Middle Medicine

The Mandarine Chinese characters for "Chinese Medicine" look like this: 中医.

The second character, 医 (yi ), means "medicine". The first character, 中 (zhong), tells us that it is Chinese. For instance, when 中 is placed in front of the character for "language" like this: 中文, we get "Chinese language". When it is placed in front of the character for country: 中国, we get the word "China".

But the character 中 doesn't mean "China" or "Chinese." 中 means "middle." The literal translation of 中医 is not Chinese Medicine. It's "Middle Medicine."

Middle is the sweet spot between extremes. A place of moderation.

It's also the location of the fulcrum of an old scale, the place where the beam is balanced when the opposite ends are equal in weight.

Sketch by Hillary

Chinese Medicine is fundamentally about walking the path of moderation and balancing opposites (activity - rest, work - play, alone time - togetherness, action - contemplation).

A lot of life's problems can be solved and hardships averted with this simple idea.