The Primacy of Relations over Entities: The First Principle of Heaven-Human System Medicine——On the Xing-Qi Synthesis of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Systems Medicine

DOI: 10.12201/bmr.202604.00102

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  Abstract: The relationship between traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and systems medicine constitutes a central issue in contemporary medical theory construction. Existing scholarship predominantly approaches this topic from the perspective of methodological complementarity, yet fails to uncover the shared ontological foundation of the two systems. This paper proposes a first-principle proposition: relations are prior to entities. Under this proposition, TCM represents the ancient, rudimentary form of relational medicine—grasping the dynamic equilibrium of the human body's relational network through the intuition of "Qi"; systems medicine represents the modern scientific form of relational medicine—reconstructing an operable model of the relational network through the precision of "Xing" (form). The two share a common origin yet differ in structure: they converge in the ontology of relational primacy, but diverge in the level of formal construction. Heaven-Human System Medicine is the synthesis of Xing and Qi—enabling the "Qi" of TCM to provide direction for systems medicine, and enabling the "Xing" of systems medicine to provide precision for TCM. This paper systematically expounds the logical necessity, feasibility, and profound implications of this synthesis for the transformation of medical theory.

  Key words: relational ontology; Heaven-Human System Medicine; Qi theory; systems medicine; Xing-Qi synthesis; first principle

  Submit time: 8 May 2026

  Copyright: The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted biomedRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity.
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  1	2026-04-12	10.12201/bmr.202604.00102V1	Download

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