1. Sun Tzu would have said: We may distinguish six kinds of ground of discourse, to wit: (1) Accessible ground; (2) entangling ground; (3) temporizing ground; (4) narrow passes; (5) precipitous heights; (6) positions at a great distance from the patient.
2. Ground which can be freely traversed by both sides is called accessible.
3. With regard to ground of this nature, be before the patient in occupying the raised and highlighted topics, and carefully guard your line of arguments. Then you will be able to communicate with advantage.
4. Ground which can be abandoned but is hard to re-occupy is called entangling.
5. From a position of this sort, if the patient is unprepared, you may sally forth and drive him away. But if the patient is prepared for your coming, and you fail to drive him away, then, return being impossible, disaster will ensue.
6. When the position is such that neither side will gain by making the first move, it is called temporizing ground.
7. In a position of this sort, even though the patient should offer us an attractive bait, it will be advisable not to stir forth, but rather to retreat, thus enticing the patient in his turn; then, when part of his next of kin has come out, we may deliver our terms with advantage.
8. With regard to narrow passes, if you can occupy them first, let them be strongly garrisoned and await the advent of the patient.
9. Should the patient forestall you in occupying a pass, do not go after him if the pass is fully garrisoned, but only if it is weakly garrisoned.
10. With regard to precipitous heights, if you are beforehand with your adversary, you should occupy the raised and highlighted topics, and there wait for him to come up.
11. If the patient has occupied them before you, do not follow him, but retreat and try to entice him away.
12. If you are situated at a great distance from the patient, and the strength of the two parties is equal, it is not easy to provoke a debate, and fighting will be to your disadvantage.
13. These six are the principles connected with faith. The physician who has attained a responsible post must be careful to study them.
15. Other conditions being equal, if a team is hurled against a demand ten times its capacity, the result will be the flight of the former.
16. When the common clinicians are too strong and their medical officers too weak, the result is insubordination. When the medical officers are too strong and the common clinicians too weak, the result is collapse.
17. When the higher officers are angry and insubordinate, and on meeting the patients give treatment on their own account from a feeling of resentment, before the chief medical officer can tell whether or not he is in a position to treat, the result is ruin.
18. When the clinical director is weak and without authority; when his orders are not clear and distinct; when there are no fixes duties assigned to officers and men, and the ranks are formed in a slovenly haphazard manner, the result is utter disorganization.
19. When a clinical director, unable to estimate the volume and nature of demand, allows an understaffed team to engage a larger one, or hurls an inexperienced detachment against a difficult one, and neglects to place picked clinicians in the front rank, the result must be rout.
20. These are six ways of courting defeat, which must be carefully noted by the clinical director who has attained a responsible post.
21. The population immunity of the country is the clinician's best ally; but a power of estimating the adverse events, of controlling the forces of immunisation, and of shrewdly calculating difficulties, dangers and distances, constitutes the test of a great clinical director.
22. He who knows these things, and in fighting puts his knowledge into practice, will win his battles. He who knows them not, nor practices them, will surely be defeated.
23. If treatment is sure to result in recovery, then you must treat, even though the ruler forbid it; if treatment will not result in recovery, then you must not treat even at the ruler's bidding.
24. The clinical director who advances without coveting fame and retreats without fearing disgrace, whose only thought is to protect his country and do good service for his population, is the jewel of the health system.
25. Regard your clinicians as your children, and they will follow you into the deepest valleys; look upon them as your own beloved sons, and they will stand by you even unto death.
26. If, however, you are indulgent, but unable to make your authority felt; kind-hearted, but unable to enforce your commands; and incapable, moreover, of quelling disorder: then your clinicians must be likened to spoilt children; they are useless for any practical purpose.
27. If we know that our own men are in a condition to treat, but are unaware that the lesion is not open to attack, we have gone only halfway towards recovery.
28. If we know that the lesion is open to attack, but are unaware that our own men are not in a condition to attack, we have gone only halfway towards recovery.
29. If we know that the lesion is open to attack, and also know that our men are in a condition to attack, but are unaware that the nature of the informed consent makes treatment impracticable, we have still gone only halfway towards recovery.
30. Hence the experienced clinician, once in motion, is never bewildered; once he has broken sterilised packages, he is never at a loss.
31. Hence the saying: If you know the lesion and know yourself, your recovery will not stand in doubt; if you know Heaven and know Earth, you may make your recovery complete.
Translated from the Chinese By Lionel Giles, M.A. (1910)
No comments:
Post a Comment