第一单元 A History of TCMText A A History of TCMThe history of traditional Chinese medicine can be traced through archaeological excavations extending back millions of years.Primitive people spent most of their time on basic survival: hunting, locating and preparing plants forfood, building shelters, and defending themselves. It's easy to imagine that over time, they'd have sampled most of the local plants in their search for food. In time, an oral record evolved that identified those plants that made good food, those that were useful for building, those that had an effect on illness, and those that were poisonous. Through trial and error, a primitive form of herbal medicine and dietary therapy was taking shape in China.Fire also played a central role in their lives as a source of warmth, fuel, and light. As they huddled around fires, it was only natural that our ancestors would discover the healing powers of heat. Those powers would have been especially evident for cold, damp ailments such as arthritis, for which heat provides immediate relief. This was the origin of the art of moxibustion, the therapeutic application of heat to treat a wide variety of conditions.These ancient people must have experienced a variety of injuries during their rugged lives. A natural reaction to pain is to rub or press on the affected area. This hands-on therapy gradually evolved into a system of therapeutic manipulation. People discovered that pressing on certain points on the body had wide-ranging effects. They began to use pieces of sharpened bone or stone to enhance the sensation, and acupuncture was born.Written History of Traditional Chinese MedicineThe written history of traditional Chinese medicine has evolved mostly over the last 3,000 years. Archaeological digs from the Shang Dynasty (1,000 b.c.) have revealed medical writings inscribed on divination bones: early shamans, mostly women, used scapula bones to perform divination rites; later these bones were also used for writing.The discovery in 1973 of 11 medical texts written on silk has shed some light on the sophisticated practices of that early period of Chinese history. Dated to 168 B.C., the texts discuss diet, exercise, moxibustion, and herbal therapy.Liberally mixed with shamanistic magic, an extensive text,Prescriptions for Fifty-two Ailments, describes the pharmacological effects of herbs and foods.Also dating from about this time is the legend of Shen Nong, the Emperor of Agriculture, who tasted 100 herbs daily to assess their qualities. (He is said to have been poisoned many times in the course of his investigations.)By A.D. 400, the basic foundations of traditional Chinese medicine had been put into written form. By this time, most of the magical aspects of medicine had been left behind; there was an increasing belief in the powers of nature to heal disease.The most important book compiled between 300 B.C. and A.D. 400 is Huang Di Nei Jing (Huangdi’s Canon of Medicine).The work is divided into two books: Simple Questions and Spiritual Axis.The first book deals with general theoretical principles, while the second more specifically describes the principles of acupuncture and the treatment of disease. Remarkably, this ancient work is still valid; it forms the foundation for the contemporary practice of traditional Chinese medicine. For example, the Nei Jingstates that cold diseases should be treated with hot herbs, and hot diseases should be treated with cold herbs. This principle is still followed today in clinical practice.Hot, inflammatory infections are treated with cold herbs such as honeysuckle flowers or Coptis root; cold, debilitating conditions such as chronic fatigue are treated with warm, stimulating herbs such as ginseng orAstragalus roots.Modern research has confirmed that these plants contain constituents with strong pharmacological effects on these specific conditions. By the second century A.D., physicians all over China were compiling writings of the latest discoveries in acupuncture and herbal medicine. It was during this time that the famous physician Hua Tuo wrote about herbal anesthesia.Although his formula for the anesthetic has been lost, his unique system of acupuncture points is still in use. He was also a pioneer in recommending exercise as a method of maintaining wellness. He is quoted as saying "a running stream never goes bad," meaning exercise moves qi and prevents the stagnation that leads to disease.Another pioneer of the time was Zhang Zhongjing, who wrote Treatise on Febrile and Miscellaneous Diseases after witnessing an epidemic that ravaged his city and killed most of his relatives. This highly regarded physician developed a system of diagnosis so sophisticated that it is used by practitioners in modern hospitals 1,700 years after his death.Progress of Medicine in ChinaThe progress of medicine in China runs parallel to the nation's political history. Between the second and fifth centuries A.。