Analysis of Bian Que’s Story

Tatit Kurniasih

20125216013

Assigment :

OBSERVATION

Sima Qian, who lived during the West Han dynasty (about

145-96 BCE), was a well-known historian. He wrote a biography of

Bian Que in his work Shi Ji (Historical Record). In it, he discussed

Bian Que's practicing medicine, wandering from town to town and

effecting miraculous cures, even bringing the dying back to life. 1

Sima Qian says: "Bian Que expounded medicine as the

guiding principle of (medical) technique; the later generations

followed it and could not change any more." He was regarded as the

founder of traditional Chinese medicine, but according to the

historical materials in the biography, Bian Que lived and flourished

for hundreds of years.

Biography of Bian Que :

“Pien Ch'iao/Bian Que, one of the most

famous medical men in ancient China, Bian

Que means ‘Wayfaring Magpie Bird’ – a bird

that flies here and there dispensing good

fortune in Chinese, it means he flew

everywhere to give health, happy and good

luck to all of his patients. His name also

means : several carved stones, unearthed

from a tomb dating back to the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220 AD),

1 http://www.springerreference.com/docs/html/chapterdbid/77860.html

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The means of communication is as important as the content of communication. The content of Doctor Bian Que’s information was very useful, but his means of communication was poor. Please say something about this story according to your understanding.

portray him with a human head and a bird’s body.2 His real Chinese

name was Qin Yueren. Bian lived during the time of the Zhou

dynasty, between 500 and 600 BC.

Most Bian Que’s patients are normal

people, and most of them gave love

and respect to him. Kings in China

invited Bian Que for health as well. He

was a welcome and very successful

doctor. He never done something

wrong. He cured all his patients just by looking and touching them.

He was good at various subjects in medicine and highly skilled in

diagnosis and treatment, especially in pulse‐taking and

acupuncture. He was reputed to be an excellent diagnostician,

excelling in pulse taking and acupuncture therapy.”

In Sima Qian's book Shi Ji, in ‘Bian Que Chronicles, An Ancient

Miracle Doctor: Bian Que (I)’, Sima Qian described that Bian Que

obtained his medical skills from personal teachings by Chang

Sangjun. After consuming a certain herb, Bian Que had the

supernormal capability to see through walls and the human body.

By searching in the internet, I found several kinds of

supernormal capability that usually describes as a sixth sense. A

capability that enables someone do more than normal people3 :

a. Clairvoyance

Clairvoyance is like a second level of thought, one step higher

than the normal level of thinking that we all do, Clairvoyants

can work at that level to *see* beyond what people normally

*see*.

b. Clairaudience

It's the ability to *hear* beyond the normal range of hearing

2 http://chinese-medicine.fozoe.com/?tag=chinese-medicine-physician3 http://www.pharrah13.com/psychic_abilities

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like messages in thought forms from an spirit who exists in

another realm.

c. Clairsentience

Clairsentience is the ability to *feel* things that *something's

there but other people can't see it*.

d. Clairgustance

Awareness of an spirit on the other side by the sense of taste.

A sense experienced in the mouth.

Based on these information, I considered that (maybe) Bian Que has

a capability of Clairvoyance and Clairsentience. This tought has

been concluded from Sima Qian’s recording about three specific

medical cases that Bian Que handled.

1. In the first case, he diagnosed Zhao Jianzi's illness by feeling

his pulses.

2. In the second case, he kept track of the state of the illness of

the Crown Prince Guo through consulting, examining and

feeling the pulse and finally brought Crown Prince Guo back

from death.

3. In the third case, Bian was able to describe the developing

illness of Marquis Qi Huan by simply looking at him.

From all stories above, Bian Que seemed to have an unusual power

that enables him to make a miracles. In accordance to Prof. Tang’s

instruction, I will analyze the third case of Bian Que story about

describing illness of Marquis Qi King by simply looking at him.

ANALYSIS

I found 2 different versions of this story, so I decided to use these

stories to analyze this case.

First story is taken from http://english.cri.cn4 :

4 http://english.cri.cn/1702/2005-4-14/121@227694.htm

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Bian Que: A Legendary Doctor

“Bian Que was one of China's most famous

ancient physicians. He once went to The

Kingdom of Qi in today's eastern China as a

traveling physician. One day he visited the

King and saw the king' facial color and

energy and warned, "Your Majesty has an

illness of the skin. If not treated, it may

become serious." The king said, "I'm not sick. All doctors love

to pretend that a healthy person is ill and then boast of their

healing skills," he added. Ten days later, Bian Que again saw

the king. He said, "Your illness has already entered your

blood. If not treated, it will become more serious." The King

dismissed him with displeasure. Another ten days passed, he

met the King once again. "The illness has invaded your

stomach and intestines. If not treated, it will become deeper

and more severe." The king still said that he wasn't sick. A few

more days passed, and he met the King again. This time the

doctor didn't speak a single word. He simply walked away. The

king felt this a bit strange and sent someone to ask why. Bian

Que said, "When an illness is at the level of the skin, it can be

cured with medicinal hot compresses; when an illness has

entered the blood, it can be cured with acupuncture; when an

illness has entered the stomach and intestines, it can be cured

with boiled medicinal compounds, but the king's illness has

already entered his bone marrow, there is no way to treat it."

A few days later, as Bian Que expected, the king fell ill. He

sent someone to look for Bian Que, but Bian Que had already

left the kingdom. The king died shortly thereafter."

The second story is taken from : www.chinesestoryonline.com5

5 chinesestoryonline.com/idiom-story/557-hui-ji-ji-yi.html

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“Hide Sickness For Fear Of Treatment”

讳疾忌医 (中文故事)

During the Spring and Autumn period, there was a famous

doctor named Bian Que who often traveled everywhere to

collect medicine to cure patients. One year, Bian Que was in

The State of Cai, where he visited Marquis Huan, the ruler of

Cai. Looking at the ruler for a while, Bian Que said, "Your

Highness, please excuse me for talking up, you are suffering

from an illness, which now is in the skin. But it may get worse

without treatment." The Marquis did not believe at all, as at

that time he felt no symptoms. "Thank you, doctor, but I'm fine"

he said. After Bian Que left, he told his attendants

complacently: ”See, even a doctor like Bian Que is trying to

profit from other’s fears”. Ten days later, Bian Que saw the

Marquis again. This time he directly warned him: "Your

highness, the illness has developed into the muscles. Without

immediate treatment, it will go from bad to worse." At this, the

Marquis was very unhappy, repulsing coldly Bian Que’s

kindness. After another ten days, Bian Que came to the

Marquis, anxiously saying: ”Your Highness, your illness had

gone into the stomach and the intestines, without treatment,

something terrible will happen for sure.” Again, the Marquis

brushed aside his advice.

After the third ten days, Bian Que happened to see the Marquis

in the street. Looking at him from afar, he simply turned round

and went away. Surprised by this, the Marquis sent an

attendant to ask him for the reason.

“Well, Sir,” Bian Que said helplessly, “I run because I cannot

cure your master’s illness; I run because I cannot bear to watch

your master die.”

“How does it get into such a mess?” said the attendant,

astonished.

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“The first time I saw your master, his illness was only in the

skin. Warm water and some plasters could cure it; when it got

into the muscle, acupuncture could cure it; even if it developed

into the stomach, I could still save your master’s life with

medicine. But now the illness has invaded into the marrow,

there is nothing I can do about it”. After that, Bian Que rushed

away. Just as he had predicted, the Marquis died soon after.”

From these story I started my own analysis by evaluating :

1) Who is the speaker and the audience?

Answer : The speaker is Bian Que (a famous doctor)

The audience is Marquis Huan (a ruler of Cai/King)

2) What is the message?

Answer : The message is about Marquis Huan’s illness that

can be seen by Bian Que.

3) Where did it take place?

Answer : Cai Kingdom/The State of Cai

4) When did it happen?

Answer : During the spring and autumn period (No information

about a specific year)

5) Why did it happen?

Answer : Because of Marquis didn’t feel any symptoms and he

didn’t believe to Bian Que, so he had no opportunity to be

cured and die several days after Bian Que attendance.

Bian Que gave 3 advices to King Marquis about his illness. I

put a green-coloured font to mark the first advise, orange-coloured

font to mark the second advice and red-coloured font to mark the

third advice. I also blue-coloured font to mark the explanation about

the treatment.

First Story Second Story Picture"Your Majesty has an illness of the skin. If

"Your Highness, please excuse me for talking up,

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not treated, it may become serious."

you are suffering from an illness, which now is in the skin. But it may get worse without treatment."

"Your illness has already entered your blood. If not treated, it will become more serious."

"Your highness, the illness has developed into the muscles. Without immediate treatment, it will go from bad to worse."

"The illness has invaded your stomach and intestines. If not treated, it will become deeper and more severe."

”Your Highness, your illness had gone into the stomach and the intestines, without treatment, something terrible will happen for sure.”

"When an illness is at the level of the skin, it can be cured with medicinal hot compresses; when an illness has entered the blood, it can be cured with acupuncture; when an illness has entered the stomach and intestines, it can be cured with boiled medicinal compounds, but the king's illness has already entered his bone marrow, there is no way to treat it."

“The first time I saw your master, his illness was only in the skin. Warm water and some plasters could cure it; when it got into the muscle, acupuncture could cure it; even if it developed into the stomach, I could still save your master’s life with medicine. But now the illness has invaded into the marrow, there is nothing I can do about it”.

The first story looks simpler and shorter and the second story

is more clear and have a good sequences, beside that, Bian Que’s

words were more polite. These two story describe relatively the

same things. The difference is located at the conversation between

Bian Que, Marquis Huan and the attendant.

In these story, Bian Que had approached Marquis as his

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potential clients and offered his services. He didn’t want to treat the

king for his own advantages but he was hoping that Marquis will

agree to be treated. Bian Que had approach Marquis for 3 times to

tell the truth but why Marquis King didn’t want to believe him? This

can be happen because of a communication failure.

Let’s analyze this case with some theory.

As we all know that : Communication is the activity of conveying

information through the exchange of thoughts, messages, or

information, as by speech, visuals, signals, writing, or behavior.

Communication requires a sender, a message, and a recipient.

The communication process is complete once the receiver has

understood the message of the sender.6

Figure 1. Flow of Communication

Based on this figure, the sender is Bian Que and the recipients

is Marquis Huan. These people maybe have different opinions,

values, beliefs, and needs. They didn’t have an ability to exchange

ideas with others, understand other’s perspectives and solve

problems. Communication is occur when there is someone who send

the message and someone who receive the message. So, I divide

this flow into 2 parts, sending message and receive a message.

A. SENDING MESSAGES

The first flow of sending messages is consist of three elements such

as :

1. Verbal Messages (the words choosen)

6 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communication

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Sending effective messages requires the sender to state his point of

view as briefly and succinctly as possible. Bian Que’s language has

tremendous power to create a good relationship between him and

the king. Bian Que has choose a good words to tell his advice and

he also avoid critical/blaming/judgmental words that tend to create

a resistant and defensive mindset that is not conducive to

productive problem solving.

2. Paraverbal Messages (the words tone, pacing and volumes)

Paraverbal communication refers to the messages that the sender

transmit through the tone, pitch, and pacing of our voices. A

sentence can convey entirely different meanings depending on the

emphasis on words and the tone of voice. It is how Bian Que say

something, not what he say.

I can not find how was the tone and pacing of Bian Que in the story,

hence, I can’t determined the paraverbal message of Bian Que.

3. Nonverbal Messages (body language)

Nonverbal messages are emotions, facial expression, postures and

gestures. It is the primary way that to communicate with someone

who have a higher position from the sender. This story also doesn’t

tell about Bian Que’s gestures, facial expression and emotions, so I

can’t evaluate this nonverbal message.

Beside the process of sending messages, communication failure can

be detected by evaluating the process of receiving message.

B. RECEIVING MESSAGES

1. Listening

The key to receiving messages effectively is listening. Listening is a

combination of hearing what another person says and psychological

involvement with the person who is talking. Listening requires more

than hearing words. It requires a desire to understand another

human being, an attitude of respect and acceptance, and a

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willingness to open one's mind to try and see things from another's

point of view.

True listening requires Marquis to suspend judgement, evaluation,

and approval in an attempt to understand Bian Que’s frame of

reference, emotions, and attitudes. In this case, Marquis Huan didn’t

want to hear, understand and respect to Bian Que as the speaker.

He also didn’t want to open his mind and try to see or think from

Bian Que’s side. He had a negative judgement to Bian Que, maybe

due to his fearness of being cheated.

By using the same elements of sending, receiving/listening skills can

be analyzed to find the reason of communication failure:

Verbal:

Marquis didn’t paying attention to the words and feelings that

are being expressed.

Marquis didn’t use a reflective listening tools such as

paraphrasing, reflecting, summarizing, and questioning to

increase understanding of the message and help Bian Que to

tell his story.

Paraverbal :

Marquis (maybe) didn’t give full physical attention to the

speaker.

Marquis (maybe) didn’t lean gently towards the speaker.

Marquis (maybe) didn’t facing the other person squarely.

Marquis (maybe) didn’t maintaining an appropriate distance

between him and Bian Que.

Marquis (maybe) didn’t moving his bodies in response to the

Bian Que.

Nonverbal:

Marquis didn’t give a full physical attention to the speaker

Marquis didn’t aware to the speaker's nonverbal messages;

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Based on these result, I realized something that may become

another reason of this communication failure. In the book of

Management Communication : Principles and practice (3rd Edition)

written by Michael E. Hattersley and Linda McJannet, I found some

important question to investigate whether the communication is

effective or not is :

Have you mastered and organized all the relevant information?

Have you defined a clear, achieveable goal?

Have you taken account the personal and organizational context?

Have you considered the needs of your audiences?

Have you expressed yourself as clearly, vividly and forcefully as

possible?

Have you chosen the right communication channel?

These questions are asking about the elements of communication.

So, I try to answer this question and examining every elements of

communication :

a) Sources (the subject that initiating action and his/her

credibility) :

Bian Que is a famous doctor that had already cured many

patients and most of them gave love & respect to him. Kings

in China invited Bian Que for health as well. He was a

welcome and very successful doctor. He never done

something wrong. He cured all his patients just by looking and

touching them. He was good at various subjects in medicine

and highly skilled in diagnosis and treatment, especially in

pulse‐taking and acupuncture. He was reputed to be an

excellent diagnostician, excelling in pulse taking and

acupuncture therapy.

b) Goal (Setting goals)

Bian Que’s goal : To tell Marquis’s illness and treat/cure him.

Bian Que’s Purpose : To do his job, as a doctor, to cure his

patient (do his best to save someone’s life) especially his king.

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Bian Que’s Strategy : He told the king that he is ill, but he

didn’t do any investigation, examination and give some detail

explanation why he should let Bian Que to examine and cure

him.

c) Audience : Marquis is a ruler of cai (king). He has big authority

to make a decision.

d) Context (environment, culture, history, competitive situation

or challenging norms) : Bian Que was living in Marquis

territory, so he had to be aware of the opportunities to design

his communication strategy. He had to involve in a big effort

to reach his communication goals to The King (his clients).

e) Message (organized all the relevant information in clearly,

vividly and forcefully way) : Bian Que did not organized all of

the important and relevant information in clearly, vividly and

forcefully way. He didn’t explain the most important

information in the detail.

f) Media (the right communication channel) : Bian Que chose the

simplest communication channel, speak the words,

straightaway. This channel requires a willingness to talk face

to face and a trust. Marquis didn’t trust Bian Que as a good

doctor. He thought Bian Que would tell lie and cheat him for

money.

g) Feedback (receiver’s response) : since communication is not

an act, but a process, the receiver should feel involved in the

process and give a response to the sender, either he/she

understand or not. Marquis didn’t give any response, he only

said that he was not sick. He didn’t ask Bian Que the reason

and the details of his sickness.

Bian Que was a kind doctor, but his good intention about Marquis

was not able to deliver and he was not able to do his job (cure

people). To become a great and well-infomed doctors, he should

have a good capabilities to make a connection and relationship with

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his patient as his customer. He should do audience analysis first

before he make any communication. In this case, He should use a

sell approach strategy because he was in command of the

information but Marquis retains the ultimate decision-making power.

"We all use language to communicate, to express ourselves, to get

our ideas across, and to connect with the person to whom we are

speaking. When a relationship is working, the act of communicating

seems to flow relatively effortlessly. When a relationship is

deteriorating, the act of communicating can be as frustrating as

climbing a hill of sand."

- Chip Rose, attorney and mediator -

Based on this quotes, relationship between the sender and receiver

is very important to build a good communication. On the other

hand, I found some journal that stated : Good doctors should

communicate effectively and accurately with patients to make them

more satisfied with the service. 7

But what are the necessary communication skills and how can

doctors acquire them?

Good doctor should have 3 components of interpersonal skills like :

communication skills, consultation skills, and interviewing skills.

When doctors use communication skills effectively, both they and

their patients would get the benefit, such as:

1. Doctor could identify their patient’s problems more

accurately.

2. Patients become more satisfied with their care and they are

able to understand their symptoms, problems, investigations,

7 http://www.bmj.com/content/325/7366/697

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and treatment options.

3. Patients are more likely to adhere to treatment and to follow

advice on behaviour change.

4. Patient’s distress and their vulnerability to anxiety and

depression are lessened.

5. Doctors with good communication skills have greater job

satisfaction and less work stress

6. Doctor’s own wellbeing is improved.

7. Effective methods of communication skills training are

available, the opportunity to practice key skills and receive

constructive feedback of performance is essential

According to this explanation, Bian Que as a doctors did not

communicate with his patients as well as he should and we can not

consider possible reasons for this.

CONCLUSION

In most areas of life, the best idea in the world can fail if its

not communicated effectively. How clearly and persuasively the

sender present their information and recommendation matters as

much as how well they’ve analyzed their data or how sensibly

they’ve outlined a course of action.

Bian Que was a great and famous doctor at that time.

Although Bian Que has an unusual power like clairvoyage and

clairsentience, he had fail to explain the real condition to his patient.

It was because of his limitation of communication skill that a doctor

should have it. Bian Que didn’t present his information clearly,

persuasively, and completely to his receiver, Marquis Huan.

In spite of establishing a good communication, we have to

examine his message by 7 C's (clear, concise, concrete, correct,

coherent, complete, courteous) method to create efficient

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communication and to make better interactions between sender and

receiver. He should focus on Marquis and try to show Marquis’s

benefit and interest. He should try to visualize Marquis desires,

problems, emotions circumstances and possible reaction to his

request. He maybe didn’t know how to explain it based on the

communication principles. Peter Drucker has identified four

fundamental communication principles :

Communication is perception

Communication is expectation

Communication makes demands

Communication and information are different and indeed

largely opposite yet interdependent

This analysis conclude that Bian Que didn’t do a right

communication which should have make demands of the receiver.

He didn’t analyze the behavioral science, situation of his audience,

the importance of message. He also didn’t emphasizes the

connection between clear thinking and clear communication that

connected to logic, evidence, persuasion and imaginary in our

language.

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Sources :

http://english.eastday.com/e/zx/userobject1ai4059567.html

http://english.cri.cn/1702/2005-4-14/121@227694.htm

http://www.bmj.com/content/325/7366/697

http://library.thinkquest.org/05aug/00996/English/index10.htm

chinesestoryonline.com/idiom-story/557-hui-ji-ji-yi.html

http://www.bmj.com/content/325/7366/697

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