Is Chinese medicine the same as Indian herbal medicine?

In fact, there are many differences between Chinese medicine and herbal medicine, and the differences between the two can be illustrated from the following points: First, Chinese medicine is more of a compound prescription, after the overall training to specialize in a particular subject; and herbal medicine is mostly a single prescription to treat the disease, proficient in one side of a drug. Secondly, Chinese medicine practitioners are generally trained in a systematic and formal way, whereas herbalists are self-taught and based on rules of thumb, family and friends, or their own experiences. Third, the pharmacology acquired by TCM practitioners is a generalized medical law, whereas herbal medicine has a certain degree of localization and ethnicity. Fourth, TCM practitioners need to be approved by the public authorities before they can practice, while herbalists do not need to be approved and practice by word-of-mouth. Lastly, Chinese medicine is generally a subsistence profession, while herbalists usually do not make a living from it and are paid as they please.

The rootedness of herbal medicine in the hearts of Mosuo people can be seen in their lives. For example, you will find plants picked from the mountains on the Mosuo's table during meals, and then hear them say that this dish is herbal medicine and that bowl of soup can dispel fire, etc.; another example is "calamus" wine, which is drunk by all Mosuo families during the Dragon Boat Festival, and I estimate that the purpose is to prevent gastrointestinal diseases that may be brought about by the beginning of the summer; there are also many Mosuo women who know that "qin gui" can cure anemia; and when you participate in the work of Mosuo women, they will put the fields into the hands of Mosuo women, and then they will take the fields out of the way. Also, when you participate in the labor of Mosuo women, they will share with you their experience of discovering that there are medicinal herbs everywhere in the fields, and sometimes when someone in the family is sick, they may pick them and boil them at home. In addition, it is also common to find roadside stalls in the market, with a variety of brewing medicinal wine herbalist, and every year the Mule and Horse Material Exchange Conference will find the neighboring provinces and towns (such as Sichuan) of the foreign herbalist to Yongning to catch up with the market. All of this reflects the Mosuo people's life is closely related to the herbal medicine.

The Mosuo traditional "compulsion" culture, more can not be separated from the scope of the herbal medicine, leaving aside the compulsion on the Mosuo people's unique cultural connotations. Many of the compulsion to examine its symptoms, in fact, similar to gastrointestinal disease or liver and gallbladder disease, for example, in the compulsion will be limb weakness, the stomach day by day, seem to be suffering from hookworm disease; also such as in the compulsion of the epigastric pain, generalized weakness, yellow bile, it may be a hepatitis stalking. However, in the mountainous areas of Mosuo where medical science is not flourishing, these symptoms are often unlimitedly amplified, and then endowed with unique cultural connotations, they become the symptoms of the parasites. The Mosuo people get compulsion will often seek to play Gua Gua and other folk medical practitioners, but the Mosuo society has specialized in treating compulsion of the existence of herbal medicine doctors, just a few.

To summarize, the existence of various medical systems in Mosuo society has a complementary function. Although there were a few Western doctors in the Tusi period, the Mosuo people were either unaware of the existence of doctors or could not afford to find them during the years of feudal exploitation, so they chose folk medicine and herbal medicine. During the Cultural Revolution, in the collective life, people responded to Chairman Mao's instruction of "unity between Chinese and Western medicine" and practiced Chinese and Western medicine at the cooperative medical stations, and under the policy of prohibiting the so-called "superstition" and emphasizing "science" in the climate of the Cultural Revolution, the Mosuo people dared to seek treatment only from barefoot doctors, and only in the remote areas where the emperor was far away did some people still seek help from the folk medicine practitioners in secret. In the era of reform and opening up, the Mosuo people's identification with Western medicine has been deepened by the "scientificization" of the healthcare policy, which allows them to diagnose illnesses with many technological instruments, thus stimulating the Mosuo people's sense of identification with Western medicine, and reinforcing the dominant position of Western medicine in the mountainous areas of Yongning Mosuo, so that the majority of the Mosuo people believe that to see a doctor is to see a Western doctor.

While Western medicine is rapidly entering the region, the lack of monetary payment is still prevalent, so the complementary Mosuo medical culture is now showing its multiplicity and diversity. From the Mosuo people nowadays on the choice of medical care, the use of their attitude to face, the Mosuo people tend to have money to see Western medicine, Chinese medicine, Tibetan medicine, no money to see the folk medicine or herbal medicine; seriously ill or known to suffer from any disease first see a Western doctor, traditional Chinese medicine, Tibetan medicine, and so on, and then look for the folk medicine or herbal medicine; the village has a doctor on the doctors to go to find a doctor on the clinic, the village does not have a doctor on the first hit the trigrams and then say ... ... In short, all realistic considerations. In short, all realistic considerations, depending on the economic situation, the severity of the disease, medical resources, etc., to make flexible adaptations.

But it is not difficult to find that the past, herbal medicine, folk medicine, after the commercialization of health care is still not to the situation of the main monetary payment, compared to Western medicine, Chinese medicine, and even existing in the Tibetan medicine in Yongning, each user must pay the money to obtain medical treatment, the latter is really in a certain degree to prevent an average of the annual monetary balance of only 103 yuan of the Mosuo people to go to seek medical treatment. Herbalists and folk healers, who were not affected by the commodification of medical care, were of course able to survive in the money-poor Mosuo society. Therefore, the multiple forms of medical care in the Mosuo people's life actually play a complementary ****existing role.