The Study On The Academic Thinking Of Cheng Man-Ching About Traditional Chinese Medicine

ObjectiveCheng Man-ching is a famous scholar during the period from the late years of the Qing dynasty to the early republic of China. Endowed with an astute intellect, his scholarly endeavors reveal a level of refinement and profundity in subjects as diverse as literature, calligraphy, painting, and medicine. Especially enlightening, however, is his exposition of taichi’s theoretical principles of form and function. That is why people ignore his great achievement of traditional Chinese medicine. And, it is a pity that there are few studies on his thinking about Chinese medicine.For this topic, the objective is to find out the prominent features and original ideas of his academic thinking about traditional Chinese medicine, which should facilitate the learning and study of Chinese medicine in the future.MethodsSince Cheng Man-ching did not write a treatise to entirely state his thinking about traditional Chinese medicine, his books, articles, speechs, and teachings will be explored comprehensively and discussed systematically. We will collect, tidy up, rearrange, and classify the life and the thinking of Professor Cheng according to the modern teaching texts, and then make comparison, conclusions and preliminary comments. Finally, based on the above data, we will try to find out the key and central idea of Cheng Man-ching by exploration and discussion.Results1. The lifeWe learn from the life of Professor Cheng that it is feasible to find out the essence of his academic thinking about traditional Chinese medicine by studying the books, articles, speechs, and teachings of Professor Cheng.2. The enquiry and preliminary comment on the thinking of Cheng Man-ching about Chinese medicine The thinking of Professor Cheng about Chinese medicine is collected, tidied up, rearranged, and classified according to the modern teaching texts, and comparison, conclusions and preliminary comments are made. The content includes basic theory of TCM, diagnostics of TCM, Chinese materia medica, formula of TCM, clinical treatment of TCM, regimen, learning and transmission of TCM, monism of qi, and so on.3. Exploration and discussion about the key and central idea of Cheng Man-ching The formation of applied science and TCM theories and models is discussed. Based on it, the comparison of western theories and Chinese theories is made. And, a new approach of learning TCM is proposed. The exploration and discussion should be well with depth, breadth, and altitudeConclusions1. Cheng Man-ching was called "Master of the Five Excellences":Tai Chi Chuan, painting, calligraphy, poetry and Chinese medicine. People know his achievement of Tai Chi Chuan well, but not that of medicine. Actually, Professor Cheng got the oral secrets from his teacher, Yang Cheng-fu because he cured Madame Yang of some serious illness. Professor Cheng was praised by critics as the greatest wizard since republic of China, and was praised by the officer of top Chinese medicine research institute in Taiwan as one of the best Chinese doctors. We can tell these reputations are true from his life and the enquiry and preliminary comment on the thinking of Cheng Man-ching about Chinese medicine.2. By checking the results of this study and the fact that Professor Cheng got involved in studying Yi jing only in his later life, we can come to the conclusion that monism of qi is the key and central idea of Cheng Man-ching, and Yi jing is the language of TCM theories and models, which could be compared to that mathematics is the language of physics.