艾灸之旅 第22期

In English there is an expression “smoke was coming out of my ears”. It means that I was in a terrible rage, or that someone had made me very angry. However, a month ago there really was smoke coming out of my ears but it was supposed to make me relax and I don't think I have ever been less angry. I was in the fortunate position of being given the famous smoking mugwort treatment associated with Jinan's legendary traditional Chinese medicine specialist, Ma Zhaoqin.

The way I came to be here at all needs a few words of explanation. The editor of this magazine had asked me to come along to Jinan Municipal Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine where they were going to take some photos of Ma Zhaoqin at work. (If you look closely at the photographs in Issue 16 you'll see me wearing the famous walnut shell glasses with what look like two cigarettes stuffed in my ears.) When I accepted the invitation. it was really just for interest, as the only contact I'd had with TCM before were a couple of times when a few acupuncture needles had been stuck into me with little effect as far as I could see.

While we were visiting, Dr Ma asked me about my health and commented on my expanding waistline which is not exactly the finest part of my anatomy. I suggested that there was perhaps little that traditional remedies could do to cope with a “beer belly”, but he insisted that if I were to follow his treatments for two weeks I would definitely see improvement. This was a challenge that both of us were quite happy about, and so for about a fortnight I went along regularly to experience the joys of moxibustion.

The first thing the nursing staff do is to get the patient to relax, and that is where the smoking ears come into the picture. As you sit there with the pungent mugwort smouldering away in the paper tubes inserted in your ears, you begin to wonder if you are really doing the right thing or whether your head will catch fire. It is a relief when the nurse suggests that you have suffered that procedure long enough and that it is time to move on to the next stage. This is very relaxing just lying flat out on your back with the offending belly exposed to the air ― and the admiration of your fellow patients who are fascinated by the foreigner in their midst and eager to know what is wrong with him! However this peace is soon disturbed when a small dish filled with very hot mugwort is placed over your navel and left there. As the smoke fills the air and your nostrils you gradually relax and hope fervently that all this is going to be worthwhile, that somehow the heat on the outside is magically melting the fat inside and making it vanish.

After enjoying this gentle torture for about thirty to forty minutes, the more familiar treatment of 'cupping' takes place. This involves using a set of small heated glass bottles to create a vacuum which makes them cling to your skin and suck it in. It sounds painful and it is certainly not painless but not that bad. When the bottles are removed they leave round marks that look like nasty bruises but are completely harmless.[ Some years ago, there was a movie about the misunderstanding that such treatment caused in the US when applied by a Chinese grandfather to his grandson and the marks were interpreted as signs of abuse.] This treatment was repeated every day, with the additional variation that sometimes I would have some (dead) insects from Africa never did find out any more than that about them left lying on my stomach for a while. That was perhaps the least appealing part of the exercise.

As the days went past I got to recognise many of the regular patients who came there every day. I could see that some of them had serious illnesses. Many were old and needed the assistance of sons or daughters. One or two were very young and came with a parent. Most of them were just ordinary people but they made me feel welcome there and I enjoyed being among them. They had many different ailments but all of them seemed full of hope, and they all loved and trusted Ma Zhaoqin. He has such great confidence in what he is doing, that all those he treats also believe that the treatment will be successful. Gradually even a cynical westerner like myself started to think that just maybe this might do some good, just maybe my belly would get smaller, just maybe there was something to all this traditional medicine after all. I found that I didn't want to let my doctor down, didn't want to make him lose face with all the patients he had told that my waistline would gradually reduce, and so I was starting to do all the right things like taking more exercise and eating better food and as a result could actually see a difference. Perhaps this is the way that TCM works: it makes you want to get better. I can only suggest you give it a try, as it is worth it even for the experience.

英语里有个说法：“耳朵冒烟”，这是形容一个人非常非常生气，或者别人让他很生气。但是一个月前，我的耳朵真的冒烟了，而这烟冒得却是为了让我放轻松，也倒不是说我变得脾气好了。我很幸运地接受了济南市中医的专家马兆勤做的艾灸治疗。

这事说来话长。这本杂志的编辑要去市中医为马兆勤拍几张工作照，邀请我一起去（如果你仔细看看第16期的照片的话，就能发现我戴着著名的隔核桃壳眼镜，连着的两根香烟一样的东西插在耳朵里）。之前我跟中医的唯一亲密接触就是做过几次针灸，针扎在我身上，我却没感觉有什么效果，所以这次去纯粹是为了兴趣。

在那里，马医生询问了我的身体状况，评论了我日渐膨胀的腰围，那可绝不是我身上最好看的地方。我委婉地说，可能中医对付“啤酒肚”收效甚微，他却坚持说，如果我被他治上两个星期，肯定见效。这对我们俩来说都是个愉快的挑战，然后我持续两个星期定期去那里体验艾灸的乐趣。

护士们做的第一件事是让病人放松，我就这样耳朵冒着烟地被拍了照片。你坐在那里，耳朵里插着纸管子，艾草在里面闷烧，发出浓郁的气味，这个时候，你就会开始自问，这件事该不该做，或者你的脑袋是否会着火。当护士说，这个步骤时间差不多了，该接着进行下一步骤了，这时候真是松了一口气。下一步骤还真是放松――就平躺着，露着那惹是生非的肚子，其他做艾熏的人对他们中间这个老外相当感兴趣，非常好奇他到底怎么了！可是这种平静很快被打破了，一个盛着非常烫的艾草的小盘子放在了肚脐上。空气中和鼻孔中都充满了烟味，这时你就逐渐放松下来，同时强烈地希望这一切都是值得的，希望体外的热量会神奇地熔化掉、消灭掉体内的脂肪。

这温柔的折磨持续了三四十分钟后，开始更为熟悉的“拔罐”，就是把一套加了热的小玻璃瓶子通过空气压力作用紧紧吸附在皮肤上。这听起来很痛，事实上也不是不痛，只不过没那么厉害。这些瓶子被拿走的时候，它们留下了看起来挺吓人的淤痕，但真的没事。（几年前有个电影是关于美国人对这种疗法的误解的，讲的是一个爷爷给孙子拔罐留下的淤痕被当成了虐待的印记。）拔罐每天都要做，变着花样地做，有时会在我的肚子留下小虫子（死掉了的），只知道是非洲虫子，其它情况没再多了解。这可能是这个治疗过程中最不愉悦的一件事了吧。

日子长了，我开始认得许多每天都要来的常客了。他们有的病得很重；很多人年龄很大，需要儿子女儿扶助；还有一两个很小，跟父母一起来。他们大多是普通人，但让我觉得自己在那里很受欢迎，而我也喜欢跟他们在一起。他们的疾病各不相同，但所有人都满怀希望，都喜欢且信任马兆勤。他对他所做的是那么的信心十足，他的病人也相信治疗会成功。渐渐地我也开始认为这可能会有效了，可能我的肚子会变小的，也可能所有的中医治疗都会管点用的。我发现我不想让我的医生失望，不想让他在这些病人面前没面子，因为他说过要让我的肚子变小，所以我开始做些该做的事，比如多锻炼、合理饮食等，结果真的起作用了。也许这就是中医的工作原理：让你想变得更好。我只能建议你去试试，它是值得的，哪怕仅仅是为了去体验体验都是值得的。

作者简介：芬德利・尼科尔,1997年来到济南,在山东经济学院教授课程。

Findlay Nicol, arrived in the city to teach English in 1997 in Shandong Economic University.