艾灸之旅

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.

英語里有個(gè)說法：“耳朵冒煙”，這是形容一個(gè)人非常非常生氣，或者別人讓他很生氣。但是一個(gè)月前，我的耳朵真的冒煙了，而這煙冒得卻是為了讓我放輕松，也倒不是說我變得脾氣好了。我很幸運(yùn)地接受了濟(jì)南市中醫(yī)的專家馬兆勤做的艾灸治療。

這事說來話長(zhǎng)。這本雜志的編輯要去市中醫(yī)為馬兆勤拍幾張工作照，邀請(qǐng)我一起去（如果你仔細(xì)看看第16期的照片的話，就能發(fā)現(xiàn)我戴著著名的隔核桃殼眼鏡，連著的兩根香煙一樣的東西插在耳朵里）。之前我跟中醫(yī)的唯一親密接觸就是做過幾次針灸，針扎在我身上，我卻沒感覺有什么效果，所以這次去純粹是為了興趣。

在那里，馬醫(yī)生詢問了我的身體狀況，評(píng)論了我日漸膨脹的腰圍，那可絕不是我身上最好看的地方。我委婉地說，可能中醫(yī)對(duì)付“啤酒肚”收效甚微，他卻堅(jiān)持說，如果我被他治上兩個(gè)星期，肯定見效。這對(duì)我們倆來說都是個(gè)愉快的挑戰(zhàn)，然后我持續(xù)兩個(gè)星期定期去那里體驗(yàn)艾灸的樂趣。

護(hù)士們做的第一件事是讓病人放松，我就這樣耳朵冒著煙地被拍了照片。你坐在那里，耳朵里插著紙管子，艾草在里面悶燒，發(fā)出濃郁的氣味，這個(gè)時(shí)候，你就會(huì)開始自問，這件事該不該做，或者你的腦袋是否會(huì)著火。當(dāng)護(hù)士說，這個(gè)步驟時(shí)間差不多了，該接著進(jìn)行下一步驟了，這時(shí)候真是松了一口氣。下一步驟還真是放松——就平躺著，露著那惹是生非的肚子，其他做艾熏的人對(duì)他們中間這個(gè)老外相當(dāng)感興趣，非常好奇他到底怎么了！……