By staff reporter ZHANG HONG

The renaissance of TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) in China hit a new high on December 2 last year, when the renowned practitioner Deng Tietao took two apprentices, Ding Lei and Liang Dong. The minute this news item hit the country’s front pages and TV screens, it caused a national sensation. Thirty-four-year-old Ding Lei is founder and CEO of Netease.com and the richest man on the 2003 Fortune China list, while his fellow apprentice, Liang Dong, is a popular presenter on Hong Kong-based Phoenix TV, well known for his sharp wit. At a ceremony held in Guangdong’s People’s Hospital, Ding Lei presented his teacher with a plaque inscribed “Kind Heart, Kind Art.” The media frenzy had begun, and TCM moved onto the 21st century stage.

“A little knowledge about TCM can have a large impact on one’s life. For instance, many of my friends are plagued with digestive ailments because of their high-stress lifestyle. My advice to them is to drink mulberry juice,” says Ding Lei. “It’s also helpful to know that drinking beer with seafood increases the risk of strokes, while red wine reduces the risk of heart disease.” Ding Lei wishes for a return to the days when people treated illnesses in natural ways, such as eating dates to supplement vital energy, dried longans to enrich the blood, and black sesame seeds to nourish the liver and kidneys.

In a bid to introduce TCM to today’s youth, Ding is working on an Internet game played on bases of the origins and shapes of herbs and herbal remedies. He believes it has the potential to catch on and become a fashionable practice, just as Kungfu did.

Liang Dong was one of Phoenix TV’s most recognizable presenters, until he left the job to promote a book called Ponderings on Traditional Chinese Medicine. Liang first came across the book when preparing for one of his programs, and was immediately fascinated with TCM. In a later interview with the author, Professor Liu Lihong of Guangxi TCM Institute, Liang joked, “When I read the book, I felt a thrill similar to being in love for the first time.”

The book has had a similar effect on others. First published in June 2003, Ponderings on Traditional Chinese Medicine had been re-printed ten times by the end of 2004, selling more than 80,000 copies. Taiwan Province has bought the rights to print the book, as have international countries including South Korea. TCM has become hot publishing property.

More recently, another successful entrepreneur, Kong Lingqian, left his company to sponsor a book series called Learning Traditional Chinese Medicine from Celebrated Doctors, comprising works by luminaries in the TCM field.

TCM, the Natural Science of Balance

In May 2002, a beautiful young Phoenix TV newsreader called Liu Hairuo was badly injured in a train accident in the UK, and was already in a deep coma when she arrived at a local hospital. In a final bid to save their daughter, her parents brought her to Beijing’s Xuanwu Hospital, where she was put on large doses of antibiotics. After two weeks her condition had worsened, so doctors decided to take her off antibiotics and try TCM. Miraculously, Liu’s fever disappeared in three days. Within three months, she came out of her coma, and regained the ability to eat, drink and speak. Although her road to recovery has been long, Liu is an avowed TCM convert. She says, “Having personally experienced the magic of TCM, I want to read more about this miraculous medicine.”

TCM is a natural, balanced and holistic approach to maintaining good health and treating disease. This theory is deeply rooted in Chinese people’s minds, and has been passed down through millennia. Although Western medicine is now dominant across the country, people still believe their illnesses are caused by “excessive heat or cold,” or interruption of the smooth flow of vital energy and blood in the body. They use ancient therapies like guasha (scraping) and cupping to dispel inner heat, dampness and toxic elements.

The ancient Egyptian, the Indian and the Greek civilizations also made impressive advances in medical science, but failed to pass them on as compared to TCM, which evolved into a complete set of theories and treatments that have been practiced for centuries.

The World Health Organization estimates that more than four billion people -- 80 percent of the world population -- use herbal medicines, and predicts a worldwide surge in research and use of herbs in the next decade.

Dr. Yang Yuhui, president of Southwest Normal University’s Religious Study Institute says that Western medicine treats the human body as an organism, and fails to take into account the impact a person’s mental state has on their physical well-being. TCM, on the other hand, recognizes the discreteness of the human condition. He concludes, therefore, that principles of Western medicine apply to both human beings and animals, while the TCM is a truly human medicine.

More and more overseas students come to China to study TCM. Statistics from the Ministry of Education released in March 2004 show that the Beijing Traditional Chinese Medicine University alone had 1,056 foreign students, accounting for 14 percent of its total student body.

In the respiratory diseases department of the No. 1 Hospital, affiliated to Henan TCM Institute, an American named Lisa was examining a patient suffering from rhinitis, an allergy that afflicts the nose and eyes. “What do you prescribe?” asked her supervising mentor, Professor Li Suyun. Lisa promptly replied: “Cang’erzi powder,” and Professor Li agreed. Lisa and her husband are both studying TCM in Henan Province. Lisa says that TCM is gaining popularity back in the United States. The couple has set up a website to disseminate what they see and learn here in China to friends back home.

TCM is set to expand all over the nation and indeed the world, among people of all description. In 2003, 74-year old Li Yao from Taiwan entered Henan Traditional Chinese Medicine Institute to pursue a doctorate in the subject, having taught himself TCM for 25 years. After graduation from Shanghai’s prestigious Fudan University with a Ph.D in Arts, Fu Haina turned down an offer from Harvard University in favor of a course on TCM taught by the renowned doctor Zeng Rongxiu. Oscar winning actress Gwyneth Paltrow is also a TCM devotee, and uses cupping therapy to rid her body of toxins and preserve her youthful looks.