Introduction and History of Classic and Traditional Chinese Medicine

Most people today are familiar with Traditional Chinese Medicine. However, not everyone is aware that Classical Chinese Medicine exists or even came first. Nor do they understand the difference between Traditional and Classical Chinese Medicine. My goal is not to convince you that one is better than the other. Nor do I profess to be an expert in either. Instead, I will provide you with some background, historical information, and different perspectives.

Classical Chinese Medicine (CCM) has a rich history based on naturalistic philosophy (Daoism). CCM embraces interconnecting nature, health, life, and the Universe. Its origins were less standardized and “holistic and spiritually rooted. The spirit and the energy of the ”universe, earth, humans, plants, and animals” formed the original Chinese Medicine system. Chinese Medicine Physicians analyzed the whole person to discover any imbalances. Once they discovered an imbalance, treatments were individualized to treat the root cause. All treatments were aimed at the patient’s health issues at the time they were seen.

The goal of CCM was to provide the resources to nurture and maintain the health of the patient and to keep their body in balance and functioning at their optimal level of health before illness showed up. If you are familiar with Qi (life energy), then you probably understand that the aim of Chinese Medicine is (and was) to eliminate blockages, and to create and/or restore a smooth flow of Qi throughout the body.

In classical times, doctors were not paid if the patient didn’t improve or if they got sick again in a short time.The vast and sophisticated knowledge CCM practitioners gained was passed down for almost 2,500 years from masters to their apprentices. CCM was practiced in this way until the Chinese Cultural Revolution.

History of Chinese Medicine

Going back over 5,000 years ago in Central China, a tribe leader called Shen Nong (the “Divine Farmer”) researched hundreds of herbs, which his assistants recorded. This became the first herbal classic in Chinese Medical History: Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing. It is still translated and published today.

The “Ancestor of Chinese People” (the Yellow Emperor) was credited with uniting and leading all tribes in Central China. The Yellow Emperor (along with his primary care doctor and other trusted advisors) discussed and researched medicine and acupuncture. The result was the earliest surviving text written by medical specialists called “The Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine”. This text unified all the medical knowledge accumulated from the earliest periods until the Eastern Zhou Dynasty period.

In Yellow River Valley/Eastern China during the Shang Dynasty (16-11 centuries BC), the Emperor’s Prime Minister (who was also a doctor) wrote “Yi Yin’s Soup Classic”. The book details how to use herbs to cure the diseases of the time. The Soup Classic is the first herbal formula book in history.

During the East Han period, a state governor named Zhang Zhongjing (150-219 AD) left politics to become a full time doctor. During the late Han Dynasty, he wrote “Discussion of Cold-Induced Disorders”. The book is a 16 volume compilation of all the previous medical classics and established a medical system covering diagnostic to treatment protocols.

Since 1949, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) reacted to the influx of Western science and medical modalities.

With the fall of China’s dynasties, Sun Yat-sen, a western science trained physician and politician came into power. He wanted the country to be seen as modern. After World War II, The People’s Republic of China (also known as New China) was founded. Chairman Mao Zedong called for “Chinese-Western medicine integration” which was actually a political move to standardize and secularize Chinese Medicine. Prime Minister Zhou Enlai, also wanted the country to be seen as modern, authorized the establishment of four colleges of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM).

TCM was considered “politically correct” and the naturalistic philosophy of CCM was eliminated for being “feudal”. Most CCM physicians (and there are those still remaining) felt that TCM was considered medicine that did not undermine the political “anti-theistic agenda”. Anything having to do with the spiritual side of natural medicine and not purely scientific, would be stripped away totally. Intellectuals and masters “were purged”, and many classical texts were burned.

In 2005, Mao Jialing, editor of the China Agency for Chinese Medicine and Pharmacology News, expressed concern about Chinese Medicine dwindling down to zero and this age-old profession “facing a quiet death”. He also felt that Chinese Medicine was in extreme crisis and losing “its unique flavor and clinical benefits.” Chinese medicine founded upon functional and holistic parameters is now dominated by Western science and a diagnostic perspective based on the body’s structural changes. This has resulted in the deterioration of clinical outcomes.

The English edition of Liu Lihong’s Classical Chinese Medicine, became available in 2019, 18 years after it’s initial publication. It is considered a “straightforward critique of the severe predicament that the ‘integration’ of the traditional healing arts with Western science has spawned during the last 60 years.” Liu Lihong, and many others, are very concerned about preserving Classical Chinese Medicine (CCM). They object to the direction that the standardized form of Chinese Medicine has taken.

In the next blog, we will look at some of the differences between CCM, TCM, and Western Medicine.

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