Friday, January 9, 2015

The Origin Of Chinese Herbal Therapy

By Enid Hinton


For many centuries now, there have been many physicians from ancient China have made use of certain herbs in order to cure certain ailments. Of course Chinese herbal therapy is still being used until now because it is one of the most effective systems that the world has ever seen. Of course this system has a very rich origin from none other than ancient China which is a land known for its different kinds of herbs.

Now the very first record of its use was by emperor Shen Nong who was actually regarded as one of the very first herbalists of China. This man was emperor of China around 2800 BC and was known to have taught the local farmers and physicians all about herbology and how to use different natural resources. Eventually he wrote a book known as Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing which was like a dictionary for around three hundred plus kinds of herbal medicines.

His book categorized the different medicines into three classes by effect. The three classes are the superior types, the ones that should be used in long term consumptions like tonics and boosters, and the last ones that should be taken at small doses for particular diseases only. Much of the original text was actually lost but many have tried to rewrite the classic book.

Now there was another very famous herbalist whose name was Zhang Zhong Jing and was in fact one of the best and most well known herbalists in 196 BC. He even wrote a book that eventually became the reference for a lot of doctors and a lot of physicians that existed in that period of time. This book was in fact not only just a medicine book but it was also one that explained the concepts of Five Elements and the YinYang.

This book would go on to describe how the Five Elements and the balance of the Yin and Yang were related to health. Eventually during the Song Dynasty, this whole book was split into two separate ones known as the Treatise on Cold Damage Disorders and the Essential Prescriptions of the Golden Casket. These were rewrites by succeeding physicians that came after Zhang Zhong Jing.

Now eventually, many medicine scholars had to edit all of these versions to suit the present times. Now during the Tang dynasty, most of the books were then compiled and rewritten into one whole version known as the Yaoxing Lun. This Yaoxing Lun then became a book for herbalists to refer to.

Today, chinese herbal medicine is actually a separate practice alongside conventional medicine that is usually used in the hospitals. This practice is known as traditional chinese medicine or in short, TCM and is a very complete system that includes herbs and acupuncture. This type of practice has even reached as far as America.

Now in Erie, PA, there are so many clinics that would actually practice TCM. Along with these clinics, there are also so many schools that would have courses all about this kind of branch of medicine. TCM has indeed been a big influence on the medical world up until today. And still continues to grow and evolve as it spreads into different regions of the world.




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