In the chapter entitled, “Maifa” Model of the Vessels”, of Donald Harper’s Early Chinese Medical Literature, the author discusses certain elements of the traditional Chinese medicine practice of reading one’s pulse to determine one’s ailments and, ultimately, cure one’s illness. As translated in this chapter, the term “vessel” seems to be used interchangeably to mean both blood flow and blood vein (Harper, 2009). According to the text, “mafia” refers to the methods that ancient Chinese sages or doctors used to “elucidate the structure of the body and classify the ailments that affect it” (Harper, 2009).
Apparently, the ancient sages were able to learn much by reading or examining the condition of the vessel. One element that reading the vessel revealed was whether or not there was too much or too little “vapor” in the body. Vapor seems to have a negative effect on one’s body if there is too much of it at the lower extremities. If a vessel suggests that there is too much vapor in the lower body, mafia suggests relieving the situation by apply pressure or “cauterizing” the vessel at a higher location. This apparently will block the stoppage and allow one’s vapor to move freely through the body.
Similarly, the chapter examines how mafia allowed the ancient sages to determine the on an injury to a body part from a reading of the vessel and observation of whether or not there is puss present at the sight of the injury. Moreover, if there is pus, mafia allows the ancient sage to determine the extent of the injury and the best ways at which to treat the injury or relieved the pus surrounding the injury.
A reading of the chapter makes it clear that mafia seemed to be standard practice for medical practitioners in ancient China, and that it was also standard study for those wanting to become medical practitioners. While the description of the methods seems quite simplistic, it is nevertheless quite shocking at how advances the method seems. To be sure, most of the description of the ailments are common known today thanks to advancement in medical science, technology and practices, but to consider that they were also commonly known to ancient Chinese medication practitioners is shocking. Accordingly, when they techniques worked, at that time, they must have seemed, to the public, to be magic or the working of God through the hands of the sage.
Indeed, it seems as if the ancient sages, themselves, thought that the procedures that they used and taught had somewhat “otherworldly” aspects. This was illustrated, for example, in the reliance on quasi-religious terms for indications rather than using more biological or physiological terms. For instance, blood is describe as bonding to one’s “yin” or the female element of existence; while vapor is described as bonding with one’s “yang” or male element. The imbalance of “yin” and “yang” cause a range of ailments such as “panicky wildness”, and “violent eruptions” causing “internal harm” (Harper, 2009). Accordingly, the remedy for the ancient sage was to bring balance to the flow of blood, such as allowing the “vapor” to escape, possible through the use of acupuncture needles; there by returning the body to equilibrium and balance.
Interestingly, based on the seeming connection between mafia and religion, as least on certain levels, one wonders how connected the ancient sages were to religion, or in the alternative, whether the perception of the public was that the ancient sages were part medicine men, part religious official. In any event, from both a medical and religious study perspective mafia is a worth subject for consideration.
References
Harper, D. (2009). Early Chinese Medical Literature. New York, NY: Routledge.
