Tobydaly1: August 8, 2022, 11:39pm
When the contemporary physicians treat diseases, they are only aware of inspecting the branches but are unaware
of investigating the roots. Moreover, they frequently use “the root and branch” as an excuse, where they say,
“When it is urgent, treat the branch. When it is non-urgent, treat the root.” Are they not aware of the Nei Jing’s
concept that “one must always seek the root?”
They only see the urgency of the disease; yet, they completely fail to recognize the urgency of life. Of these two,
which one can be deferred? Which one ought to be regarded as urgent? Which one ought to be regarded as urgent
today? Which one ought to be regarded as more urgent tomorrow? By failing to recognize what is urgent and non-
urgent, they will often misidentify the two; as such, how can they still talk about root and branch?
Zhang Jingyue (Tsaur 2020)
Daniel: August 9, 2022, 11:38am
LOVE this!
(side note: I recall Sabine Wilms in one of her books or blogs, can’t recall where unfortunately, but it may well be
in ‘Humming with Elephants’ – I will check . . . going into considerable reexamination of this term ‘Root’ and
suggesting ‘Trunk’ as in ‘the trunk of a tree’ is a more appropriate English translation)