History of traditional Chinese medicine

Much of the philosophy of traditional Chinese medicine derived from Taoist philosophy, and reflects the classical Chinese belief that individual human experiences express causative principles effective in the environment at all scales. These causative principles, whether material, essential, or spiritual, correlate as the expression of the fates decreed by heaven.

During the golden age of his reign from 2696 to 2598 B.C, as a result of a dialogue with his minister Ch'i Pai, the Yellow Emperor is supposed by Chinese tradition to have composed his Neijing(ƒÈ½›) Suwen(Ë؆–) or Basic Questions of Internal Medicine. Modern scholarly opinion holds that the extant text of this title was compiled by an eponymous scholar between the Chou and Han dynasties more than two thousand years later than tradition reports, although some parts of the extant work may have originated as early as 1000 B.C.

During the Han dynasty, Chang Chung-Ching, who was mayor of Chang-sha near the end of the second century A.D., wrote a Treatise on Typhoid Fever, which contains the earliest known reference to Neijing Suwen. The Chin dynasty practitioner and advocate of acupuncture and moxibustion, Huang-fu Mi (215-282 A.D), also quotes the Yellow Emperor in his Chia I Ching, ca. 265 A.D. During the Tang dynasty, Wang Ping claimed to have located a copy of the originals of the Neijing Suwen, which he expanded and edited substantially. This work was revisited by an imperial commission during the eleventh century A.D., and the result is our best extant representation of the foundational tradition of TCM.

Contact with Western culture and medicine did not displace TCM. While there may be many sociological and anthropological factors involved in the persistent practice and, in recent decades, the westward spread of TCM, two reasons are most obvious. Firstly, TCM practices are often very effective, sometimes offering palliative efficacy where the best practices of Western medicine fail, especially for routine ailments such as flu and allergies, and manage to avoid the toxicity of chemically composed medicines. Secondly, TCM provides the only available care when resources are inadequate to import Western medical technologies.

Traditional Chinese medicine formed part of the barefoot doctor program in the People's Republic of China, which extended public health into rural areas. A large motivation behind the interest in traditional Chinese medicine by both individuals in China and the PRC government is that the cost of training a traditional Chinese medicine practitioner and staffing a TCM hospital is considerably less than that of a practitioner of Western medicine, hence TCM has been seen as an integral part of extending health services in China.

Welcome to China2Go, the talking Chinese phrase book for Windows Mobile Pocket PC and Palm OS. Featuring crystal clear voice recorded by a real person, this product is a great travel companion and an ideal tool to learn Chinese! With our cutting edge voice compression technology, this product includes more than 1000 phrases, their Chinese translation, and the voice in only a few megabytes. Supports all Windows Mobile Pocket PCs. H&H China2Go Talking Phrase Book for Windows Mobile