Chinese Medicine

The theoretical framework of Chinese medicine was established more than two millennia ago. A great deal of ancient medical knowledge is preserved in the pre-Chin (221-207 B.C.) Inner Cannon (Nei Ching), a comprehensive record of Chinese medical theories up to that time. The Han dynasty (206 B.C.-220 A.D.) produced an authoritative and valuable practical guide--even to the present day--to the treatment of illness, the Treatise on Diseases Caused by Cold Factors (Shang Han Lun) by Chang Chung-ching.

Other Links

One of the best-known Chinese medical works is the Materia Medica (Pen Ts'ao Kang Mu), compiled in the Ming dynasty (1368-1644 A.D.) by Li Shih-chen. This encyclopedic work heralded a new era in the world history of pharmacology; it includes descriptions of 1,892 different kinds of medicines. These works have all been translated into several foreign languages, and have exercised a profound influence on East Asian and European countries.