Hu Zhengzhi asked: "President, now that the dispute between Chinese and Western medicine is well known across the country, and all newspapers have joined the discussion, what position should our Ta Kung Pao take?"
Zhou He smiled and said, "What's your position?"
"Regardless of traditional Chinese medicine or Western medicine, those who can cure diseases are good doctors, and those who cannot cure diseases are quacks." Hu Zhengzhi said without hesitation.
"Hahaha," Zhou Hexuan laughed, "This is a wonderful theory, let's report it like this."
Hu Zhengzhi said helplessly: "If you report it like this, it will definitely be considered as a quarrel."
The two were discussing when suddenly Liao Yaquan knocked on the door and said: "President, Doctor Ding is here."
"Invite him in quickly!" Zhou Hexuan said.
Ding Guorui walked into the office on crutches, holding a few pieces of manuscript paper in his hand and said: "Mingcheng, this is an article I wrote, please help publish it!"
The Ministry of Health's "Abolition of Traditional Chinese Medicine Case" is really unreasonable.
Without a single TCM doctor attending the meeting, a group of Western doctors passed a proposal to abolish TCM, completely treating state agencies as tools of struggle and treating decrees and laws as child's play.
Those policymakers have thought about whether the number of Western medicine doctors in the country will be enough after the rash abolition of traditional Chinese medicine? Will the number of hospitals be enough? What will happen if the people can't find doctors to see them? What will happen to the traditional Chinese medicine workers across the country? What will happen to the medicinal merchants across the country? What will happen to the drug farmers across the country?
What should we do? Are imported Western medicines enough to treat Chinese people?
The bureaucrats of the Republic of China shouted loud slogans about respecting science, pursuing progress, and abandoning corruption to make major decisions, but they did not consider the consequences and often acted randomly.
No, this angered Ding Guorui, who advocated the integration of traditional Chinese and Western medicine, and even when he was still young, he wrote an article to fight back.
Zhou Hexuan carefully read Ding Guorui's article, and the old man was relatively calm. He first praised the scientific nature of Western medicine, then pointed out the shortcomings of Chinese medicine, then discussed the merits of Chinese medicine, and finally rebuked the arrogance of Western medicine.
Zhou Hexuan asked Ding Guorui to sit down and said with a smile: "The old man's article is very good, and Ta Kung Pao agreed to help publish it."
Ding Guorui said angrily: "Western medicine has gone too far this time. We must fight to the end!"
Hu Zhengzhi comforted him and said, "Sir, please calm down, this matter can be undone."
"It's difficult," Ding Guorui shook his head and sighed, "the officials of the Ministry of Health are all Western medicine doctors. They use the power of the government to suppress Chinese medicine doctors like us. How can the people defeat the officials?"
Zhou Hexuan smiled and said: "Mr. Sun Yat-sen also advocates civil rights. This time the Chinese medicine community can try the power of civil rights."
"That's the only way it can be," Ding Guorui said helplessly. "The traditional Chinese medicine community in Peiping and Tianjin and the traditional Chinese medicine community have already sent representatives to go south to petition."
Traditional Chinese medicine may not be very good, but Chinese herbal medicine merchants are very good.
This "Abolition of Traditional Chinese Medicine Case" is completely cutting off the roots of those medicinal merchants. It would be strange if they don't jump up and cause trouble.
This matter soon transformed from a dispute between Chinese and Western medicine into a struggle between political factions.
The Kuomintang veteran faction supports traditional Chinese medicine, Wang Zhaoming's Kuomintang reorganization faction opposes traditional Chinese medicine, and the Feng Yuxiang faction maintains a neutral attitude. The health minister is Feng Yuxiang's person.
At first, merchants of medicinal materials collaborated with the National Chamber of Commerce to put pressure on the government in the name of the business community. They wanted to use the power of the KMT elders to attack the Wang Zhaoming reorganization faction that advocated the abolition of traditional Chinese medicine, so as to bring the Ministry of Health controlled by Feng Yuxiang to surrender.
The Kuomintang veteran faction followed the trend and used the power of the Chamber of Commerce to launch an attack on the Wang clique's reorganization faction. At the same time, they wanted to unseat the Feng Yuxiang faction who controlled the Ministry of Health.
The New Politics Department of the Kuomintang, which supported Chang Kaishen, had the same interests as the old Kuomintang faction, and both wanted to kill the Wang clique reorganization faction and the Feng Yuxiang faction. As a result, the Shanghai Chamber of Commerce and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, which had always been hostile to each other, unexpectedly
Unite to support Traditional Chinese Medicine.
Fighting between gods!
From this dispute between Chinese and Western medicine, we can see how chaotic the factional struggle within the Kuomintang is.
In addition to the New Deal Department and the reorganization faction, there are also factions headed by Chen Guofu and Chen Lifu. However, this time the faction sat on the mountain and watched the tiger fight, leisurely watching the show, applauding and shouting that dog bites dog is really exciting.
Even the Ministry of Education is involved, because the content of the "Abolition of Traditional Chinese Medicine Case" includes not allowing traditional Chinese medicine practitioners to open schools. Even the traditional Chinese medicine vocational schools that were opened before must be renamed old medical training centers.
Li Shizeng was holding a national conference in Nanjing at this time, and was troubled by the Peking University students who went south to petition. As a result, major Chinese medicine associations also came to him to petition, insisting that he support Chinese medicine.
Li Shi was so depressed that he wanted to hit the wall. I haven't even managed a Peking University student yet. How can I help you with a Chinese medicine school now?
The debate between Chinese medicine and Western medicine in newspapers continues to escalate. Western medicine denounces Chinese medicine as unscientific, old medicine, witch doctors, and a disregard for human life. Chinese medicine accuses Western medicine of betraying its ancestors, and Western medicine annexing Chinese medicine is medical imperialism and a traitor.
Because the resistance of traditional Chinese medicine was too fierce and the scale of the disturbance was too large, the Ministry of Health controlled by Feng Yuxiang could only come out to reconcile and announced that although the "Abolition of Traditional Chinese Medicine" was passed, it would not be implemented for the time being and would be discussed slowly in the future.
This debate between Chinese and Western medicine is far from over and will continue for at least ten years.
But after all, Western medicine controls government agencies. Although it did not directly abolish traditional Chinese medicine, it did so secretly. For example, after the traditional Chinese medicine petition group left Nanjing, the Ministry of Education immediately issued an announcement and ordered that all traditional Chinese medicine schools be renamed training centers. Immediately afterwards, the Ministry of Health issued an order
Traditional Chinese medicine hospitals across the country were renamed medical offices, and Chinese medicine practitioners were prohibited from using Western medicine.
In particular, the second provision blocked the modernization and scientificization of traditional Chinese medicine, and the integration of traditional Chinese and Western medicine was completely prohibited. This led to the second storm of resistance of traditional Chinese medicine, and the traditional Chinese medicine community organized rallies, protests, petitions, and marches all day long.
, went on strike, went on hunger strike, and made the situation a mess.
Nowadays, China cannot manufacture Western medicines on its own. All Western medicines are imported, so the prices of medicines are extremely high, and the people at the bottom cannot afford the medicines. As a result of the government's actions, Chinese medicine practitioners have been causing trouble all day long, and have even gone on strike, causing many people to be ill and difficult to treat.
, I even got a prescription but couldn’t buy the medicinal materials.
Abolition of traditional Chinese medicine in the 21st century may not have too serious consequences, but during the Republic of China, it would have been simply disastrous.
At this time, there are too few Western doctors and Western hospitals, and Western medicine is ridiculously expensive. Without Chinese medicine, would ordinary people wait to die after getting sick?
The funniest thing is that Wang Zhaoming, who made the most fuss over the abolition of traditional Chinese medicine, had his mother-in-law suffer from severe diarrhea and continued to seek treatment from Western medicine, but none of them worked. In the end, he had to ask Shi Jinmo, one of the four major traditional Chinese medicine doctors, to take ten doses of decoction.
It was cured.
The Chinese medicine community seized this opportunity and wrote an article saying that Wang Zhaoming had become a believer in Chinese medicine. Unable to refute, Wang Zhaoming ignored the news and continued to call for the abolition of Chinese medicine as always.
Zhou Hexuan read the debates in newspapers all day long. In spite of his helplessness, he felt that the debates in the Republic of China were really fun. There would be a big discussion every three days, and everyone would attack each other around various issues. It was a collision of ideas and values.
