GoodAndHardWorking t1_iufs4ub wrote on October 31, 2022 at 12:02 AM

Reply to comment by TheTwinSet02 in Chinese cities brace for wave of Foxconn workers from COVID-hit Zhengzhou by KimCureAll

Traditional Chinese Medicine doesn't have much of a tradition.. it's basically a meme discipline that incorporates some folk wisdom, pushed by the government to deny how far behind they are in actual medicine.

UnderworldCircle t1_iufv2hz wrote on October 31, 2022 at 12:25 AM

Wikipedia states that anything resembling Traditional Chinese Medicines originated some 2000+ years ago, though I’d agree, the Chinese government would appropriate it to hide the fact during their reign their healthcare system at the time might not be up to scratch and pushed TCM to cover their asses in places they’d fall short on in public healthcare. Similar to how many kings, emperors, caliphs and popes throughout history would appropriate religion in order to give their constituents justification to go to war and kill ‘x,y,z’ people.

But no, I’d disagree, TCM factually has been around for far longer before the CCP even came into existence. I’d say it has a tradition

GoodAndHardWorking t1_iufwwxh wrote on October 31, 2022 at 12:40 AM

TCM as it's understood/taught today was basically invented in the 1970s with a veneer of antiquity (these herbs have been used... since prehistory..)

Phssthp0kThePak t1_iugv041 wrote on October 31, 2022 at 5:59 AM

Wasn't a lot of the knowledge lost during the cultural revolution? Burned books, jailed teachers.

UnderworldCircle t1_iugy5mj wrote on October 31, 2022 at 6:46 AM

A lot of people today overestimated the reach and destruction that resulted during the C.R, the C.R movement was basically the reflected version of the January 6th riot in the capital multiplied 5000-fold, with Mao Zedong in lieu of Donald Trump; not everyone in society or in the CCP government agreed with them. You got people high up in the echelon like Zhou Enlai who ordered for PLA soldiers to guard the Forbidden City from the Red Guards (the reason why the Forbidden City & other religious buildings and monuments still exist in China today)

In addition, the destruction of the C.R happened most commonly in the big towns and famous cities, whilst most of the poor, remote and rural towns and villages were far away from the chaos, and it is there that the majority of the old information, cultural norms and customs still managed to survive to be passed on, TCM included. The people inhabiting these places would be more focused on agriculture, putting food on their table and not starving to death than wasting their time on book and statue burnings. The circumstances of poverty and remoteness of these Chinese villages and towns would have ensured the survival of TCM practices considering these places probably still did not have anything remotely close to infrastructure or public health care.

EDIT: Also included Chinese diaspora who fled to other countries with cultural and traditional customs and knowledge then returned back once the C.R died down, also ensuring its survival.