History of Traditional Chinese Medicine

In July 2009, UNESCO designated Dongui Bogam as part of its Memory of th eWorld Programme. Dongui Bogam was written by the royal physician Heo Jun (1539-1615) and his team. The original 23 volumes were published in 1613. The 400th anniversary of its publication is being celebrated this year along with the first complete translation in English. The impact of Dongui Bogam is such that it spawns a school of thought and practice in Korea since its publication. It has been recognised that Dongui Bogam deals not just with the clinical aspects of medicine but broadens the very meaning of medicine through discussing the person and morality in relation to health. This paper reflects on two dimensions of Dongui Bogam that are particularly relevant to modern concerns, namely the important part that man plays within heaven and earth, and the ethics of the physician. The reflection rests on the way Heo Jun frames both the book and the text. As an embodiment of qi endowed from the universe, man possesses many resemblance to heaven and earth. On the same note, the actions of man exerts pivotal influence on the dynamics of heaven and earth, be it the climatic changes, the destruction of war, or the economic crisis. Playing such a crucial role, it cannot be overemphasised that man's actions needs to be ruled by his ethics and humanity. A physician who has great impact on his patients' health must be guided by his virtues. It is with this altrustic intention that Dongui Bogam was compiled, and this message of morality is especially applicable to those who may read and practise out of the book in modern times. 400 years in the long history of Eastern Medicine is a relatively short time. However, the world has changed at a much quicker speed than at any period in human history. The pace of technological breakthroughs and development in just the last two hundred years or so feels like a compression of a thousand years. Humans have landed on a different planet and have looked beyond our solar system into other galaxies. Humans have looked within the physical body, stripping it down to the letters of our DNA. Humans have discovered we share the same sub particles with all things, animate and inanimate. Within this big modern, sophisticated picture, Dongui Bogum continues to address concerns that are as contemporary to us as they were in Heo Jun's time: our stewardship of the earth and the ethics by which we live and exercise power. In this paper, I do not propose to cover the technical aspects of Dongui Bogam, that is, the various herbal formulae and acupuncture points. Rather, I wish to reflect on Heo Jun's (許浚 1537?/1539–1615) opening passages to the entire encyclopaedia. There is a saying by Sun Zhenren [孫真人, 581-682],

This dissertation examines the salvific and therapeutic practices of medieval Chinese
Daoist organisations. Drawing on the most detailed ethnographic record of medical
treatment in early medieval China, the Zhen’gao 真誥 [Declarations of the Perfected], this study examines the work of Yang Xi and the Xus of Jiankang, early members of the Shangqing (Highest Clarity) School. It argues that many of the family’s activities were ultimately concerned with promoting health and curing disease: from tomb-quelling, to divination, to reports on the affairs of deceased relatives. Three main practices form the foci of the analysis: an account of how acupuncture, massage and drugs were entangled with notions of salvation, and how related therapeutic concepts shaped some of the ultimate goals of Shangqing practice. The two research questions addressed are a) how did Shangqing practices function to both cure disease and to grant salvation, and what implications does this question have for modern histories that address religion and medicine as discrete enterprises?
By situating the formation of the Shangqing repertoire within the broader context of
the religio-medical market, this study maintains that therapeutic competition had formative effects on Chinese religions generally. The artificial and modern division of Medicine and Religion emerge as modern categories with limited value for texturing a history of the healing arts of medieval China. In place of this epistemological cast, this study suggests attention to practice repertoires and the formation of thought-styles as a methodology.
Comparing ‘religious’ and ‘medical’ actors in this way allows the uneven contours of local
social, geographic and epidemiological conditions to more readily be taken into account in the formation of sectarian identities.

張子和 Zhāng Zǐhé  (1151-1231, Jīn) was one of the Four Great Masters of the Jīn-Yuán period. Zhāng developed the Attacking and Purging School of medicine (攻下學派). The other three Masters of the Jīn-Yuán period  still have many followers today and have strongly influenced modern Chinese medicine, but Zhāng Zǐhé’s ideas have been less popular. There is little information available on him in English. Because of this, I offer the following four case studies to help fill in the gap.

The increasing number of TCM practitioners and herbal suppliers, both of which accelerated by the formation of various TCM institutions, substantiated the creation of regional traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) associations in post-World War II Malaya. In response to the restrictions and levies imposed by the British colonial government, these regional associations united and formed a national organisation now known as the Federation of Chinese Physicians and Medicine Dealers Association of Malaya (FCPMDAM). The current designated TCM practitioner body, the Malaysian Chinese Medical Association (MCMA) were also originally established to nurture local talents in the face of import restrictions. Owing to difference with MCMA, a separate association named the Federation of Chinese Physicians and Acupuncturists Associations of Malaysia (FCPAAM) was setup in 2003 to absorb self-studied and patrimonial-educated TCM practitioners.

National and local projects to systematize ethnic or “nationality” medical systems are well underway in many parts of China. With colleagues in the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, and in collaboration with scholars associated with various nationalities, we have undertaken the task of editing a catalog of early texts in Chinese minority nationality medicine. We argue that it is both more efficient and more intellectually coherent for the central government, rather than local nationality agencies, to lead the process and coordinate the work of a number of collaborating researchers from various nationality traditions and several regions. Through such
collaboration we seek to gather and preserve the most essential textual information.The ultimate aim is to systematize all resources in a unified database in which diversities can still be perceived. In this discussion we report some of the history of archiving and database construction with special reference to Tibetan and Uighur medical history. And we conclude by discussing some of the practical, conceptual, and technical challenges that face any such project to systematize traditional bodies of knowledge.

Although traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has been a part of the Malaya and the Malaysia people's method of maintaining health and well-being for many centuries, it was never been enrolled in the public health-care system. However, the rising cost of Western drugs and the increasing number of people frequenting TCM has driven the government to search for cheaper options and to look into its safe practice. In 1992, the government mandated all TCM herbal products to be registered with the National Pharmaceutical Control Bureau. All TCM products sold in Malaysia are now Good Manufacturing Practice certified. The government has also established a Traditional and Complementary Medicine Division within the Ministry of Health. Between 2008 and 2014, a traditional and complementary medicine unit was set up in major hospitals in all states. TCM is one of the main services offered by the unit. In 2016, the government enacted the Traditional and Complementary Medicine Act to regulate the TCM practice. Subsequently, a 10-year blueprint has been drawn to support the development of all traditional and complementary medicines in Malaysia. This article aims to provide a brief overview on the regulatory development of TCM in Malaysia.

In 1825 Jean Baptiste Sarlandière published the „Traité inédit de l’acupuncture et du Moxa chez les Japonais“. It was the second translation of a Japanese paper on acupuncture and moxa to be distributed in Europe. According to the opinion of contemporaries as well as following generations, this text reflects the common tradition of Japanese and Chinese people. However, scrutiny reveals an eclectic work drawing on Chinese-Korean sources, which took its shape in a transitional period when the so called traditional Japanese medicine emancipated from its Chinese model and even picked up western elements. The history of origin and transmission of this text is an example of the versatility and dynamics of medical development in Japan while simultaneously demonstrating the difficulties of their reception in Europe. (in 3 parts)

In 1825 Jean Baptiste Sarlandière published the „Traité inédit de l’acupuncture et du Moxa chez les Japonais“. It was the second translation of a Japanese paper on acupuncture and moxa to be distributed in Europe. According to the opinion of contemporaries as well as following generations, this text reflects the common tradition of Japanese and Chinese people. However, scrutiny reveals an eclectic work drawing on Chinese-Korean sources, which took its shape in a transitional period when the so called traditional Japanese medicine emancipated from its Chinese model and even picked up western elements. The history of origin and transmission of this text is an example of the versatility and dynamics of medical development in Japan while simultaneously demonstrating the difficulties of their reception in Europe. (in 3 parts)

The education and research of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in Malaysia started coincidentally circa Malaysia's independence movement. Before the independence, much of the development focused on establishing treatment centers and Chinese medical halls to provide TCM treatment. Periodicals and journals advocating TCM and its advancement were published between the 1940s and 1960s, but many did not survive after a few issues. The challenge posed by the Immigration Ordinance 1952 further united TCM practitioners and TCM associations to establish the Chinese Medical Institute of Malaya. The trend gained momentum, and many educational institutes were set up in each of Malaysia. From the 1970s, Malaysia started hosting regional and international TCM conferences. In 2000, TCM education in Malaysia had finally gained recognition from the government. A TCM program standard was thus released by the Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA). To date, there are seven private higher education institutions which offer TCM programs based on the MQA standards and have established international collaborations with other universities. It is projected that Malaysia's TCM education and research will grow further as a result of China's Belt and Road initiative.