On the Art of Medicine

A Chinese medicine colleague of mine - a translator, as well as a teacher, author, and practitioner - recently used his newsletter platform to share a translation of Tang Dynasty poetry. He prefaced his share with a question -

Why talk about poetry in the context of Chinese medicine?

As I read his answer, it struck me that his explanation may be of interest to some of you.

You are a curious bunch. You come to me for the way it makes you feel - in body, mind, spirit, or all three - but you have lots of questions about the process. What do I see? What do I feel? What am I thinking? Why that point?

I've been at this for over 20 years, and it's still hard to find answers that satisfy a linear, materialist, Western mind, because while Chinese medicine is science in its truest sense, to practice it well is an art. Or, as Eran articulates below, poetry in motion -
 

Chinese poetry is one of the most direct gateways into the Chinese medical mind. The language of the medical classics is not technical in the modern sense—it is poetic, image-based, and experiential. Poets and physicians shared the same cultural vocabulary: wind and cold, dampness and dryness, rising and descending, fullness and emptiness. By studying poetry, we train ourselves to think in images rather than abstractions, to feel meaning rather than reduce it to rigid definitions. This is precisely the mode of perception required to recognize patterns (证) in the clinic.

Classical poetry also teaches us how Chinese thought observes the human being in relationship to time, season, emotion, and environment—the very foundations of Chinese medicine. A single poetic line can convey constitution, movement of qi, or the quiet emergence of illness more clearly than pages of theory. For those studying the Shānghán lùn and jīngfāng {classical medical texts} poetry sharpens our sensitivity to language, nuance, and lived experience, allowing us to read medical texts not as dead theory, but as records of real people in real moments of illness. In this way, poetry does not sit beside medicine—it deepens and refines it. -Eran Evans, PhD

This is but the tiniest glimpse into the mind of a Chinese medicine physician - of what I'm thinking and doing when I'm with you in the clinic. I'm curious to know how this description lands, what you think.

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