Chinese Medicine History

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Chinese herbal medicine has a long history that predates the written record.  Early Shamans used incantations, and herbs to treat disease often in elaborate healing ceremonies.

Shen Nong, who was is called the “Divine Husband” is honored as the founder of Chinese herbal medicine. As is true of much of ancient Chinese history, the legend of Shen Nong as been embellished over the centuries.  He is said to have poisoned himself with 70 poisons in one day and then sampling hundreds of herbs to cure himself.

In The Classic of the Materia Medica of the Divine Husbandman, the first herbal medicine book, there are 364 observations recorded that correspond to the days in a year. This book is attributed to Shen Nong but was probably compiled by anonymous authors in the first to the second century C.E.

During the Southern and Northern Dynasties (420-589 C.E.), the famous Taoist, Tao Hong-Jing (452-536 C.E.), supplemented the Shen Nong ben cao to 365 herbal entries. Under the Tang Dynasty (618-907 C.E.), Ben cao was enlarged to 844 entries with twenty-five volumes of illustrations under different classifications. This was a major expansion of Chinese Medicine information.

Shen Nong ben cao was again revised during the Song Dynasty (960-1279 C.E.). Thus, a new herbal classic came into being with 1,746 entries. Still without any doubt, Shen Nong ben cao laid a cornerstone for the basis of Chinese herbal medicine.  A foundation that has been built upon over the ages and many dynasties of China’s past.

Another founding father of Chinese herbal medicine was Huang Di. He is considered to be the author of  The Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine  which establishes the Yin/Yang and the Five elements theory. These are the basis for all Chinese medicine information including herbal medicine, as well as, acupuncture.

It explains the relationship between human beings and nature and the intertwined relationship between the inner organs of the human body based upon the theory of Yin and Yang and Five Elements.

This Yin-Yang theory has dominated not only Chinese medicine, but philosophy, literature and daily life throughout Chinese history.

We will delve more deeply into the Yin-Yang theory elsewhere on this site and in my eBook Chinese Herbal Medicine.  Briefly; Yin is female and negative, passive, weak, dark, destructive, and symbolic of water, while Yang is male and positive, active, strong, bright, constructive, and symbolic of fire. Yin and Yang can be thought of as opposites in every way. Yin is to Yang as up it to down, left is to right and day is to night.

Now we will move on to the Five Element Theory of Chinese herbal medicine. The five elements are wood, fire, earth, metal and water. These are the five destructive cycles: Wood produces fire; fire nourishes earth; earth provides ground for mining that makes metal possible; metal can be fused and liquefied by heat; water accelerates the growth of wood. (You need to know that burning weeds is significant in Chinese agricultural practices for this series to make sense.)

Each element represents parts of the human body. Wood represents the liver; fire represents the heart; earth represents the spleen; metal represents the lungs; and water represents the kidneys. The function of the five elements helps to diagnose and trace the causes of diseases to the imbalance of natural forces in the human body and an imbalance in the vital organs relationships to each other.

The Five Elements can be considered sub-divisions of Yin and Yang and they represent the ongoing battle between good and evil in the human body. In this case ‘good and evil’ have nothing to do with religious or social matters but rather the ‘good and evil atmospheres’….or the Yin and Yang of the human body.

Zhang Zhong-Jing’s Treatise on Febrile and Miscellaneous Diseases, noted the complementary opposites of yin and yang and the Five Elements. Zhang Zhong-Jing (150-219 C.E.) combined his own medical and herbal knowledge with the concepts of Yin – Yang and the Five Elements. He classified diseases into six types…..three Yins and three Yangs.

At about this same time in the history of Chinese herbal medicine, Hua Tuo, (136-208 C.E.) became the first Chinese herbal medical practitioner to use an herbal narcotic soup as anesthesia. He used the ‘soup’ prevent pain when he operated on a patient’s stomach. Hua Tuo claimed that the soup numbed the patient, aided in his recovery and had no side effects.

Li Shi-Zhen was probably the best known of the Chinese herbal medical practitioners. He wrote Chinese Medicinal Herbs.  It took Li Shi-Zhen twenty-seven years to complete this book. The book consists of fifty-two volumes with 1,892 entries of medicinal herbs. He reportedly walked more than 6000 miles talking to hundreds farmers in order to gather first hand knowledge about the herbs and their uses about which he wrote in his classic herbal medicine book.

About 1765, Chao Xue Ming, another devoted student of Chinese herbal medicine, wrote a book, that added 716 entries of herbs to Li’s book and the number of herbs for medical purposes reached 2,608 entries.

Advancements in Chinese herbal medicine continued to be made at a steady pace until about the beginning of the twentieth century at which time social upheavals and Western influences caused a decline.

Traditional Chinese herbal medicine came under attack by both the government and the medical profession. It was said to be lacking in scientific basis. China was trying to become more modernized and so rejected Chinese herbal medicine as the accepted national medicine of China.

The need for affordable health care services in rural areas of China caused Chinese herbal medicine to be preserved. Modern pharmaceuticals and hospital equipment were out of the financial reach of the rural areas so Chinese herbal medicine continued to be practiced and expanded upon. Chinese herbal medicine provided a more affordable and economic health care system to Chinese farmers and workers than Western medicine.

In modern times there has been a resurgence in Chinese herbal medicine in China.  Even in very modern and very urban Chinese medical facilities, Chinese herbal medicine has become and integral part of treatments but it goes hand-in-hand with very modern Western medicine.