Chapter 134 Ancient Prescription Exercise The issue of traditional Chinese medicine was widely discussed in the newspapers, attracting the attention of the people. Even the rural residents knew about it. Compared with urban residents, rural residents believe in traditional Chinese medicine more. Medical conditions are poor now, and only health centers can be set up in villages. There are only one or two doctors in the health center, which is simply unable to provide medical services for the entire village. In the 1970s, due to the increase in the domestic population, a large number of medical talents continued to be needed. Therefore, under the call of the state, a group of barefoot doctors emerged. These people received some medical training and became grassroots doctors without a formal system. In addition, there are some strange people who have one or several prescriptions in their hands that specialize in treating a certain disease. There is such a strange man in Liu Hongmin Village. He has a prescription for rib grafting. After the fracture patient has the bone grafted, he only needs to take a few doses of medicine to make the ribs healed and basically be able to work. And there are no side effects. The only downside is that the Chinese medicine required is very expensive, costing five or six yuan per set. After the illness, the savings of one or two years are gone. The strange people did not think of making money from this prescription, as they did not have the qualification to practice medicine. However, many of them became interested in Chinese medicine, and then became apprentices to learn, and eventually became Chinese medicine practitioners. Many rural Chinese medicine practitioners came this way. Because they have not received systematic training, the level of rural Chinese medicine practitioners is limited, and they cannot understand some or even many diseases. However, they are still experts in certain fields. They can cure many diseases that many hospitals cannot treat with just a few medicines. When they get to the city, it is another situation. After being trained in schools, TCM practitioners have a relatively solid and comprehensive knowledge base. Unless they learn from an old TCM practitioner, they will not have a particular area of expertise. Being all-round is equal to being incompetent, which is the portrayal of these TCM students. Therefore, we often hear that a rural Chinese medicine doctor is particularly good at treating certain diseases, and people travel thousands of miles to see him. The criticism in the newspapers made these traditional Chinese medicine practitioners very angry.
Some of them immediately rushed to Beijing. Didn’t they say that the Chinese Medicine Association was Liu Hongmin’s tool for making money? Traditional Chinese medicine practitioners took practical actions to prove the existence of the Traditional Chinese Medicine Association. They brought with them the recipes treasured by their own masters, and some Chinese medicine practitioners even shared their unique skills, donating all the recipes to the Chinese Medicine Association. In just one month, the Chinese Medicine Association has collected more than 1700 precious prescriptions. These prescriptions cover all aspects, some of which were recorded in lost medical books. Now that they have been recovered, Professor Mei and others are extremely happy. Some prescriptions are very strange, with many poisonous herbs in them. If a normal person eats them, there is a high probability that they will be poisoned to death. But if a person with the right symptoms eats them, it is a good medicine to cure the disease. Professor Mei decided to verify all these prescriptions. After verification, he would publish a book of these prescriptions as a reference for Chinese medicine practitioners with more than 20 years of medical experience. Some of these prescriptions are too toxic. If used by beginners, they may be fatal. Liu Hongmin donated 100 million yuan to provide funding for traditional Chinese medicine practitioners. Professor Mei used his connections to contact a military construction unit and built a seven-story ward building inside the hospital. The military construction unit was very fast, and it took only half a month to build the building. After a simple renovation inside, they could put in the wards and accommodate the patients. Therefore, with the capital as the center, the old Chinese medicine practitioners took action. They went to the surrounding counties to find patients who met the requirements and brought them to the capital to verify the prescriptions. These patients have signed clinical contracts, and the Chinese medicine hospital will reduce or exempt the drug costs, and will also provide treatment if there are any problems. However, if the patient dies, the family members are not allowed to pursue the responsibility of the Chinese medicine hospital, but they can get 10,000 yuan in compensation. However, compared with clinical trials of Western medicine, Chinese medicine is much safer. At least, Chinese medicine will adjust the efficacy and dosage of the medicine according to the patient's condition, and will only increase the dosage after the symptomatic treatment. The first batch of 127 patients were admitted to the Chinese Medicine Hospital at the end of July. Professor Mei and others formed ten teams to treat these patients and provide 7-hour monitoring. Many patients came only when they were in critical condition, hoping to leave some money for their families even if they could not survive. However, after taking the medicine, everyone's condition improved. On the seventh day, some patients were able to be discharged from the hospital. In fact, these ancient prescriptions have been extensively verified and are very safe. The reason for conducting such a clinical trial is to prevent people with bad intentions from donating fake prescriptions or deliberately misrepresenting the symptoms. This is a prescription that is to be promoted. If there is any mistake, it will deal a huge blow to the Chinese Medicine Association. Traditional Chinese medicine is facing a terrible public opinion situation now. If a fatal mistake occurs again, it may cause traditional Chinese medicine to never recover. In order to avoid killing people, Chinese medicine practitioners jointly formulated a pharmacopoeia. Many prescriptions with strong drugs were removed from the pharmacopoeia. This resulted in many diseases being unable to be completely cured or the drugs being ineffective. Gradually, this led to the argument that Chinese medicine is useless. But if the pharmacopoeia is not formulated, the situation will be even worse. If a Chinese medicine practitioner fails to master the medicine and uses excessive medicine, resulting in death, it will be a greater blow to Chinese medicine. By the same token, if these ancient prescriptions cannot be ensured to be used in appropriate traditional Chinese medicine today, castration will also be performed to prevent the cannibalism of dead bodies. When the last patient was discharged, the first batch of patients verified 26 ancient prescriptions, all of which were safe and effective. The Chinese medicine practitioners immediately began to recruit the second batch of patients to test other ancient prescriptions.
The Beijing media reported the incident, and people from all walks of life paid close attention to it. Many people from better-off families lent a helping hand and donated money to traditional Chinese medicine hospitals or traditional Chinese medicine associations. In just one month, the Chinese Medicine Association received more than 100,000 yuan in donations. Although it is not as much as Liu Hongmin alone, it is also a good start. The country also paid attention to this and specially allocated supplies to help each Chinese medicine hospital in Beijing build inpatient departments. With the ward, Professor Mei and others immediately expanded the scope from surrounding provinces to the north. They also joined forces with traditional Chinese medicine practitioners in the south to establish the Hunan Provincial Association of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Hunan Province. Traditional Chinese medicine practitioners in Hunan Province are also collecting ancient prescriptions, even earlier than those in Beijing. However, they do not have a "financial sponsor" like Liu Hongmin, so their development speed is not as fast as that in Beijing. However, traditional Chinese medicine practitioners in Hunan Province do not seek fame and fortune. They have selected more than 1200 ancient prescriptions according to the standards of the Chinese Medicine Association and sent them to Beijing. In addition, they also pay attention to collecting patients, and if the patients agree, they will also send them to Beijing to participate in clinical trials. The entire activity was carried out in full swing across the country. The media named this activity the "Ancient Prescription Movement", saying that the "Ancient Prescription Movement" laid the foundation for the rise of traditional Chinese medicine. I went to the hospital yesterday (End of this chapter)