Herbal Medicine and Growing Pains

I learned about traditional herbal medicine during the last year of my enrollment in Chinese school. I remembered feeling that most subjects covered in class were historically distant, like memorizing Confucian proverbs that more often doubled as tongue twisters, or reciting ancient poems contained in their perfect, rectangular stanzas. But herbal medicine felt important to become attuned to, as I had already begun to see a strange resurgence of such methods in contemporary culture, where shifting away from traditional Western medicine and toward Eastern “healing practices” had become popular. There appeared to be an appeal to using simple tools, such as stones, teas or cupping treatments, to achieve healthier complexions and detoxify the body. More notably, these means were rendered an enigma to the masses, making Eastern medicine compelling, while discourse grew questioning its empirical validity.

In general terms, traditional medicine uses a holistic approach to treat ill individuals, prioritizing assessing the composition of one’s energy and restoring its balance. To an extent, this kind of medical philosophy places the human body in a position of mystery. But unlike in Western medicine, where the treatment is a therapeutic approach targeted to relieve the burden of a defined symptom, Eastern medicine acknowledges the uncertainty of the body’s condition as a truth. Holding this truth and probing for treatment are not mutually exclusive.