Editing Traditional Chinese medicine (section)

==Modern history==
===Chinese communities under colonial rule===
Chinese communities living in colonial port cities were influenced by the diverse cultures they encountered, which also led to evolving understandings of medical practices where Chinese forms of medicine were combined with Western medical knowledge.<ref name=MKW>{{cite journal |last1=J A Jewell and Sheila Hillier |title=Kan-Wen Ma |journal=British Medical Journal |date=2017 |volume=356|pages=j810 |doi=10.1136/bmj.j810 |pmid=28213350 }}</ref> For example, the [[Tung Wah Hospital]] was established in Hong Kong in 1869 based on the widespread rejection of Western medicine for pre-existing medical practices, although Western medicine would still be practiced in the hospital alongside Chinese medicinal practices. The Tung Wah Hospital was likely connected to another Chinese medical institution, the [[Kwong Wai Siew Peck San Theng|Kwong Wai Shiu Hospital]] of Singapore, which had previous community links to Tung Wah, was established for similar reasons and also provided both Western and Chinese medical care.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Elizabeth Sinn |title=Power and Charity: A Chinese Merchant Elite in Colonial Hong Kong |date=2011 |publisher=Hong Kong Univ. Press |pages=x, 141}}</ref> By 1935, English-language newspapers in Colonial Singapore already used the term "Traditional Chinese Medicine" to label Chinese ethnic medical practices.<ref>{{cite news |title=POWDER WITH ARSENIC. |agency=The Straits Times |date=9 November 1935 |page=13|url=https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/digitised/article/straitstimes19351109-1.2.105}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Tan |first1=Jamie Y. L. |title=The founding of Kwong Wai Shiu free hospital: reconciling modernity and tradition in healthcare in Singapore between the 1890s to 1911 |date=2023 |publisher=Nanyang Technological University, Singapore |edition=Master's thesis |doi=10.32657/10356/179855 |hdl=10356/179855 |url=https://hdl.handle.net/10356/179855}}</ref>

===People's Republic===
In 1950, [[Chinese Communist Party]] (CCP) chairman [[Mao Zedong]] announced support of traditional Chinese medicine; this was despite the fact that Mao did not personally believe in and did not use TCM, according to his personal physician [[Li Zhisui]].<ref name="Levinovitz 2013" /> In 1952, the president of the [[Chinese Medical Association]] said that, "This One Medicine, will possess a basis in modern natural sciences, will have absorbed the ancient and the new, the Chinese and the foreign, all medical achievements – and will be China's New Medicine!"<ref name="Levinovitz 2013">{{cite magazine|url=http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/medical_examiner/2013/10/traditional_chinese_medicine_origins_mao_invented_it_but_didn_t_believe.html|title=Chairman Mao Invented Traditional Chinese Medicine | vauthors = Levinovitz A |magazine=[[Slate (magazine)|Slate]]|date=22 October 2013|access-date=12 November 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140307114753/http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/medical_examiner/2013/10/traditional_chinese_medicine_origins_mao_invented_it_but_didn_t_believe.html|archive-date=7 March 2014|url-status=live}}</ref>

During the [[Cultural Revolution]] (1966–1976) the CCP and the government emphasized modernity, cultural identity and China's social and economic reconstruction and contrasted them to the colonial and feudal past. The government established a grassroots health care system as a step in the search for a new national identity and tried to revitalize traditional medicine and made large investments in traditional medicine to try to develop affordable medical care and public health facilities.<ref name="Gushi 2019">{{Cite web|url=https://storystudio.tw/article/gushi/chinese-medicine-invented-2|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210608074437/https://storystudio.tw/article/gushi/chinese-medicine-invented-2/|url-status=dead|archive-date=8 June 2021|date=7 April 2019|website=gushi.tw|language=zh-TW|script-title=zh:中醫的發明和國族認同有關係？文化大革命對「傳統中醫學」的影響 {{!}} 故事|trans-title=Chinese Medicine's invention has something to do with national identity? Cultural Revolution's effect on "Traditional Chinese medicine"|title=Gushi.tw}}</ref> The Ministry of Health directed health care throughout China and established primary care units. Chinese physicians trained in Western medicine were required to learn traditional medicine, while traditional healers received training in modern methods. This strategy aimed to integrate modern medical concepts and methods and revitalize appropriate aspects of traditional medicine. Therefore, traditional Chinese medicine was re-created in response to Western medicine.<ref name="Gushi 2019" />

[[File:Apothecary mixing traditional chinese medicin (中药房) at Jiangsu Chinese Medical Hospital in Nanjing 南京, China (34326619184).jpg|thumb|Apothecary mixing traditional Chinese medicine at Jiangsu Chinese Medical Hospital, [[Nanjing]], China]]
In 1968, the CCP supported a new system of health care delivery for rural areas. Villages were assigned a [[barefoot doctor]] (a medical staff with basic medical skills and knowledge to deal with minor illnesses) responsible for basic medical care. The medical staff combined the values of traditional China with modern methods to provide health and medical care to poor farmers in remote rural areas. The barefoot doctors became a symbol of the Cultural Revolution, for the introduction of modern medicine into villages where traditional Chinese medicine services were used.<ref name="Gushi 2019" /> The barefoot doctor system represents a hybrid of modern and traditional Chinese medicine ({{zh|s=中西医结合|l=Chinese western medicine combination}}, usually translated "Integrative Chinese Medicine"), a guiding principle that has far outlived the barefoot doctor system.<ref>{{cite news |last1=LIU |first1=Qingquan |title=中西医结合是治疗方案的核心技术之一|trans-title=Integration of Chinese and Western medicine is one of the key technologies in our Treatment Plan|url=http://health.people.cn/n1/2020/0519/c14739-31714298.html |access-date=8 February 2025 |work=health.people.cn |date=May 2020 |language=zh}}</ref> Nathan Sivin's 1987 translation of ''Revised Outline of Chinese Medicine: For Western-medicine practitioners to learn Chinese medicine'' ({{lang|zh|新编中医学概要：供西医学习中医用}}; 1972) serves as a good, though outdated, example of this principle in practice.{{sfnb|Sivin|1987}}

The State Intellectual Property Office (now known as [[China National Intellectual Property Administration|CNIPA]]) established a database of [[Intellectual property in China|patents]] granted for traditional Chinese medicine.<ref name=":4">{{Cite book |last=Cheng |first=Wenting |title=China in Global Governance of Intellectual Property: Implications for Global Distributive Justice |publisher=[[Palgrave Macmillan]] |year=2023 |isbn=978-3-031-24369-1 |series=Palgrave Socio-Legal Studies series |pages=214}}</ref>{{when|date=February 2025}}

In the second decade of the twenty-first century, [[Chinese Communist Party]] general secretary [[Xi Jinping]] strongly supported TCM, calling it a "gem". As of May 2011, in order to promote TCM worldwide, China had signed TCM partnership agreements with over 70 countries.<ref name="Cheung 2011">{{cite journal |last1=Cheung |first1=Felix |title=TCM: Made in China |journal=Nature |date=December 2011 |volume=480 |issue=7378 |pages=S82–S83 |doi=10.1038/480S82a |pmid=22190085 |bibcode=2011Natur.480S..82C |s2cid=600909 |doi-access=free }}</ref> His government pushed to increase its use and the number of TCM-trained doctors and announced that students of TCM would no longer be required to pass examinations in Western medicine. Chinese scientists and researchers, however, expressed concern that TCM training and therapies would receive equal support with Western medicine. They also criticized a reduction in government testing and regulation of the production of TCMs, some of which were toxic. Government censors have removed Internet posts that question TCM.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Cyranoski |first1=David |title=China to roll back regulations for traditional medicine despite safety concerns |journal=Nature |date=November 2017 |volume=551 |issue=7682 |pages=552–553 |doi=10.1038/nature.2017.23038 |pmid=29189784 |bibcode=2017Natur.551..552C |s2cid=4464138 |doi-access=free }}</ref> In 2020 Beijing drafted a local regulation outlawing criticism of TCM.<ref name="Dyer 2020 p. m2285">{{cite journal | last=Dyer | first=Owen | title=Beijing proposes law to ban criticism of traditional Chinese medicine | journal=BMJ | date=2020-06-09 | volume=369 | issn=1756-1833 | doi=10.1136/bmj.m2285 | page=m2285| doi-access=free | pmid=32518070 }}</ref> According to ''[[Caixin]]'', the regulation was later passed with the provision outlawing criticism of TCM removed.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Liangzi |first1=Sun |script-title=zh:北京中医药条例通过 禁止诋毁中医药条款被删除 (Beijing Regulation on Traditional Chinese Medicine passed, provision prohibiting smearing of TCM removed) |url=https://china.caixin.com/2020-12-02/101634705.html |access-date=23 January 2024 |work=[[Caixin]] |date=2020-12-02 |archive-date=20 June 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210620025542/https://china.caixin.com/2020-12-02/101634705.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

=== Hong Kong ===
{{Update section|date=January 2024|reason=Development after the enactment of Chinese Medicine Ordinance ({{Cite Hong Kong regulation|549}}) needed.}}
At the beginning of [[Hong Kong]]'s opening up, Western medicine was not yet popular, and Western medicine doctors were mostly foreigners; local residents mostly relied on Chinese medicine practitioners. In 1841, the British government of Hong Kong issued an announcement pledging to govern Hong Kong residents in accordance with all the original rituals, customs and private legal property rights.<ref name="gD1Zl">{{Cite book|script-title=zh:香港與中國: 歷史文獻資料彙編, 第1集|publisher={{lang|zh|廣角鏡出版社}}|year=1981|isbn=978-9622260160|location=Hong Kong|pages=164}}</ref> As traditional Chinese medicine had always been used in China, the use of traditional Chinese medicine was not regulated.<ref name="L06zw">{{cite journal |last1=Ho |first1=Polly L H |title=Agenda-Setting for the Regulation of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Hong Kong |journal=Asian Journal of Public Administration |date=December 2002 |volume=24 |issue=2 |pages=257–286 |doi=10.1080/02598272.2002.10800403 |s2cid=155221420 }}</ref>

The establishment in 1870 of the [[Tung Wah Hospital]] was the first use of Chinese medicine for the treatment in Chinese hospitals providing free medical services.<ref name="RqWjK">{{Cite web|url=http://www.tungwah.org.hk/en/about/about-us/|title=About Us|website=Tung Wah Group of Hospitals|access-date=1 March 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190304201455/http://www.tungwah.org.hk/en/about/about-us/|archive-date=4 March 2019|url-status=live}}</ref> As the promotion of Western medicine by the British government started from 1940,<ref name="Dudovskiy">{{cite web|url=https://research-methodology.net/historical-evolution-of-chinese-healthcare-system-a-brief-overview/|website=Business Research Methodology|title=Historical evolution of Chinese Healthcare System|vauthors=Dudovskiy J|date=24 March 2014|access-date=July 6, 2020|archive-date=25 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210125063446/https://research-methodology.net/historical-evolution-of-chinese-healthcare-system-a-brief-overview/|url-status=live}}</ref> Western medicine started being popular among Hong Kong population. In 1959, Hong Kong had researched the use of traditional Chinese medicine to replace Western medicine.<ref name="x1e9j">{{Cite news|url=https://mmis.hkpl.gov.hk/coverpage/-/coverpage/view?_coverpage_WAR_mmisportalportlet_hsf=%E4%B8%AD%E8%97%A5%E7%94%A8%E9%80%94&p_r_p_-1078056564_c=QF757YsWv5%2FH7zGe%2FKF%2BFOLucU8fZKiu&_coverpage_WAR_mmisportalportlet_o=0&_coverpage_WAR_mmisportalportlet_actual_q=%28%20verbatim_dc.collection%3A%28%22Old%5C%20HK%5C%20Newspapers%22%29%20%29%20AND+%28%20%28%20allTermsMandatory%3A%28true%29%20OR+all_dc.title%3A%28%E4%B8%AD%E8%97%A5%E7%94%A8%E9%80%94%29%20OR+all_dc.creator%3A%28%E4%B8%AD%E8%97%A5%E7%94%A8%E9%80%94%29%20OR+all_dc.contributor%3A%28%E4%B8%AD%E8%97%A5%E7%94%A8%E9%80%94%29%20OR+all_dc.subject%3A%28%E4%B8%AD%E8%97%A5%E7%94%A8%E9%80%94%29%20OR+fulltext%3A%28%E4%B8%AD%E8%97%A5%E7%94%A8%E9%80%94%29%20OR+all_dc.description%3A%28%E4%B8%AD%E8%97%A5%E7%94%A8%E9%80%94%29%20%29%20%29&_coverpage_WAR_mmisportalportlet_sort_order=desc&_coverpage_WAR_mmisportalportlet_sort_field=score&_coverpage_WAR_mmisportalportlet_log=Y&tabs1=FILE_DOWNLOAD|script-title=zh:粵共研究中藥替代西藥用途|date=13 May 1959|work=Wah Kiu Yat Po|access-date=1 March 2019|language=zh|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190306042837/https://mmis.hkpl.gov.hk/coverpage/-/coverpage/view?_coverpage_WAR_mmisportalportlet_hsf=%E4%B8%AD%E8%97%A5%E7%94%A8%E9%80%94&p_r_p_-1078056564_c=QF757YsWv5%2FH7zGe%2FKF%2BFOLucU8fZKiu&_coverpage_WAR_mmisportalportlet_o=0&_coverpage_WAR_mmisportalportlet_actual_q=%28%20verbatim_dc.collection%3A%28%22Old%5C%20HK%5C%20Newspapers%22%29%20%29%20AND+%28%20%28%20allTermsMandatory%3A%28true%29%20OR+all_dc.title%3A%28%E4%B8%AD%E8%97%A5%E7%94%A8%E9%80%94%29%20OR+all_dc.creator%3A%28%E4%B8%AD%E8%97%A5%E7%94%A8%E9%80%94%29%20OR+all_dc.contributor%3A%28%E4%B8%AD%E8%97%A5%E7%94%A8%E9%80%94%29%20OR+all_dc.subject%3A%28%E4%B8%AD%E8%97%A5%E7%94%A8%E9%80%94%29%20OR+fulltext%3A%28%E4%B8%AD%E8%97%A5%E7%94%A8%E9%80%94%29%20OR+all_dc.description%3A%28%E4%B8%AD%E8%97%A5%E7%94%A8%E9%80%94%29%20%29%20%29&_coverpage_WAR_mmisportalportlet_sort_order=desc&_coverpage_WAR_mmisportalportlet_sort_field=score&_coverpage_WAR_mmisportalportlet_log=Y&tabs1=FILE_DOWNLOAD|archive-date=6 March 2019|url-status=live|title=Coverpage - MMIS }}</ref>{{Verify source|date=March 2019}}

=== Historiography of Chinese medicine ===
Historians have noted two key aspects of Chinese medical history: understanding conceptual differences when translating the term {{lang|zh|身}}, and observing the history from the perspective of [[cosmology]] rather than biology.<ref name="Furth">{{cite book |title=A Flourishing Yin: Gender in China's Medical History, 960–1665 |vauthors=Furth C |date=1999 |publisher=University of California Press |location=Berkeley}}</ref>

In Chinese classical texts, the term {{lang|zh|身}} is the closest historical translation to the English word "body" because it sometimes refers to the physical human body in terms of being weighed or measured, but the term is to be understood as an "ensemble of functions" encompassing both the human psyche and emotions. This concept of the human body is opposed to the European duality of a separate mind and body.<ref name="Furth" /> It is critical for scholars to understand the fundamental differences in concepts of the body in order to connect the medical theory of the classics to the "human organism" it is explaining.<ref name="Furth" />{{rp|20}}

Chinese scholars established a correlation between the cosmos and the "human organism". The basic components of cosmology, qi, yin yang and the Five Phase theory, were used to explain health and disease in texts such as ''[[Huangdi neijing]]''.<ref name="Furth" /> [[Yin and yang]] are the changing factors in cosmology, with ''[[qi]]'' as the vital force or energy of life. The Five Phase theory (''[[Wuxing (Chinese philosophy)|Wuxing]]'') of the Han dynasty contains the elements wood, fire, earth, metal, and water. By understanding medicine from a cosmology perspective, historians better understand Chinese medical and social classifications such as gender, which was defined by a domination or remission of yang in terms of yin.

These two distinctions are imperative when analyzing the history of traditional Chinese medical science.

A majority of Chinese medical history written after the classical canons comes in the form of primary source case studies where academic physicians record the illness of a particular person and the healing techniques used, as well as their effectiveness.<ref name="Furth" /> Historians have noted that Chinese scholars wrote these studies instead of "books of prescriptions or advice manuals;" in their historical and environmental understanding, no two illnesses were alike so the healing strategies of the practitioner was unique every time to the specific diagnosis of the patient.<ref name="Furth" /> Medical case studies existed throughout Chinese history, but "individually authored and published case history" was a prominent creation of the Ming dynasty.<ref name="Furth" /> An example such case studies would be the literati physician, Cheng Congzhou, collection of 93 cases published in 1644.<ref name="Furth" />