakening for most students. It’s then that we take points, herbs, Chinese pathology and more Western medicine. Nearly all the classes have testing, and one professor in particular is notorious for his frequent (very frequent) testing and exacting standards. Many students fail his first midterm.
People underestimate the amount of information they will need to memorize VERBATIM. Many of them complain about what they see as “rote” memorization, they fail to see the value of this kind of learning for their future career. These folks and, I think, American culture in general puts a much stronger value on analysis of information and the formation of opinions and judgments. In my school in particular, I think folks tend to have a pretty philosophical frame of mind and thus are constantly trying to see patterns and interconnections among the various pieces of information. Education in some way is seen as a creative pursuit.
In my experience, it is only information that I have thoroughly committed to memory that is actually useful to me in the higher order creative activities I’m describing. The absolute base for this process is simple memorization. Information must be placed in the memory and repeatedly accessed until it becomes as familiar as all of the television commercial jingles we all undoubtedly have memorized. You might object, saying that you cannot retain material that doesn’t have relevance, material that doesn’t MEAN anything to you, yet. It’s true that it is difficult to commit something to memory that you have no context for, it is NOT true for any of us that this material we are studying has no context in our experience. While you may not know much about, say, 茯苓（Fu Ling, poria) with a little effort you can most certainly associate it with aspects of your experience. By studying a little about the applications of the herb you can help relate it to your life, perhaps with a time that you suffered from excess dampness. Also, there are numerous memorization techniques that help you build an infrastructure in which you can place any amount of seemingly meaningless information. When you do this, and do it well, it will begin to seep into your entire being and you will begin to understand.
I’d like to write a couple more articles about this, focusing on different memory techniques and resources that are available to help increase memory. Until then, I’d like to hear your thoughts on memorization in Chinese medicine. What role has it played in your education?
Tags: academics, Acupuncture, chinese-herb, chinese-herbs, cultural-differences, education, exams, memorization, students, study, study-methods, studyingRelated posts
Chinese medicine is scientific
There is an interesting conversation going on across a couple of blogs, Shiatsu blogger and, where the conversation began, Shiatsu Blog. The topic, basically, concerns the fit of “alternative medicine”, in the broader field of “science.” You need to look through the comments on that second post to see where the conversation goes. It’s not an uncommon conversation and PalMD effuses the standard skeptical standpoint. Essentially - Chinese medicine is not science (or such and such a concept within Chinese or other alternative medicine is not scientific) because it does not fit within the framework of materialistic science as we might read about it in a textbook on scientific methodology.
The word “science” does not mean “Western materialism.” Western materialism is a specific type of science that has resulted in some beautiful and terrible things. It has specific standards regarding methodology, it defines tightly what passes for an appropriate hypothesis, a well constructed experiment and so on. Because it is form of science practiced by most of the dominant cultures and because its practical applications have resulted in so many interesting and useful products it is commonly regarded godlike status. Why? It works.
For some things.
Chinese medicine is based on a scientific model entirely different from the one that governs the majority of Western medicine, which is governed by Western materialism. It too has produced beautiful things.
It may be true that it will never be possible to understand what Qi is from a Western materialistic standpoint. In fact, if my understanding of the concept so far is close to correct - it will not be possible. That is unless Western materialism finds a way to sweep the apparently “immaterial” world under its umbrella. I think this is probably conceptually impossible. However, some are more optimistic.
But whether we can find these correlates is simply… immaterial. Chinese medicine when properly learned and practiced heals people. This is absolutely incontrovertible. The precise mechanism for this has not been understood and may never be understood by modern Western materialism. It may be difficult or even impossible to design appropriate laboratory experiments that verify specific claims. But clinical study after clinical study demonstrates the effectiveness of Chinese medicine - when practiced with a firm understanding of Chinese medical science. I’m willing to bet that where clinical studies deny the power of the medicine or come up inconclusive we will find that the medicine has diverted from its science in an attempt to pacify Western researchers.
In other words, when Chinese medicine stays true to its roots - when Chinese medical scientists lay their foundations on the firm soil of Chinese medical science… when we as Chinese medical physicians devote ourselves wholeheartedly to the understanding of the science and the practice of our medicine (in the way that Western materialist scientists do) the clinical studies will more often be conclusive.
We need to stop insisting that Western materialism and its various theories and methodologies have cornered the market on truth.
Eric
PS: Still working on balancing my school work with my blog work. All will be well and the “All About Eric” and seasonal series’ will continue. I promise.
Tags: chinese-medicine, chinese-medicine-research, cultural-differences, Science, western-scienceRelated posts
Dizzy? Eat some dragon bones.
I ran across a news item today of some interest to my readers. It involves the discovery that some villagers in China were using the fossils of a dinosaur as medicine, apparently not knowing that they were an important artifact. 
“They had believed that the ‘dragon bones’ were from the dragons flying in the sky,” he said.
The calcium-rich bones were sometimes boiled with other ingredients and fed to children as a treatment for dizziness and leg cramps. Other times they were ground up and made into a paste that was applied directly to fractures and other injuries, he said.”
There are multiple problems with the story. Most importantly, we don’t know whether the villagers truly believed that the bones were from “dragons flying in the sky.” There is a Chinese herb known as Long Gu (龍骨) often translated as Dragon Bone. It is included in the category “herbs that calm the Shen/spirit,” and as the article points out - can be used in some cases of dizziness. It is also commonly used for other Liver-related symptoms like irritability, blurred vision and red and painful eyes. It can also be used for insomnia, for leakage of fluids (such as in night sweats and excessive vaginal discharge) and can be used for chronic ulcers on the outside of the body. It’s a useful herb - to be sure.
But what is this about Dragons? The dragon is a potent symbol within Chinese culture in general and that certainly works its way into Chinese medicine. One place to start in investigating Dragon is with the etymology of the character 龍, which can be translated as “a dragon,” or “of the emperor/imperial,” or “a huge extinct reptile.” When the character is combined with others, when the compound does not explicitly refer to something “dragon-y” it tends to confer a sense of nobility or supreme goodness on the phrase. The first point of interest here is, of course, that a “dragon” can simply refer to a large reptile - as the dinosaurs referred to in the news story.
But why call the herb “dragon bone?” While certainly some large reptile bones have been used for Long Gu, the most common Long Gu comes from various fossilized mammal bones. Why dragon? The answer may become clear after a quick look into some of the symbolism related to Dragon.
On the Chinese organ clock that we use so often in our program in Classical Chinese Medicine at NCNM, Dragon is associated with the Stomach. As such, the Dragon’s voracious appetite can be highlighted. The Stomach, our internal dragon, can be thought of as taking in things from the world so they can be transformed into nourishment - whether we are talking about actual food or simply food for thought. This position on the organ clock is related to the following aspects of time: The third month (approximately mid April to mid May), Taurus on the Western zodiac and 7-9am. All of these times are full of activity and ascending energy. The sun is rising! It’s time to get to work! Time to take it all in! There are other aspects to Dragon - but these elements work well together to prove my point.
One aspect of Chinese medical philosophy that is important to understand is the principle of balance. When there is great energy, there must be a great anchor. When there is great dampness, there must be a great capacity to dry. When there is great heaviness, there must be an element of true lightness. So the symbolism associated with the Dragon is all full of energy, all ready to take on the world - to digest! It is imperial - the figurehead, the one given the “mandate of heaven.” Within Long Gu we find a balance. This is one of the heavier herbs and its action is to act as an anchor. An anchor so that the rarefied and active energy of the Shen and the Liver can be calmed. The Dragon resonates with the healthy energy of the organs and functions that Long Gu seeks to heal.
Looking at it this way, maybe it isn’t so ridiculous that the villagers referred to the fossils as the bones of Dragons. Perhaps they were using the more-than-literal meaning when they said this - it’s impossible for me to know for sure. But be sure, when you are investigating Chinese medicine, not to dismiss a concept based on your first understanding of the language used. In Chinese medicine, there is almost always a lot of meaning lurking in every word.
Tags: Character, chinese-herb, chinese-herbs, cultural-differences, newsRelated posts
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