Introduction of chinese medicine, Background - Social & Cultural background, Economic, Religious, General development of chinese medicine, Concept of man, health, disease, QI Theory, Prevalent Disease, Medical Practices, Pharmacoepia, Administering drugs, Decline of Era, Important Contributors - Shen nong, Lao tse, Confucius, Hua tuo

1. DR. ASWIN ANANDH.M
PG SCHOLAR
HOMOEOPATHIC PHARMACY

2. • China is one of the most ancient countries, dating back to almost 3000 B. C.,
and, very uniquely, retaining its politico-cultural identity all through the
ages. The Chinese civilization and culture has gifted to the world many basic
philosophical perceptions and has made great contributions to the world’s
Knowledge Bank in almost every area of life.
• In the field of medicine, their unique contributions are: their perception of
the duality of life the Yin and Yang principle- and the linkage of this
perception with all their medical philosophy and practices; their particular
perception of the human body as a field of energy connecting all organ
systems through the meridians; and their holistic approach to the phenomena
of health, disease, recovery and assisted cure through the intervention of
medicine.
• Their various sophisticated disciplines of physical training for fitness in life
are also integrally linked with all these. Medicine was called ‘Yaa’ and the
doctor was called ‘Yi’

3. SOCIAL & CULTURAL
• Records show that Chinese civilization and culture were well
established at around 3500 B.C., a time when most of the world was
still living in caves and wearing animal skins.
• According to the Chinese, the ideal way of life was one that was
balanced and in keeping with the scriptures. Every aspect of life was
practised in moderation. Beauty was not considered a rarity but an
innate quality of everything, and it was to be striven for in every
aspect of life.
• Leisure was not seen as a waste of time and energies but an
opportunity to be creative as well as reflective, so that original
contributions could be made to the pool of human knowledge and
creativity. Their creations of silks, ceramics, jade carvings and
calligraphy, some of the most beautiful in the world, reflect all the
richness and refinement of their culture.

4. • China was a prosperous land since antiquity, though there
were comparatively few trade links in the earlier dynasties.
Records of travellers describe the wealth and splendour of
the imperial court
• Trade links were established with India and Persia during
the Han dynasty and received a further boost during the
Tang dynasty.
• China prospered through trade, and its economy grew
strong. Unfortunately, the economy declined gradually
during the later dynasties, especially during the Manchu
dynasty, which suffered from corruption.
• A period of stark economic difficulties followed, where the
country was set upon by opportunistic foreign powers, as
discussed above. It was only in the Communist regime that
China took its place as a world power again.

5. • As far as can be seen in historical records, initially
China had no formal religion to speak of. Nature was
worshipped as the source of all life.
• Till Buddhism Life was to be lived according to the
philosophical tenets put down by the great
philosophers, for e.g. Confucius, Shen Nong, and Lao-
Tse.
• It was during the Tang dynasty that Buddhism came to
China and quickly became the chief religion among
the people. At present, Buddhism is the chief religion
in China.

6. • In ancient times, China was technologically vastly superior to other
Vastly superior countries. The Emperors of every dynasty
encouraged the development of both the arts and the sciences.
• The Chinese were using water clocks 600 years before they were
independently invented in Europe. The origins of paper-making
also lie in China. It then comes as no surprise that the art of
printing also has its origins in this same culture.
• Five centuries before Gutenberg invented moving type, the
Chinese were using the art of printing. They also invented
gunpowder much before the West, but failed to harness its power,
especially when it came to protecting China from outside
invasions.

7. • According to Chinese philosophy, the world is made up of the Five basic
Elements: Earth, Metal, Fire, Water and Wood. The interactions of
these elements with Yin and Yang provided the balance needed for the
universe to exist. Man was considered to be a microcosm of the
universe and so his organs corresponded with the structure of the
elements.
• The Chief principle underlying all the medical theories is the principle of
balance between opposing forces. Illness occurs when this balance is
upset, for any reason.
• The first recorded application of philosophy to medicine is around 3400
B.C. Or we can say that the first philosophy of medicine or the first
organized concepts of medicine evolved in China around 3400 B.C.

8. • Empiric medicine evolved gradually in China and the first
known contributor is the Emperor Shen Nong. He is said
to have introduced the concept of agriculture to the
Chinese people. He learnt from nature the opposing
principles of Yin and Yang and worked them into a
philosophy of medicine.
• It would be more accurate to term Chinese medicine as
health-centred rather than illness-centred. The
philosophy of balance between opposing yet
complementary forces is the base of Chinese medicine.
• One is reminded here of the base of Ayurveda, which
also defines health as a state of balance internally
between the mind and the body and externally between
man and his environment, and which defined cure as a
restoration of balance.

9. • The Yin is defined as a negative force female in
nature, dark and descending – and is symbolized by
water.
• Yang is defined as the active positive force – male
in nature, bright and ascending and is symbolized
by fire.
• The balance between the Yin and the Yang controls
the universe and all life within it.
• Imbalance leads to impairment of health. The body
corrects imbalance on its own to some extent, but
beyond that, it needs external assistance.
• The Chinese preferred to concentrate on
maintaining the balance rather than waiting for it
to go wrong.

10. • Confucius built further on Shen Nong’s work.
He said that this balance was to be maintained
by cultivation of the virtues of benevolence,
justice, propriety, wisdom and sincerity.
• Taoism founded by Lao-Tse.
• Later on, the sage Lao-Tse founded Taoism
which consisted of similar principles and laid
down guidelines to be followed for
maintaining the balance between the Yin and
the Yang. The Taoist concept was that an
individual should be stoic and balanced in the
presence of both, pain and pleasure, and both
should be viewed without excessive emotional
involvement.

11. QI Theory
• The Taoist concept also put forth the theory of Qi
and the four humours. Qi is the vital, invisible life
force that animates all life. It is the four humours
transferable and changes forms within the body.
• Man is supposed to be born with a predetermined
amount of Qi, and it gradually decays throughout
life.It is up to the individual to conserve this
energy for as long as possible.
• If he manages to conserve it for a longer time, a
longer life span is the result.
• All the principles of diet and exercise revolve
around conserving this store of vital energy. This
store of vital energy is strongly influenced by the
food and drinks one consumes and the air one
breathes.

12. • That is why the Chinese laid great stress on
proper diet and breathing, so as to slow down
the decay. Medicinal value was attributed to
food items and diets were carefully planned
so as to maintain health. Various foods were
ascribed properties like heat or cold.
• Fruits, vegetables and fish were considered
cold foods and fatty meals, spicy and fried
foods were considered hot foods.
Supplementary foods like proteins in the form
of animal parts were also important in the
diet.
• Herbs like garlic, ginseng, ginger etc were
used. Various herbal soups were prescribed
for minor ailments.

13. It was believed that four humours exist in the
body and maintain the balance amongst the
organs. The humours are:
• Human Qi the most important of all, it is
the Master Humour.Human Qi has two
forms – Nourishing Qi and Protective Qi.
• Blood (Xue) extracted from the refined
products of digestion, its movement in the
body is controlled by the Qi.
• Vital essence (Jing) – it takes two forms, the
Life Essence and the Semen Essence.
• Fluid (Jin-Ye) it is also extracted from the
products of digestion, and regulated by the
kidney.
These humours interact with each other and
with the factors that correspond to the
elements in the human body to produce the
energy needed for the individual to sustain
life.

14. • The Chinese believed in the existence of vital energy . It
naturally came to be understood that this energy must have
certain channels to flow through, or its flow would not be
balanced. Thus, the principles of Jing Luo came into origin.
• jing Luo is the system of channels that carry Qi in the body.
These channels are called Meridians. There are 59
meridians in the body out of which 12 are dominant. There
are also 15 connecting, 12 muscle ones and 8 extra
Meridians. They supply energy to each organ in the body.
• Any imbalance in the supply of energy causes disease. From
the attempts to redress this balance evolved acupuncture,
the famous Chinese system of treatment.
• Acupressure is an offshoot of the system of acupuncture,
where instead of sticking needles, you give pressure on the
same points in a specific way.

15. • Several diseases were
predominant in the Chinese
people. The descriptions in their
literature suggest the existence of
diseases like smallpox, tuberculosis
and leprosy. Venereal diseases
were also known.
• Plagues and epidemics of various
diseases were known to sweep the
land from time to time. The many
wars meant there were many war
injuries.

16. • In Shen Nong’s time, medicine was the
domain of shamans. Shen Nong devised a
pharmacopoeia for the people by testing
various drugs on himself. This led to his
monumental work ‘Shen Nong ben cao
jing. (a pharmacopoeia).
• Later on, as the Taoist system prevailed,
diagnosis became a complex matter.
History-taking and examination, both
were of equal importance in diagnosis.
• It was essential to know how the patient
had violated the principles of Tao and
what the exact nature of the energy
imbalance was, so that appropriate
treatment could be given.

17. • The art and science of examining the pulse was a cornerstone of
diagnosis. It has its parallels to the Naadi-pariksha of the
Ayurvedic physician. Each type of pulse had several subtypes and
subtle inflections, leading to thousands of probable variations,
which the modern physician may find totally confusing and
fanciful.
• Finally, after the detailed history and examination, once the cause
of the imbalance was found, it could be treated by the use of
medicinal foods, drugs or acupuncture – the stimulation and
balancing of the energy flow by insertion of needles at strategic
points along the meridians.
• Since man was considered a microcosm of the universe, there
were 365 strategic points along the 12 chief meridians. The works
of Ling-Hsu are the main treatises on acupuncture. Its scientific
basis has recently been proved after establishment of the fact that
inserting and twisting needles up to a certain depth within the
skin releases endorphins-natural substances formed in the body
known to relieve pains.

18. • Exercises to restore the energy balance were also an
important part of treatment. The renowned sage Da Mo
is said to have devised the system of exercises that we
know as Kung-Fu by observing the movements of five
different animals – the crane, the tiger, the snake, the
monkey and the dragon.
• The primary function of the physician was to
understand the reason for the imbalance of energy and
to restore it. Prevention was considered to be more
important than cure. The status of the physician was
judged on the basis of how well he was able to prevent
illness, as is seen in the proverb given below:
1. The superior doctor prevents sickness;
2. The mediocre doctor attends to impending sickness;
3. The inferior doctor treats actual sickness.

19. There were 5 categories of
physicians-
1. Chief physicians – collected
drugs, and examined other
physicians
2. Food physicians who
prescribed food and drink
3. Physicians of simple diseases
4. Ulcer physicians (probably
surgeons)
5. Animal physicians
(Veterinarians)

20. • Medicines included parts of trees, insects,
stones, grains, minerals, metals and
magnetic stones. Animal remedies included
dragon teeth (most probably powdered
fossil bones) and virtually any material
obtainable from any living creature part,
organ, urine, and dung.
• The famous physician Hua Tuo introduced
the use of narcotic soups to dull the senses
during the treatment of abscesses, tumours
and wounds. Two of the most famous
contributions of Chinese medicine to the
rest of the world are the herbs ginseng and
ephedra (ma huang).

21. • Ginseng is famous for its supposed
properties of delaying ageing, restoring
sexual powers and increasing strength and
vigour. It is also reported that it improves
Diabetes and stabilizes blood pressure. Many
wars have been fought over this supposedly
human-shaped root.
• Emperors have fought for control of ginseng
plantations, and have kept the best roots for
themselves. Ephedra has been described by
the Red Emperor and used for thousands of
years as a stimulant, to induce fever and
perspiration and to treat asthma. It entered
both Indian and Greek pharmacopoeias. Even
today, it is an important ingredient in many
stimulant as well as weight loss preparations.

22. • Most remedies were given orally. The use of
poultices and applications is not well
documented in Chinese medicine. One unique
method of administering medicine amongst the
Chinese was moxibustion, where a small
quantity of the medicinal substance is kept on
the skin and then burnt so that it is absorbed
through the skin. The substance to be burnt
was called moxa.
• Acupuncture was one other mode of
treatment, although there are no records of any
drugs used in conjunction with the use of the
needles.

23. • In China, surgical measures were not used to treat diseases,
since the physical signs of diseases were considered to be the
end products of a long process of imbalance. As the Chinese
concentrated more on correcting the imbalance in its earliest
stages, one can assume that physical end-products of chronic
diseases did not make frequent appearances in patients.
• This does not mean that surgery was entirely absent in this
great and ancient land. Various battle injuries and their
treatment have been described in the medical literature. As
mentioned above, the use of certain narcotic plant substances
was prevalent to dull the pain of the terrible war injuries.
• There is an anecdote about a general which shows that
emergency procedures like amputation were not entirely
unknown. In keeping with the Taoist tradition of bearing pain
without emotion, there is an anecdote about a general who
needed to have part of his arm amputated after a grievous
injury. He is said to have played chess while his amputation was
going on. This anecdote also proves that amputations were
known and practised wherever necessary.

24. • During the golden period of the Ming dynasty (around 1600
A.D.), Chinese science and technology were perhaps a thousand
years ahead of the West. China, like India, was, however, barred
from discovering the spirit of science by its ancient traditions.
• The sages strictly upheld the traditions and forbade the
inclusion of any new principles into their philosophy and
practices. This restricted the evolution of society. The innate
feeling of superiority present in the Chinese also prevented
intellectual exchanges with other lands.
• Due to the rising Imperialist forces Britain and France
repeatedly attacked China. The Manchu dynasty could not
protect the Chinese empire and the imperialists ultimately
defeated it. The USA then staked her claim in this land and tried
to change the social fabric of this country, an attempt that was
doomed to failure.

25. • The famous American philanthropist
Rockefeller funded many hospitals and
primary health centres where the Western
system of medicine was given prime
importance. These centres were failures
because they couldn’t touch the soul of the
people, where the Chinese philosophy and
way of life was deeply rooted.
• Finally the ‘bare-foot’ doctors of China
won. It was an important lesson for the
rest of the world – one cannot succeed at
the grassroots level unless one can touch
the psyche of the people and succeed in
getting them to identify with one’s
thinking.

27. • Shen Nong: The first of a long line of Emperors,
he is credited with laying the foundations of Chinese
medicine and agriculture. He derived the principles of
Yin and Yang from nature and postulated the principle
of balance between the two. He is said to have tested
more than a thousand remedies on himself, out of
which was born his pharmacopoeia, the ‘Shen Nong
ben cao jing’ where ‘ben’ means a plant with rigid
stalks and ‘cao’ means grass.
• This shows that plants of every kind were tested by
Shen Nong and included in his repertoire of medicinal
substances. It is said that Shen Nong died while carrying
out one of his experiments.

28. • Confucius: He was a philosopher, social
reformer and a humanist, who codified his wisdom
into a set of rules and principles that governed life
and society. Scholars admired and respected him for
editing the classics and writing the Spring and
Autumn annals a work of literature as influential as
the Bible. He was concerned with the virtues of
rulers and features of an ideal society.
• His teachings were moralistic, benevolent,
humanist, yet traditional and authoritarian. He
gifted China the world’s most efficient and stable
bureaucratic power that helped to rule the country
through many trials with wisdom and efficiency.

29. Lao Tse: The father of the Taoist
principles of philosophy. He is
credited with integrating the
principles laid down by Shen Nong
into a cohesive philosophy that
clearly delineated right from
wrong and stated that ill-health
was the inevitable result
whenever an individual violated
righteousness.

30. • Hua Tuo : Cited as one of the
premier physicians and surgeons in
the Han dynasty, he was the pioneer
of surgical methods for the cure of
many conditions. He pioneered the
use of narcotic soups (probably
made out of plants like opium and
hemp) to dull the senses and
minimise the pain of surgery.

31. THANK
YOU