According to the chapter

Shichuan

(Instructions of the Teacher) in

Lingshu

(

Spiritual Pivot

)

"The doctor should tell the patients what are harmful to their health

let them know what are good for their health

guide them to do what they like for restoring their health and try to straighten them out of their anxiety. If the doctor has done all that is required

even the most unreasonable person will follow his advice" . Similarly

the teaching and learning of clinical courses of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) should cater to the characteristics of students and comply with the laws of TCM development. At present

the teaching suffers from the westernization of TCM education and lack of holistic view of TCM. Also

students who do not have thorough understanding of "pattern differentiation and treatment" find it difficult to establish their clinical ways of thinking in TCM. Targeted at the existing problems in both teaching and learning

this paper proposes such solutions as stratified teaching

socratic teaching

physical and mental training

and clinical training

etc

in view of the differences in students′ abilities. In this way

we could think holistically throughout teaching and learning for better consistence between the two

so that the students could develop TCM according to its own rules and innovate on the basis of inheriting the experience passed down by TCM masters.