Category: Chinese Culture

Chinese Painting, or Chinese ink and wash, also called Guo Hua (国画) in Chinese, is well-known for its unique art form and painting skills. Chinese painting is generally done on rice paper or silk, sometimes also on fan, porcelain, bowl, dish and screen; and painting materials include brushes, Chinese ink and dye. There are broadly three subjects for traditional Chinese paintings, portrait, landscape, and flowers and birds, of which the landscape is the most familiar with people that the Chinese painting often known as mountains and waters painting, or Shan Shui Hua (Chinese:山水画).

Chinese painting has a long historical standing as early as 2000 years ago in the Warring States Period (475BC- 221BC) and done on silks. From the premier religious painting to the landscape and flowers and birds in the two Han dynasties (202BC- 220AD), Chinese painting was flourishing in Tang Dynasty (618-907) and matured in different styles in Ming and Qing dynasties (1368-1911).

Chinese paintings are often mounted into frames or scrolls, and generally combine with Chinese calligraphy. On a typical Chinese painting, there is always an inscription as well as the painter’s seal on the corner space; what is more interesting is that some genuine pieces by great painters are always full of seals and inscriptions, as collectors in the past were habituated to put on their own seals and add some new inscriptions on paintings. Therefore, some paintings are extremely precious with many seals and inscriptions by quite a few great painters and some emperors, while it is also a pity that sometimes too much to cover parts of the paintings. Today, famous paintings of past dynasties are generally collected in national museums; and those paintings of modern times in markets are with sole seal or inscription of the painter. To buy a Chinese painting, visitors may go to the specialized shops around scenic spots, art academies and art galleries.

Modern TCM can be classified to be Basic TCM and Clinical TCM.

The Basic TCM contains Basic Theories of Chinese Medicine, Diagnostics of Chinese Medicine, Science of Chinese Pharmacology, Formulas of Chinese Medicine, Internal Canon of Medicine, Treatise on Febrile Diseases, History of Chinese Medicine, Doctrines of Various Historical Schools, etc.

The Clinical TCM includes Internal Medicine of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Surgery of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Gynaecologic Traditional Chinese Medicine, Paediatrics of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chinese Acupuncture, Chinese Orthopedics and Traumatology, Chinese Massage, Chinese Ophthalmology, Chinese Otolaryngology, Chinese and Western Integrative Medicine, Chinese Qigong (breathing technique), TCM Nursing Care, etc.

a. Herbal Ingredients
Nowadays Chinese herbal medicines can be classified into two: raw herbal ingredients and Chinese patent drugs.

Raw herbal ingredients (usually sun-dried herbs as well as animals such as snake gall, minerals such as magnetite, ostracum such as pearls, etc) are available in private TCM clinics, pharmacies and hospitals. People can decoct them with water and drink the decoction following the doctor's advice. Due to natures and characters of different medicinal herbs, the decocting time and decocting methods may vary. Therefore, people should pay attention to that to gain the best curative effect while decocting.

By contrast, Chinese patent drugs (decoction, pills, electuary, pulvis, vinum, troche, syrup, electuary, medicinal tea, etc) are more convenient, as they have usually been processed by modern medical technology and patients can take them directly. Generally speaking, herbal therapy is most widely used among all of the TCM treatments.

b. Acupuncture and Moxibustion（针灸）
Acupuncture is a traditional Chinese medical treatment of pain or disease by inserting the tips of needles at specific points on the skin, while moxibustion treats patients by burning moxa strips or moxa cones above the skin to warm specific acupoints up to regulate the qi and blood of the body.

Clinically, acupuncture and moxibustion are adopted on different acupoints according to the pathogenesis diagnosed by traditional Chinese medical treatment. As a miraculous part of TCM, the acupuncture-moxibustion therapy has been spread to the world early in the 6th century.

There is a story between this old treatment and James Reston, former director of New York Times, who was sent to Beijing for covering news in July of 1971. During his stay in Beijing, Reston had a successful appendectomy but felt pain on the next day. With his permit, Doctor Li, who is an expert of acupuncture and moxibustion, treated Reston by acupuncture and moxibustion therapy. Unimaginably, Reston’s symptom eased and never relapsed after that. Returning to the USA, this famous journalist published an article about his personal medical experience in China, which made this old Chinese medical treatment known in his country.

So far, acupuncture and moxibustion have been used in over 120 countries and regions; in addition, acupuncture and moxibustion organizations, educational institutions and research institutes (such as Medical College of Paris University) were set up in the world. It is reported that acupuncture and moxibustion therapy is effective at 307 diseases, of which over 100 get significant effect. In 1980, 43 diseases were recommended to use the therapy by the World Health Organization (WHO). Then in 1987, the World Federation of Acupuncture and Moxibustion Societies (WFAS) was established in Beijing, which marks acupuncture and moxibustion is officially notarized as a part of world medical community. On November 16th, 2010, this therapy was listed as “Intangible Cultural Heritage” by the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

The original TCM emerged in primitive society, then formed its basic medical theory and developed iatrology and anatomy during the Spring and Autumn Period (771 BC – 403 BC). Together with Four Diagnostic Methods, in that time stone needles, acupuncture, decoction of medicinal ingredients, moxa-moxibustion and some other methods have been used in medical treatment, and human physiology began to be related to the Taoist Yin & Yang, and five elements.

In Eastern Han Dynasty (25 AD – 220 AD), the famous medical scientist Zhang Zhongjing had realized the “Eight Principal Syndromes” (阴阳: Yin and Yang, 表里: exterior and interior, 寒热: cold and heat, 虚实: hypofunction and hyperfunction) and summarized the “Eight Therapeutic Methods” (emesis, purgation , mediation, warming, heat reducing, toning up, and elimination); another doctor and metical scientist Hua Tuo was famous for excelling in surgical operation and anesthesia, and he had also invented a set of body building exercise – Wuqinxi, which is based on movements of tiger, deer, bear, ape, and crane; moreover, “Sheng Nong's Herbal Classic”, the first TCM monograph, was also completed in this dynasty.

It was Tang Dynasty (618 – 907) when one of the earliest pharmacopeia "Tang Materia Medica" was issued by the imperial authority of the dynasty; and Sun Simiao, who is still respected as "King of Medicine" by Chinese today, summed up the antecedent medical experience and gathered over 5000 prescriptions. With the coming of boom period of Tang Dynasty and its following dynasties, traditional Chinese medical science and a large number of Chinese medical writings were diffused to Japan, Korea, Central Asia, West Asia and some other areas.

During the Song Dynasty, imperial medical colleges were set up and medical branches were classified in a more systematic way, and the illustrated pharmacopoeia "Ben Cao Tu Jing" was published.

From the Jin (1115 – 1234) and Yuan (1271 – 1368) dynasties, TCM began to decline. At the late Ming Dynasty, one of the most famous TCM doctor Li Shizhen summarized the TCM materials and experience before the 16th century and authored the "Compendium of Materia Medica", which is hailed as a priceless treasure of TCM.

When the history moved into the end of Qing Dynasty (1616 – 1912), the western powers’ invasion to China made a great impact on the country, including change in medical science. With the pouring in of western medicine, some Chinese people began to advocate it and the development of TCM faced a huge challenge, but it is fortunate that it is still passed on from generation to generation until this day.

After the founding of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in 1949, the government attached great importance to TCM and series of measures were adopted to protect its development. Chairman Mao Zedong, the founder of PRC, said TCM is one of the most the great treasures that China contributes to the world.