HISTORY OF CHINESE MEDICINE

Oriental Medicine is at least three thousand years old. Written evidence from China dates back to about 1,500 BC, and archeological evidence of acupuncture needles and medicinal herbs dates back to about 5,000 BC. Sometime between 400 BC and 200 BC, the Huang Di Nei Ching  (Yellow Emperor's Classic) was written. This text describes a conversation between the Yellow Emperor and his court physician that took place in about 3,000 BC. In that book, the Emperor asks numerous health-related questions, and his physician answers them with lengthy discussions. There is no evidence that this conversation actually took place, and it is more likely that this story was used as a framework to record and transmit  medical principles and theory. Prior to written language, storytelling was used throughout the world as a way to record history and knowledge, and this story likely developed from such an oral tradition.

While the basics of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) theory were first laid down in print in the Huang Di Nei Jing after a long period of development in China, TCM spread throughout southeast Asia region as far as Japan by a thousand years ago. As various regional cultures gained access to TCM, they adapted it and developed variations and specialties, utilizing local healing methods. From the basics of Yin-Yang, Qi, Five Elements, Eight Principles, and other common theories, there developed advanced systems, such as Japanese Hara Diagnosis, Japanese Kanpo, Korean Constitutional Therapy, and others. When Traditional Chinese Medicine finally reached Europe, advances were made there also, such as French Energetics and Nosier's Ariculotherapy. In deference to the common origins of all of these healing arts, it is often referred to as Traditional Chinese Medicine. However, in recognition of the long-standing prevalence throughout the Orient, it it now usually referred to as Traditional Oriental Medicine (TOM), Oriental Medicine (OM) , or Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (AOM).

The other event that occurred over the past one thousand years has been a unification and cross-mixing of acupuncture, herbal medicine, manual therapy, exercise,  meditation, breath work, and other related medical methodologies, especially so during the past thousand years. Oriental Medicine experienced a gradual recovery after World War II, as Asian nations finally gained total independence from the European colonialism of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and then again during the past three decades as trade and communications normalized and expanded between most Asian countries and the rest of the world.   Reference: History of Acupuncture

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