Traditional Chinese Medicine
中药
Traditional Chinese medicine ( shortened as.TCM) , the origin of which could be traced back to the primitive society, boasts a history of thou-sands of years. It has been the result of a constant accumulation and summary of Chinese people in the long-term period of productive labor, Iiving practices and medical practices. According to the written records in the ancient time, TCM originated in the primitive society; it was in the process of productive labor and Iiving practices that people at the time gradually discovered TCM and then developed it. People in the primitive society, when collecting the edible plants, often ate some so-called poisonous ones by mistake, which would often result in the occurrence of vomiting and diarrhea, even coma and death. This forced people at the time to identify the plants scrupulously in case something unexpected occurred.When people felt sick, they might, however, think of using the plants to cure their illnesses, so the early medical practices were carried out. The Spring and Autumn and the Warring States Period witnessed a rapid development in the Chinese literature, philosophy, natural sciences, etc. , and meanwhile, the medical science was then greatly developed. The publication of the TCM treatise which typified the period, namely Huangdi Neijing , marked the formation of the unique theoretical system of TCM.Not until the late Eastern Han Dynasty was the first TCM treatise Shengnong Bencao Jing ( also Shennon,g's Classic of Materia Medica )published, which laid the theoretical foundation for TCM. Since the publication ofthe work, there have been hundreds of treatises on TCM, all of which have contributed a lot to its development. Among them, Bencao Gangmu ( also An Outline Treatise of Medical Herbs ) written by Li Shizhen in the Ming Dynasty was a world renowned treatise on TCM.
中药起源很早，可以追溯到原始社会，有数千年的悠久历史。中医药是我国人民在长期的生产劳动，生活实践与医疗实践中不断地进行积累总结的结果。根据古代文字的记载，中药起源于原始社会，是当时的人们在从事生产活动、生活实践过程中逐渐发现和发展起来的。在原始社会时期，人们在采集可食用性植物时，常会误食一些所谓的“毒物”，而引起呕吐、腹泻，甚至昏迷、死亡等情况，这就迫使人们不得不小心翼翼地去辨认这些植物，以防发生意外。但是，当人们发生疾病时，可能又想到利用这些植物治疗某些疾病，于是便开展了早期的医疗实践活动。春秋战国时期是我国文学、哲学及自然科学等各方面迅速发展的时期，同时也带动了医学的发展，此时期具有代表性的中医典籍《黄帝内经》问世，标志着中医学独特理论体系已经形成。至东汉末年，我国的第一部中药学专著《神农本草经》出版，奠定了中药学的理论基础。自《神农本草经》问世至今，历代有关中药学的专著有数百种之多，均对我国中药学的发展作出了较大的贡献，其中明代李时珍的《本草纲目》更是誉满全球的中药学专著。