Peerless Martial Expert in the City
Chapter 181 - 183 An Lili

Chapter 181: Chapter 183 An Lili

After leaving with Zeng Xiaoxiao, Xiao Yi turned down her kind offer to take him out for fun, and after watching her drive away in her adorable Beetle, he turned and headed toward the library.

On the Friday afternoon, instead of diminishing, the number of people in the library seemed to have increased, even more than usual. Avoiding the most crowded areas with literary and engineering books of practical technical nature, Xiao Yi proceeded directly to where he remembered the medical books to be.

While he had absolute confidence in his memory, the knowledge of traditional Chinese medicine was vast and boundless, with a multitude of things to memorize. Even he did not presume to remember all the fundamental aspects, such as the properties, pharmacology, and uses of many herbal medicines. Although he understood some concepts, there were plenty of factual details that he could definitely not retain completely. Even if he remembered them today, he would not be able to remember so much after a few days.

Not to mention he wasn’t practicing medicine for a living, seeing patients all day; even those old traditional Chinese medicine doctors who had been practicing all their lives could only remember some commonly used prescriptions and the properties of common herbs. It was impossible for them to memorize the vast expanse of information about all variants of herbal medicine.

This is why people often saw that next to the desks of renowned traditional Chinese medicine physicians, there would almost always be several thick reference books. Sometimes, even well-known doctors would consult these books after diagnosing your condition, before writing a prescription. It wasn’t because they lacked knowledge, but rather, they were being thorough, careful not to miss anything, wanting to double-check before dispensing a prescription.

In terms of practice, another distinction between traditional Chinese medicine and Western medicine is that a Western medicine can be mass-produced, treating everyone’s cold in the same way, but traditional Chinese medicine pays great attention to minute differences and is very precise. In one prescription, all the herbs can be the same, but slight changes to the quantity of an herb can result in a completely different therapeutic effect, or even reverse, turning a good medicine into poison.

Even more exaggerated, some prescriptions also require attention to the degree of heat when decocting the medicine. Overcooking can turn a good medicine into poison.

A doctor with high medical ethics and meticulousness, when dealing with these sensitive prescriptions, will generally make sure to double-check before issuing them.

Of course, not every doctor who refers to a reference book is a good doctor. There are many who are indeed quacks without skill, clueless about your condition, who flip through books on the spot and slowly come up with a prescription that is not necessarily accurate or effective.

Xiao Yi’s foundation in medicine was undeniably strong. Under the strict instruction of the old man, the effort he had put in was much greater than that of a typical student with a master’s or doctorate degree in traditional Chinese medicine. However, he had not been paying attention to this area recently and felt that he had forgotten some things. Therefore, he thought of coming to pick up a book to take back, so that he could browse it in his spare time to strengthen his memory.

In contrast to the popular sections with books on technology, the traditional Chinese medicine section was almost deserted, a vast array of books sitting quietly, garnering no interest. Conversely, not far away at the Western medicine bookshelves, it was just like the technical section, crowded with students seeking knowledge eagerly.

Seeing the scene before him, Xiao Yi shook his head and sighed helplessly. He was aware of the decline of traditional Chinese medicine over the years and the strong rise of Western medicine. He had heard the old man sigh many times about this, and when he later discussed it with Elder An, he too sighed repeatedly over the matter.

However, he had never foreseen that the situation would be so visibly dire, and now, he truly felt the profound and specific disparity.

But there was nothing he could do but sigh. In comparison to the abstract and dry nature of traditional Chinese medicine, Western medicine seemed more scientific and concrete. Moreover, Western medicine had a significant advantage: the ability to be mass-produced. There was a set of basic rules that could train a team of excellent doctors very quickly, much like an assembly line in a factory, in a very short period.

This was something traditional Chinese medicine could not achieve for the time being. The cultivation of an excellent traditional Chinese medicine doctor was extremely difficult. Not to speak of others, let alone his own experience, the old man had invested so much effort since his childhood to bring him to this level. And he was fortunate to have encountered a great teacher like the old man and to have inherited a tradition with one-to-one personal training, along with the old man’s genius teaching methods.

For ordinary students studying traditional Chinese medicine on the outside, such conditions were simply unattainable. Typically, they would follow a teacher in a class of dozens, and it was uncertain how much they could grasp. In the end, they might need a lifetime to comprehend some of the real concepts, such as Divine Doctor An, who was also considered a prodigy. By the time he became famous, he was nearly sixty, having spent most of his life learning, practicing, and summarizing before achieving his present success.