Traditional Chinese Medicine

Overview

Traditional Chinese Medicine (abbreviated as TCM) is more than just a collection of roots and herbs that are believed to have healing powers. According to Chinese religious philosophy, all things in nature, both on this planet and beyond, are interrelated. Traditional Chinese Medicine embraces a number of other health-related concepts in the broadest sense, including concepts such as animism (the notion that all things possess a spirit), the yin and the yang (the notion of opposing forces in nature and of striking the right balance between the two), Qi Gong and Fengshui (both are based on the mind-over-matter notion that there exist exogenous forces in nature that can and should be harnessed to provide well-being, and that where these are not properly harnessed, or are ignored, they can in fact do harm), and even a cosmic dimension.

TCM Practices

TCM also embraces practices such as acupuncture, moxibustion (the burning of the incense-like dried mugwort herb), Tui Na (a form of massage therapy), Taiji Quan (a yoga-like "internal" martial art that relieves stress and fosters well-being through specific movement and posture routines), and cupping or fire cupping (involves placing cups that have had the oxygen removed from the air inside via a flame, creating a suction effect when the cup is placed on the skin). This is only a partial list of the centuries-old TCM practices that have survived throughout the ages.

A separate branch of TCM is Chinese medicinal food, where herbs, roots and animal parts that are believed to be beneficial to the health and well being are consumed as part of the daily diet. Unfortunately, this practice is not unambiguously positive for the world as a whole, since the body parts of certain animals that are now threatened species have traditionally been the most popular when it comes to "medicinal food" believed to have an aphrodisiacal effect (nor is the fixation on sushi in other countries, for that matter, unambiguously positive for the world as a whole if it leads to the depletion of, or even a serious reduction in, the stocks of, say, blue fin tuna).

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History and Development of TCM

TCM has a very long history. Supposedly, it existed since the time of the mythical Yellow Emperor, who reigned over China from BC 2697-2597. The Yellow Emperor is supposed to have compiled a treatise on the subject, the Neijing Suwen (Inner Canon: Basic Questions), though historians believe that the treatise was compiled during the Han (BCE 206-CE 220) Dynasty and by various authors. The Inner Canon was mentioned by the father of Chinese medicine, Zhang Zhongjing (CE 150-219) during the Eastern Han (CE 25-220) Dynasty. Several other famous personages in the decades and centuries that followed wrote works that employed TCM methods practiced today, and some of these individuals also made reference to the Inner Canon.

During the Tang Dynasty (CE 618-907) , TCM came on better footing with the compilation of Materia Medica in CE 657, a scholarly work commissioned by Emperor Gaozong (CE 650-683) that documented over 800 substances with measurable medicinal effect, including substances derived from metals, minerals, stones, animals, herbs and other plants, including cereals and fruits. The use of cannabis (aka marijuana) as an anesthetizing agent has been recorded as early as the Eastern Han Dynasty, where a physician by the name of Hua Tuo (CE 140(circa)-208) used it in a wine mixture during surgery. Modern-day TCM was systematized in the 1950s by the PRC under the instructions of Mao Zedong, former Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party.

Modern Development and International Recognition

Despite its long historical record, during the course of which TCM gradually placed itself on better scientific footing, Western medical practice tends to look askance on most of its claims, labeling it at best as "alternative medicine" in an attempt to at least remain somewhat neutral. Acupuncture, on the other hand, has won wide acceptance within the medical profession in the West, and even the U.S. military has experimented with qigong in an attempt to bring relief to soldiers suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome (PTSD).

Future research into the pharmacology of substances common to TCM may eventually place the practice on better scientific footing. In this context, it should be noted that the overwhelming majority of the medical preparations that one buys in pharmacies of the West actually stem from the plant world – their active ingredients generally represent synthesized versions of the naturally-occurring substances, albeit oftentimes altered such that potential negative side effects are eliminated.

Moreover, the German scientist and TCM scholar Manfred Porkert, whose book, The Theoretical Foundations of Chinese Medicine: Systems of Correspondence, was published in 1974 by MIT Press, believes that part of the problem with the Western medical profession's difficulty in accepting TCM rests on East–West cognition differences, where Westerners tend to rely almost exclusively on the concept of causality, which involves a strictly temporal relationship (A came before B and caused B). On the other hand, "Easterners", in addition to accepting causality, also entertain the concept of inductivity, which also involves spatial relationships (A and B exist simultaneously in time though in separate spatial spheres, yet are interrelated).

Planning to add  traditional Chinese medicine experience to your China trip? See China Highlights' traditional Chinese medicine tours.

Related Readings

• Shanghai Traditional Chinese Medicine Museum
• Chinese Herb Market in Xian