我记得二十年前，我校的彭坚教授讲过一句话，他说：“我们湖南中医应该研究熊继柏现象。”确实是学徒出身，我倒不在乎什么研究我的现象，也没有谁研究过我的现象。我一直在考虑的是中医的教育问题。我不讲规律，我就讲讲我是怎么读书的。

苦抄与背诵：打好中医基础

《医学》这本书，虽然有着师傅的指导，但是打好基础主要还是要靠自己的努力。我用的方法是苦抄与背诵。

第一本书——《雷公炮炙四大药性赋》，我四个早上把它背完。一个早晨背一个药性，寒、热、温、平，就四个早上背完了。白天我就玩，没有事干。

背完了接着就是《药性歌括四百味》，当时背了，但现在我不一定还记得。四大药性赋我还能背，要我写我还能写下来。《药性歌括四百味》I just write not down, connect not together. This is the second book.

第三本书——《医学三字经》。要说明的是，我读的书都是抄来的，不是原版的。Firstly, there was no book to buy; secondly, I couldn't afford it. All were copied from my teacher's, copied with mistakes, my teacher corrected them, then taught me again and let me read it myself like this.

The third book is 《脉诀》，including 《王叔和脉诀》and 《濒湖脉 诀》two pulse classics. This is the fourth book.

The fifth book is 《医宗金鉴•四诊心法要诀》，talking about diagnostic methods.

In summary, when I was learning medicine at first, I mainly focused on three aspects: pharmacology (pharmacopeia), basic knowledge of Chinese medicine through memorizing key phrases (Three Characters Classic), and diagnostic techniques.

After laying a solid foundation in these three areas through hard work and memorization (kǔ shāo yǐn bèi chìng), I started studying formulae. The first formulae textbook I studied was 《局方》（Pharmacopeia）. Then came Chen Xiu Yuan's "Time-Factor Songs" which included all sorts of medicinal formulas that could be sung or recited by heart such as "Alismatis Rhizoma Formula". These are both found in “Gold Mirror” as well as “Time-Factor Songs”. Both books' formulae songs can be easily remembered by me.

Having mastered the art of reading medicinal formulas from these two books called for further study into internal medicine textbooks including Chen Xiu Yuan's "Wondrous Use of Time-Formulas". When discussing internal diseases within this text he would say something like:“Middle Wind refers to an inner disease caused by external wind.” Internal diseases require more than just simple memorization; they need understanding too!

My teacher who taught me how to read medical texts fluently would often say that what made his teaching effective was because he had a deep understanding himself and could explain things clearly - even if sometimes his words seemed strange but still made sense after some thought!

So after getting familiar with internal medicines through reading textbooks such as Huangdi Neijing Suwen（Yellow Emperor’s Inner Canon Basic Questions）and Jin Gui Yao Lue（Golden Chamber Essential Formulas），then comes diagnosing patients using their symptoms which requires good listening skills especially when taking histories from patients about their complaints before making any diagnosis based on those observations combined with experience gained over years while practicing traditional Chinese medicine

This process helped establish strong foundations for future studies involving prescription writing known simply as 'prescription-writing'.