sEpistemicMethodology.PDFVIP

Chinese Medicine and the Yi Jing ’s Epistemic Methodology Lifang Qu MMed Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, China Mary Garvey* MHSc College of TCM, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia A B S T R A C T Traditional Chinese medicine and contemporary biomedicine have developed methodologies that observe and investigate the human body from different epistemological perspectives. Their conceptual differences have been a recurring topic in the West. The contribution of our article to this topic draws on the ontological and epistemological insights found in the Yi Jing (Book of Changes). Readers will already be familiar with the argument that Chinese medicine has been profoundly influenced by the Yi Jing’s use of yin-yang theory. This paper offers a fresh perspective by examining the Great Commentary’s dao-xiang-qi cosmology. ‘Dao-xiang-qi’ stands for abstract principles, emergent manifestations, and concrete objects, respectively, and this triadic conception of reality leads to an analysis of the human body from a holistic, process-oriented epistemology. The interpretations of reality and being contained in the Yi Jing were developed by careful and detailed observation over time, and have deeply influenced China’s philosophical and scientific traditions, including medicine. The effect of the dao-xiang-qi (way-image-vessel) triad on Chinese medicine has lead to its characteristic dao xiang epistemic: investigations of human health and illness focus on the living body and