Editing Traditional Chinese medicine (section)

=== 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" />