EASTERN MEDICINE AS A SYSTEMS SCIENCE

摘要

Eastern medicine defines health as a state of balance in the process of the individual's adaptation to the ever-changing environment, a state of balance between the individual's internal defense mechanism and the external factors in the environment. In other words, health in Eastern medicine is a state of homeostatic equilibrium of the individual seen as an open system. Reflecting such a holistic and systemic conception of health, Eastern medicine relies on a number of important principles that are very different from those employed in Western medicine. Unlike the Cartesian dualism that characterizes modern Western medicine, Eastern medicine considers mind and body as inseparable entities whose balance is an integral part of health of the individual. Maintaining balance between the opposing yet complementary factors of yin and yang facilitates maintaining health as a state of balance. The yin-yang balance is closely tied up with the mind-body complementarity in maintaining health. Traditional Chinese medicine has developed two other important concepts in maintaining health, namely, the vital energy called qi and the meridian system. The qi-energy circulates in the meridian system, which is an invisible, circulatory system of the body that is linked to the outside world through the acupuncture points. A state of imbalance in qi-energy―excessive or deficient, blocked or stagnated―would lead to a pathological state of the individual. This paper illustrates how the principles of Eastern medicine are applied in the practice of acupuncture treatment in contemporary Japan called the Hokushinkai School.