Traditional Chinese medicine

This woman is using a TCM method called fire cupping

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is a branch of traditional medicine from China. It is at least 3,500 years old. Treatments include herbal medicine, acupuncture, cupping, massage, and exercise.

TCM's methods are different from Western medicine, so it is hard to find evidence that TCM is safe and helpful.

Many of TCM's most important ideas are based on the teachings of Daoism.

Beliefs

TCM says there are five elements in a person's body: wood, fire, earth, metal, and water. The different treatments in TCM are made to bring balance to these elements.

The yin and yang symbol. Yin is white; yang is black.

Each element also has something called yin and yang: opposite values that must exist alongside each other instead of trying to take each other over. In TCM, the way to balance the yin and yang is to strengthen an invisible force called qi.

Knowing the five elements, the yin, and the yang is important in TCM because each organ of the body is related to one of the five elements. It is important to strengthen a person's qi because balancing the yin and yang of a person's organs is important for health.

TCM also addresses how mentally stable a person is in the process of their healing.

In the 19th century, many European doctors were working as missionaries in China, and they started translating TCM documents. For example, Dr. Gottlieb Olpp helped spread the ideas of traditional Chinese medicine to Germany.

The four temperaments

These ideas are similar to (but not the same as) the idea of the four temperaments. This was a widely believed theory in European medicine before scientific medicine was created.

Traditional Chinese Medicine Media

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  The Compendium of Materia Medica is a pharmaceutical text written by Li Shizhen (1518–1593) during the Ming dynasty of China. This edition was published in 1593.

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  Acupuncture chart from Hua Shou (fl. 1340s, Yuan dynasty). This image from Shisi jingfahui (Expression of the Fourteen Meridians). (Tokyo: Suharaya Heisuke kanko, Kyoho gan 1716).

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  Apothecary mixing traditional Chinese medicine at Jiangsu Chinese Medical Hospital, Nanjing, China

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  Yin and yang symbol for balance. In traditional Chinese Medicine, good health is believed to be achieved by various balances, including a balance between yin and yang.

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  Representation of the Chinese five elements (wǔxíng) with text in english.

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  Old Chinese medical chart on acupuncture meridians

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  Acupuncture chart from the Ming Dynasty: The Pericardium Meridian of Hand-Jueyin

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  Assorted dried plant and animal parts used in traditional Chinese medicines, clockwise from top left corner: dried Lingzhi (lit. 'spirit mushrooms'), ginseng, Luo Han Guo, turtle shell underbelly (plastron), and dried curled snakes.

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  Redginseng

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  A bile bear in a "crush cage" on Huizhou Farm, China