13. The web that has no weaver
"Imagininings are not subsumed amongst each other, but are put next to each
other in a pattern. Things do not influence each other through the rule of
mechanical cause, but through a kind of "inductivity"...The key to Chinese
thinking is order and most of all pattern...Things act in a certain way not
because of previous actions or impulses of other things, but because their
position in a cyclical universe, which constantly moves, has provided them
with an inborn nature that makes this certain way of acting inevitable...So
every single part is existentially dependent on the whole world organism."
(Joseph Needham) (24)
"This kind of metaphysics which pushes realisation of patterns to the fore
is the foundation of Chinese thinking. Partly it comes from Taoism, which
has no idea of a creator whatsoever and which aims at the insight into the
fabric of phenomena, not the weaver's knowledge...In the Western world, in
the end, the main point is always the creator or the cause, then phenomenon
is only a reflection. The Western mind searches for what is beyond or behind
the phenomena or for their cause. From the Chinese point of view the truth
is immanent to things; from the Western point of view the truth is
transcendent. Chinese consider knowledge as the exact realisation of the
inner movements of phenomena...
Is Chinese medicine a kind of art ? Is it a science ? A Chinese medicine is
certainly no science when we consider science to be the intellectual and
technological development of the Western world, which is relatively new.
Rather it represents a pre-scientific tradition, which has survived into the
modern age and represents a different way of dealing with things. Yet it is
similar to science inasmuch as it is based on thorough observation of
phenomena - accompanied by rational, logical coherent and communicable
thinking. The standardized norms of the store of knowledge put the doctor in
the position to diagnose systematically, to describe and treat disease. The
system of measurement, however, is not made up of linear units (weight,
numbers, time, volume), as they are used by our modern science, but of the
pictures of the macrocosm. At the same time, however, the artistic
sensitivity to synthetic logic is demanded, the constant awareness that the
whole defines the part and that the whole pattern can change the meaning of
each individual measurement: what in one person is Yin, may be Yang in the
next. Since Chinese medicine deals with pictures, it allows and demands the
perception as well as the assessment of quality. This artistic sensitivity
enables the doctor to recognize the finer shades in the corporal landscape,
and, more importantly, lets him become aware of the process which exists
between the linear measurements. Chinese medicine is not first and foremost
quantitatively orientated. It recognizes that the structure of each person
has an unique composition - each picture has an essential quality." (Ted J.
Kaptchuk)
(25)
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