Introduction
Another important aspect that the martial artist should have a basic understanding of is chinese medicine. The reasoning is two-fold. Firstly, if you are to train in something that is prone to injury to yourself or others, some basic medicine might help. Secondly, much of the theories of martial arts are tied up and bound with chinese medicine and tradition. Of course many masters of the past also had reputations for their medical abilities some specialised in bone setting, external injuries whilst others were full on physicians. Fact is most of the chinese martial arts systems have special ways to develop skills that often rely on medical prescriptions to support. This could be basic ways to prepare Tie Da Jiu or anti swelling but may inlcude more advanced aspects as meridian theory, acupuncture and manipulation therapies. Here we try and collect the relevant topics of chinese medicine for grasping a basic understanding. Of course, this could not be complete and if your interesed further we ask that you seek a specialist TCM college/university as many of our members have done. Additionally, irrespective of the basis here, the specific traditionally passed on methods still have to be learnt progressively in the respecitive martial arts that are studied.
History and basic principles
With such a long history and significant social and cultural development, you can imagine there are endless amounts of literature available. Here are links to some of the literature that we deem as valuable to gain a taste of. It is impossible to gain an appreciation simply by student the texts below since they have through time influenced society into a realm of there own. Only by living it would one grasp there application, yet even so their importance is not to be denied. These are links to content from our recommended sites like Sacred Lotus and Shen-Nong.
Treatment Methods
Chinese Medicine applies two key methods Acupuncture and Herbal Therapy. Each have distinct approaches to healing. Additionally there are support therapies for the respective methods. Further to these are the specialisations (similar to western medicine - i.e. pediatrics, internal medicine, etc) but we will not outline them here.
Taiping Insitute - General Prescriptions
In our daily training there are a few prescriptions and approaches that we would apply regularly. These are noted below, please note that these should not be attempted without supervision from a trained TCM practitioner. It is mainly for reference of student members who have understood the basic methods and preparation guidelines. Some prescriptions we have replaced some originally required herb with something similar (this is mainly due to restrictions on certain types of materia medica).
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