Traditional Chinese Medicine

Traditional Chinese medicine is a series of different medical practices that have been influenced and promoted throughout china’s history based on cultural or religious beliefs about the inner workings of the human body and the world around us. Much of the field lacks a purely scientific basis for its effectiveness, but it is often cited as being insightful or even helpful in most modern day scientific journals. Additionally while new medical technologies have continued to be introduced into the Chinese public overtime, the overall usage of traditional chines medicine and the cultural beliefs connected to it still remain a huge part of Chinese society as a whole. Because of this analyzing the history and foundations of traditional Chinese medical system, can yield great insight into the inner workings of the minds of the Chinese public, making it important to understand from an anthropological point of views.

Additionally as interest in Chinese medicine raises in the west due to increasing desire to positive effects of non-western medicine worldwide and incorporate them into FDA approved medical treatments, understanding the foundations of it becomes important from a practical point of view. Because of this I think it is warranted to overview some of the basic history, ideological foundations and diagnostic techniques that shaped this interesting part of Chinese culture and provide my response to what I think it says about china as a whole(although I will not go into major detail about treatment themselves, such as herbology).

History of traditional Chinese medicine

The first step to understanding the basics of traditional Chinese medicine is examining the history of the development of medicine in china as a whole. While exact da...

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...niques called pulse feeling and body palpation.

Conclusion

From what I can tell traditional Chinese medicine is much more ingrained with religious ideas like doasim and traditional cultural beliefs than more westernized medicines are. The importance of it in chinese culture also seems to go beyond that of just practical purposes, as it also seems to be connected to several important historical figures and events in Chinese history ,which likely makes people identify it defining traits and prides of their nation. I would probably add onto it and say that they have a right to feel pride in it, because not only are the ideologies the build it interesting and through provoking on their own but I’ve seen more than a few papers that have analyzed the chemical compounds of traditional Chinese remedies to find they do contain chemicals that are legitimately good for people.