The Reading and Scholarship Methods of the Late Renowned TCM Master Professor Jiang Chunghua

Professor Jiang Chunghua was one of the towering figures in contemporary TCM in China and led many key national TCM research projects. His clinical outcomes were outstanding and won high praise from patients, and he produced many innovative works in TCM theory; his interception and reversal therapy saved many lives. Among his disciples was Shen Ziyi, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Professor Jiang was born into a TCM family and later studied integrated Chinese and Western medicine under Lu Yuanlei, a famous Republican-era physician. Lu was a representative of the modern Shanghan school and a pioneer in the study of TCM formula syndromes and herb syndromes.

Lu Yuanlei was one of the most famous masters in modern TCM history. He was versed in the Hundred Schools, skilled in calligraphy, and widely read in history, geography, physics, and mathematics; his attainments were deep in astronomy and medicine, and he knew English, French, German, and Japanese.

Lu Yuanlei was a pioneer of TCM modernization. He took it as his mission to scientize TCM, firmly defending TCM while advancing its science. Lu said: if TCM does not wish to preserve itself, fine; but if it does, there is no way out other than adopting science.

Jiang Chunghua was deeply influenced by Lu. He read extraordinarily broadly; though set on medicine from childhood, he thoroughly read the Hundred Schools and the Twenty-Four Histories, and the prose of Han Yu, Liu Zongyuan, Wang Anshi, Ouyang Xiu, and Ming-Qing masters.

He also read Western philosophy, psychology, zoology, botany, mineralogy, and physics, and knew the works of Kang Youwei, Liang Qichao, and Hu Shi. He said the reformers Wang Anshi and Zhang Juzheng influenced him most because they broke through preconceptions.

The physician life goal matched that of his teacher Lu Yuanlei: to scientize TCM, which is why his collected works are titled Chinese Medicine and Science.

He believed a person field of vision must not be too narrow, lest one become small-minded and develop sectarian prejudices. As to ancient TCM texts, both Lu and he took a stance of critical inheritance. Lu Modern Explanation of the Shanghan Lun and Jingui Yaolue directly criticized Zhang Zhongjing in places; he likewise criticized unreasonable parts of the Huangdi Neijing outspokenly.

The principle of combining disease differentiation with syndrome differentiation that he advocated is clinically important. He was not only proficient in syndrome differentiation but also strove to seek drugs and formulas for specific diseases. Studying the Waitai Miyao and Qianjin Fang, he compared the various formulas for one disease side by side, found the herbs common to most, and studied their specific effects.

Real clinicians value actual effect and despise sectarian bias. His research into ancient Chinese philosophy and the TCM schools was profound; his grounding in national literature matched that of professional scholars.

He was clumsy as a child and slow-witted, often scolded by teachers as a clumsy thing. His father said: it does not matter if you are clumsy; if you keep studying, you can learn much. The ancients said diligence can make up for clumsiness. Zengzi, a disciple of Confucius, was the most slow-witted, yet he transmitted the way of Confucius. He kept this saying in mind all his life, studied diligently and wrote industriously, and eventually became a great master.

His father was a well-known TCM physician in Nantong, Jiangsu. When he was young, his father urged him to recite introductory TCM books such as the Four-Character Pulse Verses, the Rhymeflora, and the Formula Songs, and guided him to study the Shanghan Lun and the Huangdi Neijing, and to read the Four Books and Five Classics thoroughly.

Thus, whether through family or master teaching, his early education was a thoroughly orthodox grounding in national learning, and his foundation in both Chinese culture and medicine was solid. Later, when taking on disciples, he repeatedly told them of his own reading experience and urged them to scholarship that is extensively learned, earnestly inquired, and clearly discerned.

He was not superstitious about authority, not superstitious about classics, and not afraid of gossip. When he proposed the innovative idea of interception and reversal therapy and negated related traditional concepts, the TCM establishment rose up against him. But twenty years later, his views were confirmed by practice, and both he and his disciple Shen Ziyi were simultaneously awarded gold medals by the Ministry of Health.

When Lu Yuanlei taught, he had no sectarian prejudices. Although primarily a TCM man, he required students to study Chinese and Western medicine together. This physician also systematically taught himself Western medicine. He often used a sentence Sima Qian wrote in the biography of Bian Que to encourage himself and his students: what people suffer from is too many diseases; what physicians suffer from is too few ways to treat them. He asked everyone to cast aside sectarian bias and broadly learn from both Chinese and Western medicine whatever benefits the patient.

The fragrance of the plum blossom comes from bitter cold. Medical research is one of the hardest things in this world; without broad learning, accumulated over years, and constant practice, one cannot achieve anything.

I often see some TCM enthusiasts who cannot even understand the meanings of basic words, yet relying on nothing but their own superstitious attitude they become defenders of some sectarian prejudice. I deeply regret this. TCM classics are very hard to read, and TCM learners are uneven; many reading below junior-high level. For such people to study TCM is a sorrow for TCM and for patients.