Chinese Medicine Masquerading as Yi: A Case of Chinese Self-Colonisation by Rhonda Chang

Abstract

130 BOOK REVIEWS Rhonda Chang, Chinese Medicine Masquerading as Yi: A Case of Chinese Self-Colonisation (Bretti, Australia: Maninriver Press, 2015). ISBN: 978-0-9874733-01. B&W illustrations. 272pp. Rhonda Chang has unearthed deep confusion in what is called ‘Chinese medicine’. The confusion stems from the tendency to identify two fundamentally different streams of medicine as Chinese medicine. The first is found in the tradition of Chinese medicine (zhongyi), which she calls yi and which goes back thousands of years. It consists of herbal treatments, acupuncture, qigong, and massage and is underpinned by theories of yinyang, wuzing (five phases), qihua (Qi transformation), and jingluo (meridians). The second is a more recent development, which Chang calls ‘contemporary Chinese medicine’ that takes a biomedical approach to the body, and which is strongly influenced by western medicine. It follows the theoretical construct of bianzheng lunzhi (pattern recognition and treatment determination) and focuses on the five organs rather than on yingyang and wuxing and on categories of disease rather than on bing (imbalance). The confusion is that both of these are called Chinese medicine because they are practised by Chinese doctors, yet they are irreconcilably different in approach. Chang sets out to unravel this confusion and to give an account of how it arose. The account is partly personal. She began her Bachelor of Medicine at the Beijing Chinese Medicine College in 1979 and in 1986 migrated to Australia where she both practised Chinese medicine and pursued postgraduate studies in physiology and public health. The story of her own confusion and then growing awareness of the general confusion of what constitutes Chinese medicine is recounted between the chapters. Her close analysis of the binary nature of Chinese medicine and of its socio-political causes is presented in four chapters. In chapter one, she sets out the principles of yi, namely, yinyang and wuxing. She first argues dialectically against contemporary authors, and then delves deeply into the etymology of yin and yang before explaining the sense in which they are opposites classifying things while also being part of a cycle of change. It is out of this change that wuxing arises. This endless cycle of yinyang transformation is bound into the five phases, which is the foundations of wuxing theory. This wuxing theory explains the cycle of change in yinyang qualities in five periodical stages, and wuxing is the result of yinyang transformation. (p. 35) Chang enters into a rich discussion of the classical Chinese texts Health & History ● 18/2 ● 2016 131 on yin and yang, on meridians (jingluo) and on medicines (yao). This section will be helpful to anyone wishing to grasp the terminology of ancient Chinese medicine. In chapter two, Chang’s analysis of the development of contemporary Chinese medicine begins with the call by Chairman Mao in 1950 to unite yi and western medicine. He further specified that this should be done by those trained in western medicine as they would be able to give proper scientific basis to the practices of yi. The result was a new ‘fundamental law’ or theoretical underpinning of Chinese medicine called bianzheng lunzhi. Chang points out the difficulty of understanding this term, unknown before 1911. Much of the chapter details attempts by different Chinese doctors to formulate the details of a system that would be based on symptoms, syndromes, and western names of diseases rather than on yinyang transformations, even though it used the traditional therapeutic practices such as herbs and acupuncture. ‘The efforts in creating bianzheng lunzhi have the appearance of making it easier for practitioners to treat sicknesses with older methods, but without substantial or even little understanding of the regulation of yinyang transformation’ (p. 84.) Nevertheless, Chang’s point is that Chinese medicine is no longer yi. The second part of the book is more historical and philosophical. In chapter three, Chang documents growing confusion in medical practice in the People’s Republic of China. Medicine in China is necessarily ‘Chinese medicine’ but as the old practitioners of yi have died off and as practitioners of contemporary Chinese medicine, once confronted with a difficult case, have quickly turned to western biomedical methods, the term ‘Chinese medicine’ has become incoherent. At a practical level, patients...