ICEAM

Dr. Versluys is one of the very few Western scholars to have received his full medical training in China. He spent more than ten years at the Chinese medical universities of Wuhan, Beijing and Chengdu, where he pursued his Bachelor, Master and Doctorate degrees in Chinese medicine. His passion for Chinese medicine started early in his teenage years. And at the age of eighteen, he enrolled at the Hubei College of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Wuhan, China, to pursue the study of this medicine.

Dr. Versluys first studied Chinese language including medical terminology and classical Chinese. After his language training, he partook in the national HSK Chinese language proficiency exam which he passed royally, allowing him admittance to medical school in China.

His first four years of theoretical education were followed by a full year of rigorous internship in both inpatient and outpatient hospitals. For the first half of this yearlong internship, Arnaud attended the Beijing University of Chinese Medicine and Pharmacology, where he trained at their Huguosi University Hospital in West-Beijing.

After his initial five years of study, in 1999, he passed the China’s national medical licensing exam for foreign Chinese medicine graduates and graduated as a doctor in general Chinese medicine and received his Bachelor degree in Medicine as the first non-Asian graduate of this college to have completed the full training.

But Dr. Versluys decided to pursue specialization and applied at the Master degree program at the Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Chengdu, China, for training under China’s top expert on herbal formulas, Dr. Deng Zhongjia. Arnaud followed Dr. Deng closely and studied the basic principles of Chinese medicine thought in-depth. Dr. Deng’s authoritative courses on herbal formula architecture opened a new world of medicine and lay the foundation for a scientific mindset crucial for research.

During his second year into the training, Dr. Versluys committed to the clinical research of rheumatoid arthritis. After three years, Dr. Versluys graduated with a Master in Medicine and a diploma in Chinese medicine formula studies.

In the winter of 1999, the most important event in Dr. Versluys’ academic life occurred with the encounter of his master, Dr. Zeng Rongxiu . Dr. Zeng Rongxiu is a specialist in classical Chinese medicine of the Treatise on Cold Damage shanghan lun and the Essentials of the Golden Cabinet jingui yaolue. Dr. Zeng is a disciple of late physician Tian Heming, who was the last grandmaster of the Shanghan Lun-tradition outside of the university circuit in West China. Dr. Tian was also known by his studio name ‘Tian Bawei’ or ‘Eight Ingredient Tian’ for he generally never prescribed more than 8 ingredients per herbal formula. Dr. Tian was born in late Qing dynasty and studied medicine with his older brother. He lived and practiced medicine close by the Daoist Qingyang Temple in Chengdu.

At their time of meeting, Dr. Zeng was already in his late seventies, but he still practiced medicine every night in his private clinic. Dr. Versluys started following his teacher every day for four years and studied the clinical application of the Shanghan Lun and the classical formulas through this traditional discipleship.

Through all this, Dr. Versluys’ passion now lies in the Han-dynasty canonical style of Chinese medicine as presented in the Shanghan Lun and Jingui Yaolue. During the past five years, he worked as assistant-professor at the School of Classical Chinese Medicine at the National College of Natural Medicine in Portland, OR, USA, where he taught formulas, Chinese medicine pathology and many other classes, as well as supervised clinical interns.

He owns and manages the clinic of the Acupuncture Associates of Oregon and is the founder and director of the Institute of Classics in East Asian Medicine. He is originally from Belgium but now lives and works in Portland, OR, USA. When not working, Arnaud can be found spending time with his family, practicing aikido or windsurfing. Arnaud can be reached at aversluys@iceam.org.