barefoot doctor

Aug

2017

My Visit to Master Wang’s Clinic in Chengdu

While visiting Chengdu China in July of 2017, I observed and participated in treatments at Master Wang’s clinic. Master Wang’s work consists of his patients soaking in Chinese medicinal herbal baths in large bamboo tubs, followed by a uniquely vigorous type of manual therapy administered, simultaneously, by his two apprentices. As a practitioner of Chinese medicine myself, I was allowed to observe and palpate patients on the treatment table undergoing treatment, guided by Master Wang to discern the therapeutic changes taking effect. I also experienced the methods personally, as a patient. I experienced notable results for my sacrum and shoulder joint which at the time were nagging me, and right before my trekking pilgrimage in Tibet – a blessing to have resolved in one session of herbal bathing and 30 minutes of Master Wang’s highly vigorous manual therapy methods.

Patients from all over the world come to stay in Chengdu to be treated in Master Wang’s clinic. While there, Master Wang, his family, apprentices and I shared a delicious vegetarian lunch that was prepared by Master Wang’s wife and daughter-in-law. Over our leisurely meal I learned that Master Wang’s treatment methods were passed down to him despite cultural revolution precepts, by his life-long teacher, a Shaolin monk. Master Wang has only trained a handful of students in these methods during his 65 year career. Master Wang, his staff, and family were all warm and welcoming. I consider myself fortunate to have had this enriching educational and therapeutic opportunity while I was in Chengdu and am ever-grateful to those who helped to make it happen.

Ted X on Taoist Cosmology

Acupuncturists routinely have to give an easily digestable rendition of Chinese medicine, which necessarily delves back interconnected step by step, succinctly, to describe the theory as a whole. If you were having tea with someone who adlibbed about Taoist reality as this man has, it would be a fascinating time spent listening to an engaging, well-woven, true story.

Stephen Russell is a controversial though acclaimed interpreter of the philosophy and methods of ancient Taoists. He teaches how these may be best ‘deployed to ameliorate the human condition from the inside out.’

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May

2015

Barefoot Doctors of Rural China

The name barefoot doctor refers to farmers who would work barefoot in the rice paddies, and who, along with an idealistic young population instituted by Mao Zedong, brought rudimentary health care to Chinese living in the countryside. With only basic medical and pharmacological training, the grass-roots healthcare movement was able to tend to common illnesses, offer preventive health care, promote family planning, and basic hygiene. Over the past six decades, China has been experimenting with radically different forms of healthcare for the best ways to administer healthcare to its ever-sizable population.