Zhu Zhen-heng's Thoughts Of Traditional Chinese Medicine In Psychology

Based on systematically studying on Inquiring the Preperties of Things(Gezhi Yulun)and other major works, which written by ZHU Zhen-heng who was one of the four eminent physicians in the Jin and Yuan dynasties, meanwhile refering to psychology, medical psychology and other related information, the psychological thoughts of ZHU Zhen-heng were discussed and summed up. The thoughts was guided by the basic theory of traditional Chinese medicine, affected by medicine and pharmacology, absorbed theories of different physicians at different times, and developed gradually in the long-term clinical practices.ZHU Zhen-heng insisted on the thought of"holism of physique and mind"which proposed in Inner Ganon of Huangdi , and considered all things of the universe are in the endless champaign. Since the sun was categorized into Yang, the moon categorized into Yin, human body and nature were unified and coordinated, it advocated "Yang often being in excess and Yin often being deficient " . ZHU Zhen-heng constructed"a theory of ministerial fire"and be good at using the prescription nouring Yin to lower pathogenic fire. He was the founder of " Ziyin faction ",paying attention to the process of diagnosis, criticizing the misuse prescriptions which listed in An Expounding of Prescriptions of Peaceful Benevolent Dispensary(Heji Jufang) .Meanwhile,"the theory of six kinds of stagnation-syndromes"was pointed out by him and be used to treat depression syndrome for the first time.There were many theories of psychology of Chinese medicine that put forward by ZHU Zhen-heng, quite extensively involved in etiology, pathogenesis study, diagnosis, psychotherapy and psychosomatic regulation. First, he pointed out that the psychological factors of emotion, temperament personality factors and socio-economic factors were the major cause of disease. Second , not only could excessive change of emotion cause Zang-fu disease directly, but also it could lead to hyperactivity of the ministerial fire and waste the body fluid. The dysfunction of viscera, depression and stagnation of Qi, could cause"Qi-stagnation, damp-stagnation, phlegm-stagnation, fire-stagnation, blood-stagnation, and food-stagnation". The Yueju pill which created by ZHU Zhen-heng had a significant clinical effect on treating depression syndrome, and provided a theoretical basis and ideas for the chronic psychological disease. Third, he stressed that psychological factors played an important role between the doctors and the patients in the process of the diagnosis, which determined the essence of disease, development of an illness,prevention and treatment of a disease. Last, ZHU Zhen-heng had always attached importance to the psychological and physical health, emphasized regulation of the mental activities and protection of Yi-essense according to the law of natural changes ,and described the method of psychological health from the different periods of the physical and mental development .He also called for later marriage and childbearing and stayed away from all kinds of desires in the world. If the human being could relax the mood without any desire, he would make the Zhen-qi strong and live a long life.A series of cases shows that ZHU Zhen-heng skillfully mastered the psychotherapy of traditional Chinese medicine. In the course of treating psychological disease, not only did he make use of psychological methods, such as treating emotional syndrome with emotion, distracting patient's attentions to change the flow of Qi-blood, suggestion therapy and speech training, but also Chinese herbs was used flexiblely by him. He was a man of seeking truth from facts, and never to exaggerate the effect of psychological treatment. The psychological methods which applied by ZHU Zhen-heng had significant effects, not only was in line with the basic theory of traditional Chinese medicine, but also implied principles and methods of modern psychological methods, reflecting the psychology achievements of ancient medicines.Medical thoughts of ZHU Zhen-heng, in particular the psychological thoughts of traditional Chinese medicine had been fully affirmed by the later physicians and had a significant impact on the later treatment of psychological and psychosomatic disease. His psychotherapy practices greatly enriched the content of psychological treatment of Chinese medicine. Emotional theory and the theory of six kinds of stagnation-syndromes had expanded the treatment field of depression disease. Physiological-psychological-nature-social modes that ZHU Zhen-heng had set up had played an important role on psychology of traditional Chinese medicine. These theories could make a deeper reflection: at present, what kind of methods should be used to explore the mysteries of the psychology of traditional Chinese medicine, the development of traditional Chinese medicine how to adapt to changes of modern psychology. ZHU Zhen-heng'psychological theories played an important role in revealing the scientific connotation of psychology of traditional Chinese medicine.