Be Careful Not to Be Superstitiously Superstitious

Chinese people place great stock in seniority, are inclined to trust their intuition, and love talking about science. They seem to harbor an inexplicable fixation on veteran experts, senior TCM practitioners, and retired military doctors — as if, in their eyes, young doctors are inherently untrustworthy. But have they forgotten that the young will one day grow old too?

Many, many years ago, practicing Chinese medicine was not a lucrative pursuit. Even just a decade ago, Chinese herbal medicine was quite affordable, a senior TCM doctor’s consultation fee didn’t exceed ten yuan, and the average hospital might have no more than ten veteran specialists on staff. But times have changed — the GDP has grown, health problems have multiplied, and the doors of Western medicine hospitals are jammed with patients. With nowhere else to turn, many have flocked to Chinese medicine. Suddenly, senior TCM practitioners earn more than their Western medicine counterparts, herbal medicines have become remarkably expensive, and consultation fees for veteran TCM doctors start at three digits. The average hospital now employs twenty or thirty — sometimes more — senior TCM practitioners. Retired teachers who’ve never treated a patient in their lives simply change their title and, in the blink of an eye, become “distinguished veteran experts with extensive clinical experience.” Patients, none the wiser, find that despite spending a fortune, their illness persists. Yet the grim-faced, earnest veteran expert before them solemnly explains that Chinese medicine simply takes time — another year of treatment should do the trick. The patient, thoroughly convinced, dutifully continues.

Meanwhile, right next door to these veteran experts, there are young doctors — hungry for knowledge, brimming with energy, intellectually curious, diligent in reflection, and skilled at synthesis. They want nothing more than to put what they’ve learned to use, to vanquish disease, and to serve humanity. Yet they are denied the opportunity. Patients don’t trust them — afraid they’ll botch a surgery or prescribe the wrong medicine. All the opportunities have been claimed by the senior experts.

Have you ever considered what happens when young doctors don’t get enough hands-on experience? They too will one day become the senior experts. But their path of growth will have been barren — devoid of genuine practice, reduced to armchair theorizing. They will have been molded into “veterans” under an entirely different methodological framework. And during their first decade as senior experts, they will be fumbling in the dark — a kind of groping that is utterly different from the explorations of youth, because by then, the energy is gone, and the passion has faded.

Ancient times were different from today. There was no medical insurance, no public hospitals, no rigid professional title systems, not even many bureaucratic constraints. A doctor could practice by genuine skill alone, build a reputation in the community, and bring real benefit to the people.

Today, we have the divide between public and private healthcare, the chaos sown by the Putian hospital networks, the hype of unscrupulous businessmen, and the tyranny of packaging and PR firms. Medical ethics seem to have evaporated. Seeing a doctor has become a transaction. What room is left for genuine care?

The road for young doctors grows ever harder. Certain people’s gaze remains fixed on their own small world, smug and self-satisfied, utterly unaware that today’s complacency is tomorrow’s despair.

中国人十分看重资历，愿意相信直觉，喜欢谈论科学，对于老专家、老中医、老军医似乎有一种莫名的偏执，似乎在他们眼里，年轻人是不值得托付的，可是他们是不是忘了，年轻人也会变老？

在许多许多年以前，中医是挣不了多少钱的，也就是十年前吧，中药十分便宜，老中医的挂号费不超过十块，一个医院坐诊的老专家平均不超过十个。但是时代在发展，GDP在增长，健康问题在增多，西医的大门被病人死死堵住，很多人别无生路，只能投奔中医，这时候，老中医比老西医挣得多，中药变得十分贵，老中医的挂号费不会低于三位数，一个医院坐诊的老中医平均二三十个，甚至更多，许多一辈子没看过病的退休教师把名头一换，转眼间都变成了临床经验十分丰富的名老专家，就诊者不明所以，眼见钱都花了，病还没好，可是面前这位面容严肃认真的老专家说中医就是疗效慢，你再吃一年才能好，患者心服口服，继续治病。

然而，就在老专家的隔壁，有许多如饥似渴的青年医生，他们精力旺盛，求知欲强，勤于思考，善于总结，他们希望自己的所学能有所用，他们希望能够祛除病邪，造福人类，然而他们并没有太多的机会，患者不相信他们，怕他们开不好刀，开错了药，机会都被老专家们要走了。

你有没有想过，青年医生如果得不到足够的锻炼，他们在将来也会成为老专家，然而他们的成长之路是荒凉的，是不能真正动手的，是纸上谈兵，是在完全不同的方法论体系下被培养成老专家的，在他们成为老专家后的前十年，都是在摸索，然而这个时期的摸索与青年时期截然不同，这个时候，精力不再，热情不再。

古代与今天不同，古代没有医疗保险，没有公立医院，没有职称限制，甚至没有太多的条条框框，医生可以凭本事看病，闻名乡里，造福百姓。

今天，我们有公立和民营之分，有莆田系捣乱，有无良商人炒作，有包装公司横行霸道，医德似乎是不存在的，看病变成了交易，何谈幸福？

青年医生的路越来越难走，某些人的目光停留在自己的世界里，洋洋得意，殊不知，现在的苟且是日后的绝望。