中华医史杂志最新文献

The Imperial Medical College (Guo Zi Jian Yi Ke) in the Northern Song Dynasty was established for training Confucian physicians. The medical graduates from this college were granted superior official recognition but still received equal opportunities for their career advancement as other graduates for arts. This was partly because medical graduates were not well respected at that time and partly because the then government attempted to encourage more people to learn medicine. On the other hand, this official system seems to have not been successful in the purpose of training Confucian physicians because they were given more opportunities to be granted as governors of states or counties rather than remaining as Confucian physicians. However, the official system for the medical graduates showed the encouragement and the respect to Confucian physicians from the then government. It changed the medical views of upper class and promoted the development of traditional Chinese medicine.

Miao Zunyi was an influential physician in the mid-Qing Dynasty. He was self-taught as he read a great amount of prescription books of traditional Chinese medicine. He was proficient in medical theories but flexible in treatment. It was recorded in Draft of Qing History that Miao Zunyi, Ye Tianshi and Xue Shengbai were named as "the three schools of Wuzhong". He began to write books in his later years. He wrote prefaces to Pulse Causes, Syndrome and Treatment (Mai Yin Zheng Zhi) and Wu Yi Hui Jiang. His existing works include Treatise on Febrile Disease (Shang Han Ji Zhu), Wen Re Lang Zhao, Song Xin Notes and Song Xin Medical Cases. Miao's Medical Cases and Song Xin Tang Yi An Jing Yan Chao. He had many remarkable students, such like Huang Tang, Guan Ding, Miao Song, and Shen Nianzu.

The relationship between acupuncture and meteria medica is an important issue for acupuncture and materia medica. In the past few centuries discusstion of the relationship has mainly focused on combining acupuncture and materia medica, and has therefore been less centred on a sufficient understanding of the genernal rationale of acupuncture and materia medica. Ma Shi and Wu Kun, two clinical physicians in the Ming Dynasty, systematically described the relationship between acupuncture and meteria medica in terms of their rationale and principles. They believed that acupuncture and meteria medica shared the same rationale, but they interpreted their ideas from the two ends of the relationship. The former gained insight into materia medica by drawing on acupuncture but the latter identified the nature of acupuncture by using materia medica. Their interpretation of the similarities between acupuncture and materia medica indicated that ancient physicians attempted to integrate acupuncture and materia medica clinically and theoretically and tried to minimise barriers between acupuncture and materia medica, which existed in those times. It is helpful to further understand the relationship between acupuncture and materia medica by examining the interpretation of Ma Shi and Wu Kun and developing reasonable and effective applications clinically.

In the Qin and Han Dynasties, three views were argued as the main causes of epidemic diseases, the observation of climate, the interaction between nature and humans and 'witchcraft'. Specifically it was thought that abnormal climate, personnel and government decree, and 'gods' and 'ghosts' were responsible for epidemics. This perception led to corresponding countermeasures to deal with epidemic diseases. The abnormal climate in nature was believed to result in the occurrence of epidemic diseases. This was interpreted by traditional Chinese medicine in terms of exogenous diseases. For instance, Huang Di Nei Jing interpreted leprosy with the point of wind-pathogen attacking. Shang Han Lun treated epidemic diseases with the viewpoint of exogenous pathogen. The classic books of Chinese materia medica recorded many cases of preventing and treating epidemic diseases with materia medica. The personnel and government decree refers to the wrong decrees of Emperors and the poor implementation of officials. This was argued to lead to various disasters including epidemic diseases. It was interpreted by Dong Zhongshu, a famous Confucian in the Han Dynasty, as the punishment of gods upon their misconduct. This reminded emperors about reflecting on the epidemic diseases and correcting their mistakes politically. 'Gods' and 'ghosts' were also believed as the cause of epidemics. This idea drove people to deal with epidemic diseases through sacrifices and exorcism.

Cheng Lin, a famous doctor in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties, had a great reputation with his medical achievements. According to the prefaces and postscripts in a variety of books and local records, he was born earlier than 1616 and died later than 1700 in Huaitang in She Xian. He learned medicine from his uncle Cheng Jingtong when he was young. After that, he learned from the famous doctor Yu Chang. He visited Kaifeng, Hangzhou, Suzhou and Yangzhou, and made friends with many then celebrities, such as Zhou Lianggong, Lin Sihuan and You Tong. He left many medical writings, such as Yi Xia Zhi Yan, Jin Gui Yao Lue Zhi Jie and Sheng Ji Zong Lu Zuan Yao. He was also good at painting and seal cutting. His family, the Cheng's, in Huaitang in Xin'an, had many off-springs who became famous doctors, such as Cheng Jin, Cheng Jie, Cheng Yandao, and Cheng Yingmao, with their medical history continuing up to the present day.

The North China Medical College typically represented medical colleges for traditional Chinese medicine in the 1930s when many of them were set up. It was based on the principles of centring on traditional Chinese medicine, following western medicine and integrated medicine in teaching. This led to the emergence of a great number of people with a high level of traditional Chinese medicine and strong belief in it. In terms of the textbooks and handouts for western medicine, compared to similar textbooks in other medical colleges, such as the Medical College of Xie He, at that time, the textbooks in the North China Medical College covered a variety of perspectives and categories. It was found that 20 textbooks for western medicine in the North China Medical College were designed reasonably in content and were simple and applicable in teaching. More importantly, it contained some traditional Chinese medicine in different degrees, with its typical characteristics. The course design and textbook compilation provided references for the teaching in contemporary medical universities.

"Rou Ji", as a name of disease syndrome, played an important role with its relevant theories and clinical experiences in historical recordings. However, it was treasured neither in modern archives nor by clinical physicians. The concept of "Rou Ji" started in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period (770 B.C. - 221 B.C.), and its name was first found in Shan Fan Fang in the Southern and Northern Dynasties (420-589). The symptoms of this disease mainly suggested weakness of limbs caused by exogenous factors. It was gradually developed into following symptoms, such like emaciation or muscle atrophy, fatigue, skin color change, abnormal skin sensation, poor digestion and absorption function of spleen and stomach. Its etiology was changed from exogenous factors into internal injuries and deficiency of congenital Qi. Its treatment was also changed with the change of the understanding of diseases. The dialectical thinking in its treatment in ancient medical materials may have reference value for current clinical diagnosis and treatment.

The ideology of Chinese traditional five-tone music therapy started in the five-tone music practice for witch medicine (Wu Yi) or Shaman medicine (Sa Man Yi Xue) treatment in the primitive period. It came from the five-element thinking, i.e, wood, fire, earth, metal and water which matches each inner organ in the human body to diagnose the lesion of the five main organs in traditional Chinese medicine. The five-tone system diagnoses the lesion of the five inner organs based on the changes of the five tones Jue, Zheng, Gong, Shang and Yu, and the construction of the traditional Chinese medicine theories. It eventually formed in the Yellow Emperor's Internal Classic (Huang Di Nei Jing)during the Warring Period. Chinese traditional five-tone music therapy evolved and developed in each historical dynasty, and laid an ideological and theoretical foundation for contemporary Chinese traditional five-tone music therapy. It helped construct a music therapy as a traditional cultural treasure with unique Chinese cultural characteristics.

Shiguzhai Hui Ju Jian Bian Dan Fang, was the only medical book for prescription and formula collected and compiled by Wu Mianxue in the period of the Wanli in the Ming Dynasty (1573-1620). It had seven volumes in total with six of them popular at that time. The volumes contained 1,460 folk formula and clinical prescriptions which were divided into 111 categories based on their corresponding symptoms of diseases. The set was issued in the beginning of the 17^th century, with only three subsets of the volumes left in China today. The three remained versions were the subset of volumes 4-5 left in the Ming Dynasty in the Medical College of Tianjin, the subset of volumes 1-2 and 6-7, with preface, left in the seventeenth of the Shun Zhi Period in the Qing Dynasty (1660) in the Shanghai University of Chinese Medicine and the subset of volumes 4 and 6-7 from time unknown. Additionally, three unabridged versions were found in the Cabinet Library of the National Archives of Japan. They were the Ming version with preface of the seventeenth of the Shun Zhi Period in the Qing Dynasty and a hand-copied version left in the Edo period. It was found that the preface in the seventeenth of the Shun Zhi Period in the Qing Dynasty in both of these versions in China as well as the version in Japan, were counterfeit. The main texts in these versions were edited according to the Ming version. The hand-copied version in Japan was transcribed by Kasahara Eisan and edited by Tanba Motoken according to the Ming version in the late Edo Period.