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Related News: The Chinese government is moving to standardizing Traditional Chinese Medicine, or TCM.
At a national TCM conference held in Beijing over the weekend, Wang Guoqiang, Director of China State Administration of TCM, said standardization of TCM is crucial for its internationalization.
Intro to TCM 中医 zhōng yī
Traditional Chinese Medicine dates back thousands of years. It depends on four methods of diagnosis--looking(望 wàng), listening(闻 wén), questioning(问 wèn )and feeling the pulse of the patient(切 qiè). Typically a traditional Chinese medicine doctor first studies the look of the patient, listens to his/her voice and breathing, asks how the patient feels, and then takes his/her pulse before making a diagnosis and writing a prescription.
Traditional Chinese medical science cures people with traditional Chinese herb medicine(中药 zhōng yào), acupuncture and moxibustion(针灸zhēn jiǔ), manipulation(推拿tuī ná), massage(按摩àn mó), cupping(拔罐 bá guàn), qigong(气功qì gōng), food therapy(食疗shí liáo), and skin scraping(刮痧guā shā).The idea is to help the patient recover by achieving the natural balance of his yin(阴yīn) and yang(阳yáng).
The most precious asset of traditional Chinese medicine is the prescriptions. Most of the medicines prescribed contain herbs and animal ingredients. The story of Shen Nong(神农氏) collecting herbs has been widely spread up to the present day. In ancient times people often ate plants to allay hunger. But some died from poisonous herbs, while others became sick but could do little about it. To ease their pain, a man named Shen Nong decided to go and look for cures. He tasted numerous plants himself and discovered that while wheat, rice, corn and sorghum were good sources of food, there were over 300 types of herbs that could be used to cure diseases.
After thousands of years of clinical practice, traditional Chinese medicine now plays an irreplaceable role in treating and preventing illness as well as in gaining recognition around the world. The impact of traditional Chinese medicine is growing internationally every day.