Nathan Sivin criticizes attempts to treat medicine and medical practices in traditional China as if they were a single system. As Ian Johnson notes, the term "Traditional Chinese Medicine" was coined by "party propagandists" and first appeared in English in 1955. Scholars in the history of medicine in China distinguish its doctrines and practice from those of present-day TCM. (Tokyo: Suharaya Heisuke kanko, Kyoho gan 1716). This image from Shi si jing fa hui (Expression of the Fourteen Meridians).
#CHINESE YIN AND YANG THEORY GENERATOR#
The demand for traditional medicines in China has been a major generator of illegal wildlife smuggling, linked to the killing and smuggling of endangered animals.
Concepts of the body and of disease used in TCM reflect its ancient origins and its emphasis on dynamic processes over material structure, similar to the humoral theory of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. The concept of vital energy is pseudoscientific. One of the basic tenets is that the body's vital energy ( ch'i or qi) is circulating through channels called meridians having branches connected to bodily organs and functions. TCM is said to be based on Compendium of Materia Medica and Huangdi Neijing and includes various forms of herbal medicine, acupuncture, cupping therapy, gua sha, massage (tui na), bonesetter (die-da), exercise (qigong), and dietary therapy. Īfter the opening of relations between the United States and China after 1972, there was great interest in the West for what was now called Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). Traditional practitioners then selected elements of philosophy and practice and organized them into what they called "Chinese Medicine" ( Zhongyi) In the 1950s, the Chinese government sponsored the integration of Chinese and Western medicine, and in the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution of the 1960s, promoted Chinese medicine as inexpensive and popular. In the early twentieth century, Chinese cultural and political modernizers worked to eliminate traditional practices as backward and unscientific. Medicine in traditional China encompassed a range of sometimes competing health and healing practices, folk beliefs, literati theory and Confucian philosophy, herbal remedies, food, diet, and exercise, medical specializations, and schools of thought.
It has been described as "fraught with pseudoscience", and the majority of its treatments as having no logical mechanism of action. to 16th century A.D.Traditional Chinese Medicine ( TCM) is an alternative medical practice drawn from traditional medicine in China. state the important Chinese Medicine literature from 5th century B.C.
#CHINESE YIN AND YANG THEORY HOW TO#
In this course, we explore the basic theories underlying the practice of Chinese Medicine, compare and contrast the use of Chinese Medicine and Modern Medicine in Preventive Health, and discuss how to restore a healthy condition and understand the pharmacological basis of different types of Chinese tonifying herbs.īy the end of this course, you will be able to: With this in mind, we should understand the practice of Chinese Medicine in the context of Modern Medicine. Chinese Medicine and Modern Medicine are two distinct medical systems, yet they both aim at the prevention and treatment of human diseases.