Articles
The Future of Chinese
Medicine
by Zhao Xinxian
Ex. President and C.E.O. of Sanjiu Enterprise Group of China
Prof. Xinxian Zhao, chairman of the enterprise, is
the Vice-Chairman of the Chinese Pharmaceutical Association. He has
been elected twice as a representative to the (8th and 9th) National
People's Congress in Beijing. He remains active in the academic community
as a part-time professor at a number of universities.
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the Long history of the Chinese Medicine
Chinese Medicine has a long history and development. In the course of
searching for food, inevitably the people in the primitive society consumed
some toxins by accident with the toxic phenomena of disgorge, diarrhea,
examination and even death. These phenomenon compelled people to identify
these toxic material to prevent these accidental poisoning from occurring.
At the same time, in order to fight against diseases, gradually people
began to make use of these toxic material and cured their illnesses with
the toxicants' queasy and cathartic functions. By repeated practices and
constant summarization, the primitive people gradually formed the inchoate
drug therapy. On the basis of getting war by the fire, they found that
the burnt stones or sand wrapped with fells and wood barks may be used
to cure pain in some parts of human body. Through repeated practices and
improvement, primitive people gradually created the heat ironing method
and moxibustion therapy. In the course of making production tools out
of the stone, the people discovered that through puncturing of a certain
part of the human body, pain can be stopped in another part. They created
spicule therapeutics Then based on this, acupuncture was formed and the
science of channels and collateral was established.
The "Sheng Nong's Herbal Classic" written in the First to Second
Century A. D. was the earliest book on medicine in our country carrying
information about 365 medicines. Its appearance indicated that the development
of pharmacology in our country matured to a new phase. Most of the effects
indicated by the book has been proven to be correct. The establishment
of "Sheng Nong' s Herbal Classic" set the foundation in pharmacology
in our country and became one of the classical works in China. For thousands
of years, the Chinese Medicine experts from generation to generation constantly
implement and improve the Chinese Medicine theories upon the basis of
their forefathers and have provided us with several dozen of precious
treasures. The Compendium of Materia Medica written by Li Shizhen in Ming
Dynasty diffused to Japan in the earlier 17th Century has been translated
into several dozens languages, and been stowed by the people all over
the world hitherto. In the western world, the Compendium of Materia Medica
was named the monumental work of the oriental medicine.
"The Internal Canon of Medicine of the Yellow Emperor", the
earliest existing Chinese Medicine academic monograph in China has a long
history of more than two thousand years. This book contains generally
summarized curative experiences and medical theories before its time,
and illustrated human anatomy, physiology and pathology, the diagnoses,
treatment and prevention of the diseases after combining the achievements
of other natural sciences at that time. Preliminarily, it set the academic
foundation for the theory of Chinese Medicine. In the history of China,
the stories of the famous doctors like Hua Tuo, Bian Que, Sun Simiao and
Zhang Zhongjing, etc. are widely known. The chief sources of thinking
for medicine in 21st Century was based upon their systematic and unique
theoretical system.
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