Many people understand yin and yang as opposites. However, this is not a complete description. Yin and yang are not only opposites, they are also mutually dependent and mutually transformable. When yin reaches an extreme, yang will start to rise. When yang reaches an extreme, yin will be generated. It’s through this mutually affecting, dependent and transformable nature that yin and yang eventually reach an equilibrium.
Western medicine, to put it simplistically, tends to see pathogens as enemies which must be wiped out. Traditional Chinese medicine does not see pathogens as germs. It diagnoses imbalances within the body, the origins of which can be external or internal. In the end, nothing is eradicated or wiped out. The body is merely balanced or harmonised.
Once upon a time, a group of leading physicians in Beijing were tasked to go down to Shandong Province to check on the medical research being carried out there. As doctors in those days earned little more than bus drivers, the esteemed physicians were only awarded hard seats for the long journey to Shandong. It was a torture for everyone on the team. But most frustrating was the fact that there were several empty cars with clean soft sleeper beds. One of the doctors, a surgeon to be precise, stood up and demanded to see the conductor.
He gave the conductor a long lecture on how important their trip was and it was imperative that they arrived in Shandong well-rested. The conductor told the surgeon that if they were important enough to deserve soft sleepers, their department would have informed him. Since he received no instructions, he could not do anything for them.
The surgeon and all the other doctors knew that the conductor was lying. In those days, train conductors were mini despots onboard rolling kingdoms. They would instruct ticket sellers to tell everyone that the soft sleepers were full. Whether these tickets were sold or not did not affect their income. Keeping them empty and packing everyone on the hard seat cars ensured that there would be less cleaning to do at the destination. It also provided the conductors an extra source of income in case there were VIPs who would like to “upgrade”.
With no money to upgrade, the doctors could only beg. The conductor refused to give in. Before long, all the passengers onboard were spreading word that a group of leading physicians from Beijing were onboard. The cleared an entire car for the physicians. In return, they asked for free consultation. The physicians gladly obliged. They started examining everyone who came to their mobile clinic. Some patients were given advice. Others were even given presciptions which they could fill back home.
Then, one of the attendants on the train came to the mobile clinic and asked to be examined. The physician diagnosed some problem in his large intestine and stomach channels. The cynical attendant laughed at them and said there was nothing wrong with him. He went off and just hours later, came running back to the clinic to ask for advice for his severe diarrhoea.
A great physician diagnoses and treats before disease occurs. Word of the great physicians’ abilities soon reached the conductor’s ears. The conductor’s attitude changed completely when he approached the doctors and offered them a nice, soft and clean sleeper car. He later exchanged contact numbers with the physicians. From then on, the physicians would call the conductor every time they needed to travel by train. They would get soft sleepers even without paying for them. The conductor and his family, was able to skip the long queues at hosiptals and clinics where the physicians worked.
Instead of treating the conductor like a scumbag, the doctors decided that they would be scumbags themselves. Afterall, they just wanted the soft sleeper beds. It was not really the conductor’s attitude they didn’t like. An example of harmonising yin and yang?
