Dear Prof Mei,

Thank you very much for sparing time from your busy schedule to show us around in your clinic on 19/6. It’s also our great pleasure to have an opportunity to read your blog where we can learn a lot from you. Attached please find a piece of my humble opinion on one of your articles. Please forgive my ignorance if anything is written wrong. Any comments you care to make is more than welcome. Thank you!

Best regards,

Sally Ng

Member of HKUBCMAA (The University of Hong Kong Bachelor of Chinese Medicine (full-time) Alumni Association)

What a coincidence that when I read your article ‘After winter there is spring, whither human civilization’(冬至春又来，人类文明何去？), CERN has just claimed the discovery of a new particle consistent with the Higgs boson! I appreciate your insightful idea about the correlation between western scientific view on how matter attains its mass and Chinese philosophical concept on 神 forms形. Actually, I believe whatever on the philosophical aspects about the formation of the universe, or on the medical aspects, the West and the East are just regarding things from two sides of the same coin. Both of the ideas are worth investigating and preserving, without so called superiority.

To rectify the current economic turmoil, one of the ways you proposed is ‘strengthening vital Qi ‘ (‘扶正’), which should be started from cultivating ethics of the manipulators in the market. I entirely agree it is one of the fundamental solutions. Greed is an intrinsic and deep-rooted bad feature of human beings; over-indulgence in self-interests can lead someone to act radically in the market regardless of the public interests. Promotion of individualized self-realization and conceiving yin-yang balance in the body, mind and spirit are good for constraining one’s infinite greediness for material pursuits. However, it is practically difficult to keep all of us conscious in front of overwhelming material lure. Even those who have received advanced Chinese education, having been instilled the concepts of Confucianism, couldn’t resist such temptation by involving frauds, like the production of counterfeit food inChina. So in face of the chaotic world of the economic crisis, besides propagating the concept of Chinese moral spirit, I think the law enforcement bodies, corresponding to the CM practitioners, have a vital responsibility to prescribe heavy dose for repelling evils(祛邪), by implementing proper penalty on people who commit illegal deeds. Although this is a rather passive measure, it could act as a deterrent to others.

It’s nice to read your inspiring articles which reveal your innovating thoughts by deftly applying theories in physics, economics, philosophy and Chinese medicine. I look forward to your new articles in the future.

From Sally Ng

Member of HKUBCMAA (The University of Hong Kong Bachelor of Chinese Medicine (full-time) Alumni Association)

My own reply to Sally Ng

Dear Sally,

Your comments on my article After Winter There is Spring, Wither Human Civilisation? is gratefully received. Indeed, my prediction of the discovery of the ‘God Particle’ Higgs boson appeared just over a year ago in my article: Conceiving Yin and Yang – Towards a Scientific Interpretation I am therefore not surprised by the recent announcement from CERN. There are thousands of physicists working there and I am in touch with quite a few of them. The experimental work at CERN is a unique project that has implications not only for the development of particle physics but has wider implications for our understanding of nature and ourselves. Chinese Medicine relies on cutting edge scientific discoveries, which are currently led by new physics, to validate its own philosophical concepts. I have therefore devoted my research over the past two decades with a focus on correlating science with the philosophical wisdom of Chinese civilisation with specific reference to health and medicine.

The discovery of the Higgs boson verifies the concept of Dao in the manifestation of Yin and Yang elements in the creation of the physical world from a non-physical world. It has also verified that ‘Qi’ can be transformed from the invisible and intangible to the physical and tangible matter. In Chinese Medicine terms the Shen is being transformed into Xing through the transformation of Qi.

Our view of treating disease by strengthening the vital or ‘Genuine Qi ‘ in order to combat pathogens is fundamental to the holistic principle of Chinese Medicine. All Chinese Medicine physicians should pay great attention to this principle in their syndrome differentiation. This is also true for governmental leaders as well as economists who must cure the diseases that are responsible for our current global economic crisis.

My thanks again for considering the ideas that I raised in my articles. As a bilingual reader you can compare the differences between my Chinese language approach and my English language approach to expressing the same ideas. May I have some comments on these topics from you or your colleagues at your University?

Sincerely,

Professor Man Fong Mei