Chinese Medicine: Starting with Daily Intelligence

Chapter 549: Chapter 549: What You Call Superstition

"Doctor Li, you... you weren’t performing some kind of ritual dance just now, were you?"

Sister Wang swallowed hard and couldn’t help but ask, her eyes filled with both gratitude and confusion.

Li Xu, while tidying up the medicinal herbs on the table, corrected her earnestly, "Sister Wang, you can’t put it that way. Ritual dancing is a shamanistic practice. Theoretically, it only became a widespread folk healing method during the Qing Dynasty. That’s what you call a ’shamanistic medium.’"

"What I just used, however, is one of the thirteen legitimate disciplines of traditional Chinese medicine—the Zuyou Discipline. This is an orthodox medical art passed down from our ancestors, predating shamanistic dancing by several thousand years."

Sister Wang nodded, only half-understanding.

She didn’t quite grasp it, but it sounded incredibly profound and mysterious.

She lowered her head to look at her daughter and asked again, still worried:

"Niu Niu, are you okay? Does it really not itch anymore? Don’t just lie to make Mommy happy."

The little girl was currently gazing at Li Xu with pure adoration, the way a child might look at Ultraman or Princess Elsa.

Hearing her mother’s question, she nodded repeatedly, her voice crisp and certain as she said:

"Mommy, it really... doesn’t itch. It doesn’t itch at all."

After speaking, she patted her own back with great seriousness, then carefully examined her little hands, as if confirming a miracle.

"It’s true! This is amazing."

Then, she sidled up to Li Xu and asked mysteriously:

"Mister... what was that... method you just used? Was it... immortal magic?"

When she whispered the last two words, she deliberately lowered her voice even more, as if afraid someone else might overhear this earth-shattering secret.

Li Xu looked at the little girl’s innocent and pure expression and couldn’t help but want to laugh.

He quickly winked at her, raised his right index finger to his lips, and made a "shushing" gesture.

"SHHH—this is our little secret. You can’t tell anyone else, okay?"

The little girl quickly covered her mouth, her big eyes squinting into slits as she nodded again and again.

Her earnest little expression showed she had already accepted one thing as fact in her heart: ’This world definitely has cultivators. Yep, for sure. And the mister in front of me is one of them.’

’Otherwise, how could a simple chant make my itchiness go away?’

’This must be the magic from the legends.’

The little girl, Niu Niu, stood there covering her mouth, letting out a silly "hehe" giggle. The adults watching didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

Seeing that her daughter was truly fine, a weight was finally lifted from Sister Wang’s heart.

She looked at Li Xu gratefully and asked, "Doctor Li, besides the Scarlet Pox Pill, is there anything else we need to watch out for with my daughter? Is there a chance this illness will come back?"

Li Xu thought for a moment and said, "There’s a folk remedy. It might sound a bit strange, but it’s recorded as being quite effective in ancient books. You can give it a try."

"*The Pearl Pouch’s Hidden Formulas* records: ’On the first day of the new year, at the fourth watch, use dried gourd vines or dried gourds to brew a soup for a child’s bath, and they will be free of pox sores for life.’"

"That is, on the first day of the first lunar month each year, between one and three in the morning, which is the fourth watch. This is when the Yang Qi is first born and all of creation begins to revive."

"Bathe the child in a broth made from sun-dried gourd vines or a dried gourd dipper. It can effectively prevent and treat this kind of stubborn pox."

"Although the new year is still a long way off, you can keep this in mind. When the first day of the twelfth lunar month arrives, you can prepare everything in advance. There’s no harm in trying."

After hearing this, Sister Wang quickly took her phone out of her bag and carefully saved it in her notes.

’This is a folk remedy from a Divine Physician. It’s better to believe it just in case.’

After saving the note, she put her phone away but still couldn’t contain her curiosity. "Doctor Li, that... Zuyou Discipline... isn’t it just superstition? I feel like it’s similar to a psychological effect."

Li Xu smiled, set down the medical book in his hand, and looked at Sister Wang. "What is superstition?"

"We always equate superstition with believing in ghosts and spirits, but in reality, superstition is everywhere. Whenever you become so infatuated with something that you believe in it blindly, that’s superstition."

"It’s not just about ghosts and spirits!"

"Moreover, in today’s diverse cultural landscape, fewer people may be superstitious about ghosts and spirits. However, there are countless others who are superstitious about wealth, fame, life and death, or even so-called ’scientific authorities.’ This cultural environment creates no small number of ’patients.’"

"So-called superstition can occur in any era and in any field."

"Superstition itself is a kind of ’illness’—an illness of the mind."

"And since it is an illness, there should naturally be a specialized discipline to treat it."

"The ancients realized long ago that besides the seven emotions and six desires, there was another, unrecognized pathogenic factor: the ’theory of disease caused by ghosts and spirits.’"

"The so-called ’disease caused by ghosts and spirits’ is, in essence, an illness caused by strong psychological suggestion or mental factors. Ghosts and spirits don’t exist, but the ’ghosts’ in one’s heart do."

Sister Wang thought about it for a moment, then nodded pensively. "Oh... so this falls under the scope of psychology, right? I saw on TV that psychology has this concept of ’somatization disorder,’ where emotional distress manifests as physical discomfort."

"Yes, but not entirely," Li Xu said with an approving nod. "It seems you read quite a bit, Sister Wang."

"Modern medicine is increasingly specialized, so the body and mind are often mechanically separated in treatment. If your body is sick, you see an internist or a surgeon. If your mind is sick, you see a psychologist."

"Traditional Chinese medicine, however, has always viewed the body and mind as an inseparable whole. The form and spirit are one; the body and mind are indivisible."

"How can unfeeling plants and trees treat the illnesses of feeling beings?"

"Medicine can only treat the body; it’s very difficult to treat the mind. That’s why in ancient times, the Zuyou Skill was often integrated with internal and external medicine, used alongside scalpels, needles, and medicinal stones to heal people. It is the key that unlocks the heart."

"As for this thing called superstition, it exists if you believe in it, and it doesn’t if you don’t."

"This is why in modern clinical trials, the control group taking starch pills with no medicinal effect sometimes shows better results than the experimental group taking the actual drug. That is the power of ’belief.’"

"The term ’Zuyou’ didn’t just appear out of thin air. It comes from the classic text of Chinese medicine, *Plain Questions*, in the Chapter ’On Transferring Essence and Altering Qi.’ The book says: ’Emperor Huang asked: I have heard that in ancient times, diseases were treated only by transferring essence and altering qi, which could be done through prayer and incantation (Zuyou).’"

"’Transferring essence and altering qi’—this phrase profoundly emphasizes the immense effect that spiritual therapy and psychological regulation have on the body’s qi, blood, and organ functions."

As he spoke of this, Li Xu’s expression grew exceptionally serious.

"If anger, joy, worry, sadness, and fear—these emotions can affect the liver, heart, spleen, lungs, and kidneys, and can throw qi, blood, yin, and yang into disarray, causing illness..."

"...then why can’t spiritual power do the opposite—regulate qi and blood, and heal diseases?"

"Chinese medicine says the liver stores the ethereal soul, the heart stores the spirit, the spleen stores the intellect, the lungs store the corporeal soul, and the kidneys store the will."

"One whose will is firm, whose courage is extraordinary, whose thoughts are clear, whose intent follows their will, and whose spirit and soul are stable is a superior person. Such a person is impervious to a hundred illnesses."

"This is the highest understanding of health in Chinese medicine—not just a body free of disease, but also a spirit that is rich and powerful."

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