Qi Men Dun Jia Y Medicina
© Chinese Medicine Times - Volume 1 Issue 2 - April 2006
Medical Divination with Qi Men Dun Jia
(奇门遁甲)
by Jack Sweeney
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Q
i Men Dun Jia is an ancient form of divination
permanently cleave medicine from shamanism, to
that, according to Chinese legend, originated
develop amore “scientific” or government-sanctioned
with the Yellow Emperor, Just as Chinese
body of medicine while at the same time proscribing
Medicine traces its origins to the Yellow Emperor’s
shamanism, or at least banishing shamanic practices to
Internal Classic 皇帝内经, so does Qi Men Dun Jia
the
claim the Yellow Emperor as its founder. In the Zhou
officially-sanctioned medicineand shamanic folk
Kingdom, the royal government separated divination
practices continues today with official medicine largely
from formal medicine, and the two have been divided
in the urban areas and folk medicine thriving in rural
ever since, at least on the official, government level. In
Chinese towns and villages.
countryside.
The
conflict
between
recent yearshowever, steps have been taken to re-unite
the two traditions in China and abroad. In the past year,
In recent years, a trend has appeared to merge these
the spread of Qi Men Dun Jia to Southeast Asia and
two traditions of Chinese medicine. Yang Li, a Beijing
around the world signals the development of this trend.
medical
professor
who
specialises
in
medicaldivination, has published three books on the subject,
From China’s remote antiquity to the Zhou era, Yi over
one of them based on lecture notes for her medical
Wu formed the character for medicine. This reflected
classes in Beijing. Yang describes a number of ancient
the fused traditions of medicine and shamanism with
divination systems, including Wu Yun Liu Qi 五運六氣,
classic works suchas the I Ching 易经 (Zhou Yi 周
Da Liu Ren 大六壬, Tai Yi 太乙 and Qi Men Dun Jia
易). Etymologically, the connection between medicine
奇门遁甲. In “The I Ching and Chinese Medicine,” Li
and shamanism was seen in the joining of the character
advocates the adoption of Qi Men Dun Jia for use in
Yi 医 (doctor or medicine) and Wu 巫, (shaman) to
medical divination:
represent medicine. Duringthe Zhou 周 era, Zhou
royal governments separated Yi from Wu, replacing
“In general, both Qi Men Dun Jia and Wu Yun Liu Qi
Wu with the characters She and You, (see figure 1).
五運六氣 have solidastronomical backgrounds rooted
in ancient mathematics. Both systems take the Zhou Yi,
醫
the theories of Yin and Yang and Five Elements,
Figure 1. Traditional Chinese Character “Yi” forsystems stand as shining pearls among the divinatory
medicine or doctor
treasures of ancient China, and each held important
Heavenly Stems and Earth Branches and the Sixty Jia
Zi as the basis for their methods of prediction. The two
influence in the divinatory milieu of ancient China.
The intention of the Zhou government was to
Each system has its merits and ideally should be used2
© Chinese Medicine Times - Volume 1 Issue 2 - April 2006
to complement each other to enhance the function of
the illness, its severity, whether or not the disease can
these Chinese cultural treasures.”
be cured, whether Chinese or western medicine offers
appropriate treatment, the efficacy of a particular
The introduction of Tibetan medicine into the west has
treatment,as well as the duration of disease. Moreover,
fuelled the trend toward medical divination outside
Qi Men Dun Jia helps determine the quality and
China. Tibetan medicine never experienced a division
suitability of doctors, the physical direction of a
between divination and formal medicine in that way
qualified doctor and in some cases, the actual costs of
that Chinese...
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