Shaping of Chinese Traditional Medicine

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Chinese traditional medicine is a discipline with a distinctive theoretical system. Disease records can be readfrom the inscriptions on bones or tortoise shells of Shang dynasty, such as the records of the diseases in the feet, mouth and urinary systems among many others. From Classic of Poetry of Zhou dynasty, some scholars identified dozens of disease descriptions falling into five major categories: distress (e.g. fear, tiredness and hard work), melancholia (worry, regret, choke, indifference), injury (bruise, cut and decay), pestilence (boil and epidemic), and other diseases(mania, sleep disorder and blindness). Theseindicate considerable development of Chinese traditionalmedicine. Some ancient inscriptions on bronze and Classic of Poetry already contain the Chinese character meaning “medicine”. Offices of Heaven in Rites of Zhou Dynasty classified doctors for diseases, food therapists, surgeons, and veterinarians and already established systems of medical management, evaluation, and reward and penalty.

For the latest estimation, the profession of doctor started to appear in the Spring and Autumn period. Beginning with Western Han dynasty, numerous well-known doctors came to the fore, including Yihuan, Yihe, Bian Que, and Chunyu Yi. From the Warring States period to Western Han dynasty, many great works on traditional medicine were written, such as Medical Literature Unearthed from Mawangdui, Medical Literature Unearthed from Zhangjiashan, and Yellow Emperor’s Inner Canon, shaping the discipline of Chinese traditional medicine. Among these works, Yellow Emperor’s Inner Canon gives physiological and pathological explanations for the human body with the Yin-Yang and Five Elements theories and started to shape the study of channels and points through all the parts and systems of the body as well as unique theoretical systems similar to those of circulative physiology in modern medicine with high scientific values. Unlike the blood circulatory system of the Western medicine which starts from the heart, the air and blood circulatory systems begin from the gastrointestinal tract connecting from start to endwhile the sequence of channels and points starts from lungs.

It is indicated that the Chinese forebears,2,000 years ago, already took the substance and energy produced from digested and absorbed food and drink and respiratory air as the impetus and material basis for the entire air-blood circulatory systems，with a philosophical conception of the theory.Based on the principles of the channels and points and the internal organs，the theoretical basis of Chinesetraditional medicine formed a foundation for acupuncture and medical treatment with folk prescriptions.

There were several developmental climaxes in the middle ancient time.① For the first climax from Eastern Han to Western and Eastern Jin dynasties，several medicinal works were compiled such as Explanations for Classics of Questioning，Diagnosis and Treatment of Typhoid Fever，Shennong’s Classic of Herbs，Classic of Pulse-taking，A-BClassics of Acupuncture and Moxibustion，and Handbook of Prescriptions for Emergencies，and many therapists cameforth including Zhang Zhongjing，Wang Shuhe，Huangfu Mi，and Ge Hong.② For the second climax during Sui and Tang dynasties, more therapists emerged in large numbers, of whom Sun Simiao and Chao Yuanfang were the representatives, with the compilation of quite a few medicinal works such as General Treatise on Causes and Manifestations of All Disease, Revised Classic of Herbs, Invaluable Prescriptions for Ready Reference, and Arcane Essentials from the Imperial Library.③ For the highest climax during Song and Yuan dynasties, the traditional Chinese medicine was subdivided into several specialties, increased in number from four (treatment, acupuncture, massage and fascinum) during Tang dynasty to nine and then thirteen respectively during Song and Yuan dynasties (adult patients, wind-caused diseases, acupuncture, pediatrics, ophthalmology, maternity, dentistry and stomatology, pharyngolaryngology, bone orthopedics, traumatology, miscellaneous diseases, supplication, and incantation). In the same period, there were publications of medicinal monographs such as Ilustrated Classics of Materia Medica, Prescriptions of Huimin Pharmacy Bureau in Taiping Era, Illustrated Manual on the Points for Acupuncture and Moxibustion as Found on the Bronze Figure, Exposition of the Fourteen Channels and specialized essays including Tested Prescriptions of Veteran Physicians on orthopaedics, Complete EffectivePrescriptions for Women Patients on gynecology, Key of Therapeutics of Children’s Diseases on pediatrics, Records for Redressing Unjust Cases on medical jurispurdence. As well, there also formed four major schools of medicine during Jin and Yuan dynasties to promote further development of the fundamental theories of traditional Chinese medicine: the “cold-cool”school created by Liu Wangsu of Jin dynasty, who recommended a theory of “heat therapy”; the school of “lower body parts therapy” with focus on sweat, vomit and low parts, created by ZhangCongzheng of Jin dynasty; the school of “invigorating the spleen and stomach”with emphasis on “original vital energy”as the essential for the life, represented by Li Gao of Jin dynasty; and the school of “nourishment for vitality”through reference to the aforesaid three schools, created by Zhu Zhenheng of Yuan dynasty.

There was an immense collection of medicinal works in the late ancient time, but with little creativity, except some masterpieces of great reference values, such as Standards for Diagonosis and Treatment of Six Specialties by Wang Kentang of Ming dynasty and Correcting the Errors in the Forest of Medicine by Wang Qingren of Qing dynasty, and the most prominent were Compendium of Materia Medica by Li Shizhen and Discussion of EpidemicWarm Diseaseby Wu Youxing. In particular, the treatise on causes, pathogenesis, syndrome, treatment of plagues and their differences with typhoid fever excelled On Typhoid Fever and traditional Chinese theories on the pathology for exogenous cold and established the school of plagues together with other two representatives therapists of the time, Ye Tianshi and Wu Jutong. They were correctly aware of the causes of plagues-“from the mouth and thenose”. As pointed out in Draft History of Qing Dynasty, “this is the first specialized work on plagues with inventive significance.”