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I don't know about their lack of medicinal knowledge. If you take into account hundreds of thousands of years of the development of TCM. Just because they don't have well developed medicine as we see it in western terms doesn't mean its not well developed.
What I mean is true knowledge of the way the body is structured anatomically and functions physiologically. We now understand (through repeated experimentation and study) how internal organs really work, how the body functions through various cellular reactions, etc... TCM was based on a theoretical paradigm that lacked the tools to study and understand the body on this level. Therefore, they lacked the tools to treat (or even understand) many types of internal injuries. Thus, injuries that might require surgery today would have been fatal at that time and been a slow and painful death.
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Anywho,supposedly the practitioner of "Red Sand Palm" doesn't even strike the person. He can make a movement of "rubbing" with the palm at a distance and it effects the enemy. Supposedly it not only internally effects organs but also the flow of qi and the damage is irreparable.
This is absurd. It's just a shaolin equivalent to antiquated western beliefs in witchcraft. Superstitious nonsense.
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I guess my question is: if these monks are all about pacifism and they learn kung fu as more than just a martial art but a spiritual one, what purpose would this technique serve? I guess they could possibly better manipulate qi?
The myth of the technique and other deadly ones like it would give bandits cause to question whether it is worth the trouble of robbing a monk, I suppose.