24. I wish you to stop the pain

Some time ago, the death of the famous actor Chen Xiaoxu triggered a new round of controversy over the survival and abolition of traditional Chinese medicine. Mr. He Zuoxiu, a famous scientist in China, said amazingly: "Chen Xiaoxu was killed by traditional Chinese medicine." "In the face of this giant of science, I certainly have no power to refute. But I do despise his views.

Traditional Chinese medicine has been popular in China for thousands of years, and its positive effects have long been confirmed by countless facts and scientific research. Of course, there are many villains who seek fame and reputation, and the reputation of Chinese medicine is ruined, but if we deny the whole because of individual cases, it is not a scientific attitude. Mr. He was criticized for this, and I think it should be.

The Chinese people have created a splendid culture, but many things have gradually been lost in the thousands of years of circulation. Let me give you an example, everyone is familiar with the story of Nuwa mending the sky, the legend says that Nuwa and Fuxi the Great are a husband and wife, and there is also a legend that they are the ancestors of mankind. But many people don't know that in the portraits of the Han Dynasty, we find such a pattern, Fuxi and Nuwa have the upper body of a human, and the lower half of the body is snake-like and the tail is entwined. But in the hands of the two of them, they actually held "rules" and "rules". It's what we now call compasses and rectangular rulers. And there is more than one such painting.

In the Han Dynasty, "rules" and "moments" symbolized the highest scientific achievements and could be said to be a high-tech tool. We can analyze it this way, the two are entangled, symbolizing the union of men and women and reproduction, so what about "rules" and "moments"? What do they represent? Reproduction is a biological instinct, but for what reasons did the people of the Han Dynasty add the tools that symbolize science to it? Does this mean that there is still a part of the legend that we know has been lost in circulation?

Legend has it that this is true, and so is Chinese medicine, and I was born in a Chinese medicine family. At an early age, I heard the concerns of the elders in my family about the decline of Chinese medicine and the continuous loss of various Chinese medicine skills. I don't know if my friends have heard of the "Thirteen Departments of Zhuyou" in Chinese medicine. Zhu Youke is a school of Chinese medicine. The doctors do not use needles or use fewer needles, and mainly rely on charms and forbidden spells to treat diseases. Some are close to witchcraft. If you use modern science to analyze it, I think it is close to hypnosis, psychological suggestion and so on, but it is not only that, but it does work.

Here's one thing I saw with my own eyes. When I was very young, one of my family members was stung by a scorpion. At that time, he was also a child, and he cried in pain. The cry alarmed an elder in the family, who had practiced medicine all his life and saved countless lives. How can an elder not feel sorry for his child? Hearing the child's cry, he ran out without even putting on his shoes. After looking at the injury, while comforting the child, he went back to the house and got an awl, and then he squatted on the ground, first drew a circle, and then drew some strange symbols, and then began to mumble a spell to the circle, which I did not understand.

It was so amazing that in just a few minutes, the elder said after reading it, "Okay, it doesn't hurt." "The child's stinged wound really went down and didn't hurt. The child stopped crying, and happily ran out to eat snacks. He was a child of a few years, and it was impossible for him to cooperate with his elders to cheat.

I looked funny, so I pestered this elder to teach me, and he said to me very seriously: "This is Zhu You's medical skills, you can't learn it now, and I'll talk about it when you grow up." Then he went back to sleep. Unfortunately, this senior died young, and I didn't learn in the end, and I regret it in retrospect.

25. Upright chopsticks

This is a strange thing that Xin and I have experienced together.

Just after the National Day, we took over a project. Because the project needs to cooperate with the customer's camera to form a surveillance, I spent three days at the customer's debugging program. Because the client's company is very close to Xin's home. After all, Xin is a salesperson, and her investment awareness and market sensitivity are much stronger than mine. When the national housing prices were just rising, she bought a house in a community, although it was only a small room of 40 square meters, but looking at today's abnormally high housing prices, Xin's investment can be described as wise.

Because it was very close to Xin's home, I cheekily went to her house at noon every day to mix rice. On the last day, I stayed busy until 2 p.m., and I was finally done. I was so hungry that I hurried to Xin's house, but I didn't expect Xin to be waiting for me. I was sorry and quickly helped set the meal. Seeing that she was missing a pair of chopsticks, she went back to the kitchen to get them. A moment later, I heard Xin "huh" in the kitchen. I asked her what was wrong. I heard Xin shouting in the kitchen: "Come and see!" ”

I thought something was wrong and hurried into the kitchen. In the past few days, the property has notified that because of the possibility of water outages due to the maintenance of the pipeline, Xin has used a large bucket to catch a bucket of water in case of emergency. When she was holding the chopsticks just now, one of the chopsticks slipped off and fell into the bucket. Strangely, if the bamboo chopsticks fall into the water, they will definitely float on the water. But this chopstick is not, it sank to the bottom of the water, if it only sank into the water, it is not strange, the strange thing is that this chopstick is not poured into the water, but straight up and down in the water, and stands in the center of the bucket impartially.

I looked at it, and I couldn't tell why. Xin smiled and said, "Forget it, let's eat." "Then we ignored it. Xin took a break today, so we weren't in a hurry, slowly finished eating, and chatted for a while, I saw that Xin's spirit was not very good, so I said goodbye and left.

I had just walked halfway when Xin's phone called, and she said that she had a terrible headache and seemed to have a fever. I don't feel good when I hear her speak. So I hung up the phone, turned the car around and drove back. When I entered the door, Xin Zheng was lying on the bed weakly, her face was pale, and I touched her forehead, which was terrifyingly hot. I was also a little panicked, seeing that she was a little delirious. I didn't dare to wait any longer, so I hurriedly carried her into the car and rushed her to the hospital.

The hospital did an examination, but nothing was found, it was a high fever. The doctor arranges for infusions and asks for hospitalization for observation. After completing the formalities for Xin, I watched Xin fall asleep groggily. It was getting dark soon, and I took Xin's temperature, and the fever subsided somewhat, but I couldn't leave. I know Xin's background. When she was six years old, her parents were killed in a car accident, and she was orphaned and raised by her aunt, who treated her well but was not her own mother. This has created a unique personality that Xin is strong and self-reliant, but it also has some negative influences, such as being overly cautious, suspicious and distrustful of others.

I looked at my watch, it was early in the morning, and I was feeling very tired and starting to get sleepy. I sat down on the edge of Xin's bed. Suddenly, I heard Xin say something. I thought she was awake, but when I looked, her eyes were closed, and she was just muttering something softly in her mouth. I listened closer, and I was completely sleepy. I only heard Xin keep reading: "Mom, you are here." Mom, I miss you so much! Repeatedly, these are those two sentences. I subconsciously raised my head and looked around, and there was nothing unusual in the empty hospital room. I wanted to wake Xin up, but suddenly, I saw two lines of tears flowing from the corners of Xin's eyes. For a moment I was relieved. Let her go, even if it is really Xin's mother who has a ghost and comes to visit her daughter, I believe she will not harm us. Just let them spend a while. I wiped the tears from Xin's face and waited for her silently. For about an hour, Xin stopped talking and fell asleep again.

When Xin woke up in the morning, the fever had completely subsided. After I fed her something, she leaned back on her pillow and thought about her thoughts, and after a while she told me that she had a dream last night. I interrupted her and said, "Did you dream of your aunt?" Xin was visibly stunned, then lowered her head, tears welling up in her eyes again......

Postscript: This incident, especially why the chopsticks stood upright in the water, has always puzzled me. Later, I overheard an old woman say something that might be used as a commentary on the matter. "Young people today don't know that when we were young, there was no such thing as 'superstition'. For example, if there is a child crying inexplicably at home, we will make a bowl of rice, and then take a chopstick and stick it on the rice, because there is not much rice, so the chopsticks generally can't be inserted. We hold the chopsticks with our hands and start to read the name of the deceased person in the family, and when we read whose name, the chopsticks can stand and not fall, which means that this relative has come to see the child, and then we will burn paper for him, tell him that the child is small, let him not scare the child, and soon the child will be fine. At that time, it was all common sense, no one thought it was superstition, and it was as common as taking medicine when you were sick now. ”