Basic Theory of TCM
TCM, a great treasure-house of culture, is an indispensable part of the
splendid classic Chinese culture. In its long course of
development, it has absorbed the quintessence of classical Chinese
philosophy, culture and science, and summarized the experience of the
Chinese people in fighting against disease.
It is rich in theory and practical in treatment.
Today modern medicine is quite advanced, but TCM is still widely used because
of its significant clinical curative effect.
In recent decades,
TCM is understood and adopted in more and more
countries and regions in the world.
1.The origination, formation and development of the theoretical system of TCM
TCM originated in antiquity. Early in the primitive society,
human beings began to accumulate medical knowledge.
In Chinese classics there are many records concerning medicine or drugs,
such as "Fuxi made nine needles" and "Shennong
tasted hundreds of herbs and was poisoned seventy times in a single day".
These records indicate that the Chinese ancestors made great efforts to explore medicine in their life and work. In the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States, China was greatly advanced in politics, economy, science and culture. In medicine, disease was well understood and medical experience was further enriched. Such a rapid development in medicine made it possible to develop a new theoretical system of medicine by combining the medical knowledge passed on from the previous generations with latest theoretical ideas.
2.The basic characteristics of TCM Concept of holism and syndrome differentiation and treatment are the two basic characteristics of TCM in understanding human physiology and pathology as well as diagnosis, treatment and prevention of disease. (1) Concept of holism: The concept of holism means that the human body is an organic whole and that human beings are interrelated with nature. (2) Bianzheng lunzhi (Syndrome differentiation and treatment): 1) Implication of syndrome differentiation and treatment Syndrome differentiation and treatment means to analyze, induce, synthesize, judge and summarize the clinical data of symptoms and signs collected with the four diagnostic methods (namely inspection, listening and smelling, inquiry, taking pulse and palpation) into certain syndrome. Then the therapeutic methods are decided according to the result of syndrome differentiation. Syndrome differentiation and treatment is a basic principle in TCM to understand and treat disease.
