Notes on “Health and Long Life The Chinese Way”

a book by Livia Kohn

This book is a comprehensive guide through the Chinese system of viewing the person in the Universe. It is written in a very structured way, so that even those who are unfamiliar with the numerous words and concepts do not get confused and are able to grasp the idea of the Chinese view. 

The body in Chinese health and long life practices is a constantly moving and changing combination of different forms of Qi (life energy). The organs within the body are classified according to the five phases which correspond with the seasons and the Five elements, such as Wood, Metal, Earth, Water, and Fire. The Qi energy passes through the body along the meridians – the invisible energetic canals. In addition, there are more spiritual or psychological energies that are viewed as forms of cosmic Qi and form pairs of run and yang energies, where yin (sometimes translated as “soul”)is the inherent spiritual self-nature of beings, and yang is the spirit, the transformative energy that connects each person to heaven and manifests itself as consciousness.

When the Qi is out of balance, blocked or “overflown”, the disease is created. Chinese view disease as invasion and malfunctioning of different layers of body’s energetic system. Here the idea is first to find the source of the problem, as it may lay within the part of the chain that goes before or after the symptomatic region, and to balance out the energies. The book describes several approaches to healing used in Chinese medicine, such as acupuncture, massage, Fengshui, diet, breathing techniques, gymnastics, sexual practices, Qigong, Taiji Quan, and meditation. An important part of the practice is the use of emotions either as diagnostic Qi-flow symptoms or as a way to healing as they are considered central in regulating body movements, food intake, breathing, and mental clarity. 

Throughout the book the author points out the correspondence between the ancient Chinese health system and the developments and discoveries of modern physics. Qi – the essential concept in Chinese philosophy and medical system – is described as a process, constantly moving and vibrating. In modern physics the chaos theory describes the way everything works with a considerable degree of unpredictability, with a constant process of movement, change and transformation, that is described in terms of quantum fields. These fields, just as Qi, carry neither matter nor energy. Furthermore, many of the subatomic particles form pairs like yin and yang, where one cannot exist without another. These and other scientific discoveries bring our Western mind closer to understanding of the Chinese system. 

This book provides a comprehensive and detailed explanation of Chinese medical system, which not only acknowledges the way things are, but demonstrates how exactly this system works on different levels. Apart from the idea that our thoughts and emotions are tied to our physical reactions and wellbeing in general, the five body types are described on the basis of physiognomic theory, that permits analysis, diagnoses and even fortune-telling with the help of body shapes and facial complexion.

 According to this theory, each or the five phases corresponds to a particular body type , which is vulnerable in one specific organ, has typical illnesses, likes and dislikes. This theory expanded to Europe and grew to include psychological types that match with the five phases. These full personality types are a modern development of the ancient system of the five phases. Here the understanding goes beyond the healing of particular disease. It is now involved with the questions of destiny, By treating and healing each problem we are opening the way to greater self-realisation, the ultimate goal of each person.

People get distracted by the environment they are in, they get involved with sensory attractions and this transforms their spirit through senses and emotions into “opinionated and limited mind”(p. 43). Remembering and recovery of the primordial state of spiritual balance which would go inline with mental and physical health becomes the goal of individual life. Unfortunately, most of the people in the Western world tend to ignore the ancient wisdom of the East. This happens largely because we are so “scientifically oriented”, demanding scientific proof of everything before we take it into consideration. The good news is that research in biology and physics has been paving a new way of looking at the concepts of energy work and its relation to health and wellbeing. (One of the great books on the subject is The Tao of Physics: An Exploration of the Parallels Between Modern Physics and Eastern Mysticism by Fritjof Capra).

What I find most fascinating is the “discovery” of bioelectricity and biomagnetic fields mentioned in the conclusion of the book. Scientist have finally found the living matrix, the energy network within the body that corresponds to the meridians in the Chinese medicine, and managed to measure the energy centres in the human bodies and the vibrations they produce. The vibrations produced by the hearth and the brain are found to go to limitless distances, out to the Universe, which contributes to our scientific understanding of being one with the Universe, which is the basic concept within Eastern religions and most mystical philosophies of the world.

Finally, I would like to correlate a part of this book with the book “Twice Dead” by Margaret Lock that explores the ethical and cultural issues within the topic of organ transplantation. I find it relevant in that it shows the “Eastern” approach to the person as a whole, where the body is not separated from the mind and the spirit. In this system consciousness is unlimited and non-local, with powers beyond the range of the traditional, mechanical universe.

As mentioned in the summary, contemporary physics have recognised this fact. In Chinese thinking, the various aspects of human expression, as body forces, mentality, and psychological activities – are all different aspects of Qi, vibrating at different speeds. Mind is not separated but contrasted to the Spirit, that is seen as the primordial, formless, ever-changing force of life, which in a physical body causes humans to be alive. It is thought that Spirit in its most concentrated form occurs in the heart of a person.

So, getting back to the question of patients pronounced brain-dead, if we view the issue of organ transplants through the prism of Chinese philosophy, we may conclude that even if the brain is not functioning, the person can not be pronounced dead; it is when we remove his heart that we kill him. Of course, this is “just” the Chinese medicine we are talking about, but we can not not dismiss its arguments, even though we can’t yet find scientific proof of it’s validity, neither can we prove otherwise.