Traditional Chinese medicine has always surprised and passionate me. On one of our trips in search of unique pieces we find this wonder of “antique pharmacy sideboard”. And immediately we fell in love with this unique piece!
It was part of the furniture of an old pharmacy and was used to store the various medicinal herbs.
Each small drawer consists of three compartments where a different medicinal herb written in Chinese characters was stored.
Traditional Chinese medicine is based on a set of medicinal practices over 3500 years old. In fact, it is a set of ancient techniques with a total focus of the body and mind. It includes healing and prevention with medicinal herbs, acupuncture, diet patterns based on Yin and Yang, exercise practices such as qigong, specialized massages to activate energy circuits.
In short, it is a complete body of practices for the physical and mental healing of the individual.
It is now still considered a pseudoscience, i.e. that no scientific principles have been found to support its results. Still in my experience in China, it remains a widely used resource in all social classes.
It is true that for complex medical situations, Western medicine is the predominant one. But for these kind of milder ailments, and especially as a way of life where the rule of better prevention than cure rules, Chinese society remains deeply influenced by the millennial legacy of thousands of doctors and practitioners who have written their prescriptions and advice.
I still remember my first visit to a pharmacy in Hong Kong accompanying a friend who suffered from headaches and who used to go every month to buy her medicinal herbs. The only prescription that after several visits to Western doctors could find…
It is said that one does not know what he does not know, it may be that in the case of traditional Chinese medicine, our Western mind does not know how to see what he does not know how to see…