Fundamentals

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) was developed over five thousand years in China. Although it started with practical trial and error of the relationship between human body disorders and natural environmental treatments, it has gradually been synthesized into a few theoretical schemes with many statistical practices. About 2500 years ago, the theoretical and practical foundations of TCM were summarized into the book “HuangDiNeiJing” (The Yellow Emperor’s Classics of Internal Medicine). HuangDiNeiJing is a cover-all approach to TCM, although difficult to read and comprehend, can be summarized in to a single phrase: “Men should live harmoniously with their natural environment”. HuangDiNeiJing is the first book to cover all theoretical reasoning, method, formulation and medication aspects of TCM; but its methods, formulas, and medications are mainly concentrated on acupuncture instead of herbs or drugs. About 2000 years ago [AD 219], Master ZhangZhongJing wrote the book “ShangHanLun”, which is considered as the first complete book on TCM’s reasoning, methods, formulas and medications based on herbs, to treat human illnesses and disorders. Almost all subsequent writings in TCM are based on these two classics with additional proven applications.

Let's take a look at some of the TCM fundamentals.