The role of the medical practitioner had been the subject of heated debates in Chinese medicine for many centuries before it engaged with Western science and medicine. In this seminar, we will explore how to envision the ideal practitioner as a balanced combination along a continuum that Z’ev Rosenberg has referred to as “scholar” and “technician” — a person practicing both a trained skill and an intuitive art.
After introducing the rationale for viewing Chinese medicine as the “art and science of resonance/macrocosmic attunement,” we will explore what this means in clinical practice. How do we develop, transmit, and cultivate this ideal in Chinese medicine training, both individually and as a profession? And what are the ramifications of this ideal for medical ethics from the classical perspective of “physician’s potency” or “medical power?” For answers, we shall be looking at classical sources, from the Yellow Emperor’s Inner Classic to Sun Simiao’s Thousand Gold Formulary.