tigers – Observations and Misunderstandings

Go on admit it you’re all desperate for a holiday. But then maybe you feel like you’re having one already. As I am still working I’m very envious of everybody sitting around, reading, studying and exercising. There is every chance I’m simply envious of the idea that this is what people are doing because while everyone may be taking photos of themselves doing these things, or videos of themselves being creative and inspiring, there’s also a good chance they’re currently lying on the sofa watching something on Netflix about tigers. Sorry that was two weeks ago, I’m so behind the times I wonder what the current obsession is. Are people getting bored though. Are those still sober dreaming of going back to their jobs because they’ve realised they’re not carpenters, painters or musicians and that actually they don’t really enjoy reading books as much as they thought and told everyone they would. I’ve admitted already I’m envious but I am also aware that I have spent large chunks of my life travelling and doing all these fun things but in random places. I’m well practised at not getting bored. Having spent time in the countryside I’m also well practised at not seeing people for a couple of weeks. So I’m envious but also aware that I’ve experienced a few lockdowns already in my life.

It is though arguably a social experiment that will define this period of history. I’m not trying to trivialise this very serious situation but that doesn’t make it anything other than a future treasure trove of theories for researchers. I’m not a researcher, but I enjoy observing, and I’m already really looking forward to seeing what conclusions the researchers come to. I’m not an optimist in the traditional sense, I’m no Pangloss and this is certainly not the best of all possible worlds. I don’t believe in the idea of being constantly positive and happy because it is balance we need in life. However, there is always a possibility to find something positive in any situation no matter how bad, and while it doesn’t have to outweigh the bad, there is no reason for us not to enjoy and embrace it’s existence. Who knows maybe we will even use it as a pickaxe to help us climb out of our hole. For this reason we will find something to celebrate in all of everything that is going on. Researchers will discover some terrible results, the media will fill us with dread and fear, while politicians will continue to chip away at the last scraps of our self-determination. They will also discover incredibly positive results, there will be happy stories told and, actually maybe I’m pushing it a little far by including the latter group.

In a way though none of this will mean anything, not really. We may enjoy discovering these moments of positivity but unless they exist in our immediate realm they’re more than likely to just pass on through. What will leave us with any lasting sense of light though will be what we can see in our own lives, in our immediate situations. What little events are happening right now that could snowball into something resembling that pickaxe. What are we experiencing that if we manage to step back from for a second we can recognise as bringing some kind of benefit to our lives. As I said it doesn’t have to outweigh the other stuff going on, but even if it is just one percent of everything going on in your life it is infinitely more important than the other ninety-nine. It’s there. It’s always there if you manage to look.

Specific dates from the past are always hard to verify and quite often when recording somebody’s date of birth they are either inaccurate or a year or period of years is given. It was finally decided in the 1960s during Chairman Mao’s Cultural Revolution that Li Shizhen was born on the Third of July 1518. Up until this period he had been a relatively little known historical figure but with the rise of Communist China his status was elevated to one of national hero. His most famous and greatest achievement was to compile his Compendium of Materia Medica which was a scientific book based upon Chinese herbology. It took him twenty seven years and while he completed it prior to his death in 1593, it was not published until afterwards by his remaining children. It received varying amounts of attention upon release but nothing comparative to it’s fame post politicising. There are no known images of his true likeness and all have been created during the last half century in China. Films have been made about him, books have been written about him and the myth of the barefoot doctor going from village to village curing the people has been born.

Many of the cures he wrote about form the basis of what is now known as traditional Chinese Medicine. There are many examples of herbology being incredibly effective at helping people lead a long and healthy life. More traditional based remedies quite often look holistically at the body comparative to modern medicines which go straight to the pain. Both of these approaches have their benefits and this isn’t to specifically bash traditional or modern medicines. For every corrupt pharmaceutical rep pushing drugs which will never actually cure anyone but merely create dependence, you have traditional practitioners pushing shark fin soup and rhino horn. Rhino horn ground down will not make you strong and virulent. Shark fin soup will not do whatever medicinal benefits it’s proponents suggest it will. Shark fin soup was popularised and made fashionable during the Ming dynasty by the Tianqi Emperor who ruled from 1620 to 1627 who had it served at royal banquets. It first appeared in Li Shizhen’s Compendium of Materia Medica.

Beautiful animals like tigers, rhinos and sharks are partly being pushed to the edge of extinction by the popularity of dishes containing them in modern day China. This is not an article damning the field entirely as there are proven benefits from some treatments, some being absorbed into more modern medicinal approaches. What it is though is a piece highlighting the utter absurdity that endangered animals are being massacred because of the ideological myths creating by a regime looking to maintain it’s grip on power. He is the barefoot doctor, the man of the people, the Chinese hero. People in China are not just eating powdered horn and fin soup because they believe it to do something, this is state sanctioned conditioning. There are no extra erections on show, merely the remains of prostrate butchered animals.

Tag: tigers

Li Shizhen & Political Medicine