The Best Method Is Prevention, Not Mending the Pen After the Sheep Are Lost

Traditional Chinese medicine has always advocated the concept of "Treating Disease Before It Arises"—preparing in advance to prevent disease from occurring.

For example, knowing that spring is windy and allergies are common, one can take care of their liver in advance, eat less spicy food, and keep warm to reduce the likelihood of allergies.

Knowing that it's hot in summer and heatstroke is common, people drink plenty of water beforehand and avoid high temperatures to reduce the risk of heatstroke.

Knowing that autumn is dry and prone to causing dry coughs, eat more lung-nourishing foods in advance to reduce the likelihood of coughing;

Knowing that it's cold in winter and easy to catch a cold, people take precautions to keep warm and eat more warming foods to avoid getting sick.

Many people only seek medical treatment when they are sick, thinking that treating illness is the doctor's job, and that maintaining health is just something to do when they are not sick.

However, traditional Chinese medicine believes that the best doctor is one who prevents people from getting sick.

Treating illness is like waiting until you're thirsty to dig a well—it's too late. Maintaining health is like digging a well in advance so that you have water to drink when you're thirsty.

The concept of Treating Disease Before It Arises applies not only to health but also to many aspects of life.

Preparing in advance for work will prevent you from panicking at the last minute;

If you cultivate relationships in advance, conflicts can be avoided.

Preventing risks in advance can prevent losses. Taking a step ahead in everything will make things much easier.

Traditional Chinese medicine also has a way of thinking called Image-Based Analogical Reasoning: understanding the human body through the laws of nature.

It may seem unscientific, but it actually has a deeper meaning.

It is a unique way in which the ancient China people understood the world.

In Traditional Chinese Medicine, wood corresponds to wind, the liver, spring, growth, the color green, and the taste sour; fire corresponds to heat, the heart, summer, growth, the color red, and the taste bitter... This way of thinking, which groups things with similar characteristics together, is called "Image-Based Analogical Reasoning."

You can interpret this as a metaphor.

Just like that sentence you wrote when you were in first grade, "The sun is like a big furnace."

Ancient people didn't have microscopes or CT scans, but they understood the human body by observing nature and using its laws.

For example, when I see the wind blowing and the branches swaying, I think of how wind-evil can cause convulsions, dizziness, and migratory pain in the human body;

Seeing water flowing downhill reminds me that dampness can cause swelling, heaviness in the lower limbs, and loose stools.

Seeing the fire rising upwards reminds me of how heat evil can cause sore throat, mouth ulcers, and red face and eyes.

This way of thinking allows ordinary people to understand many bodily issues without using complex instruments.

For example, when coughing, look at the color of the phlegm: yellow phlegm indicates heat, as yellow as fire; white phlegm indicates cold, as white as water.

For example, pain can be categorized as follows: migratory pain indicates wind-evil, heavy pain indicates dampness-evil, cold pain indicates cold-evil, and burning pain indicates heat-evil. Without tests or X-rays, one can roughly determine the cause of the problem.

The Image-Based Analogical Reasoning is a unique wisdom of the China people. It connects people with nature, making traditional Chinese medicine no longer a profound theory, but common sense integrated into life.

If you can observe nature, you can understand your own body.

The correspondence between climate and internal organs is not some profound metaphysics; it is simply a set of life wisdom summarized by the ancients.

It tells us that humans are part of nature, and living in accordance with the rhythms of heaven and earth will keep us healthy; going against the rhythms of nature will make us prone to illness.

The ultimate goal of learning this knowledge is not to become a doctor, nor to memorize a lot of health preservation formulas, but to establish a way of thinking in Traditional Chinese Medicine:

View problems holistically and dynamically, pursue balance, emphasize prevention, and understand the body through the laws of nature.

When you truly understand the concept of "Correspondence between Heaven and Humanity and nature," you will no longer fight against nature or your own body.

Spring brings forth life, summer brings growth, autumn brings contraction, and winter brings dormancy.

When the wind blows, protect yourself from the wind; when dampness comes, dispel the dampness; when fire comes, clear away the fire; when cold comes, dispel the cold. By following the rhythm of nature, your body will naturally get sick less often, and your life will be smoother.

This is the greatest value that traditional Chinese medicine thinking brings to ordinary people: it is not a cure-all prescription, but a way of life that is in harmony with oneself and with nature.