The earliest written records of Chinese medicine date back about 5000 years, and include the Huang-Di Nei-Jing,
possibly the oldest medical text in the world. These records had great
significance for the development of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM),
and even for Western medicine.
 |
© Copyright 2013 Leslie Cohen, All rights Reserved. Written For: Decoded Past
This manuscript,
found in a Han era tomb, gives prescriptions for 52 kinds of disease
remedies. Image courtesy of Professor Ying Li, Shanghai Institute of
Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Science, Shanghai, China.
|
Archaeologists have found some of the best information about the early use of Chinese medicine at grave sites. For example, two graves from the Han Dynasty (c. 202 BCE to c. 220 CE) contained ancient silk scrolls with references to 247 herbal substances used for medicinal purposes.
At the grave site of a doctor from the Later Han era (c. 25 to c. 220 CE), archaeologists found 92 wooden bamboo slips with pharmaceutical data which included a list of thirty prescriptions, referring to a hundred herbal medicines. These are believed to be the oldest written medical records in existence.
Excerpt and Photo From: "Early
Texts of Traditional Chinese Medicine – An Ancient and Sophisticated
Medical System", written by Leslie Cohen for Decoded Past. August 5th,
2013. Full article can be found here: DecodedPast.com
