History of Traditional Chinese Medicine is as old as history of the Chinese civilization. Much of the doctrine of traditional Chinese medicine is obtained from the similar philosophical fundamentals that added to the evolution of Taoist belief, and demonstrates the classical Chinese faith that all human experiences convey causative principles effective in the environment at all scales. The Yellow Emperor supposedly, by Chinese tradition, composed his Neijing Suwen or Basic Questions of Internal Medicine, after a consultation with his minister. Modern scholars fix the date at no earlier than the Han dynasty, for the origin of history of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
The Chinese Hippocrates, Zhang Zhong Jing who lived in the Han era makes the first reference to the above mentioned treatise in the history of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Subsequently we find many such references in every epoch in Chinese history.
Classical Chinese Medicine (CCM) was categorized and codified for the first time in the history of Traditional Chinese Medicine, in the 1960's under Mao Zedong by 10 M.D doctors after surviving the discriminatory oppression and this became the Traditional Chinese Medicine(TCM) that the world knows and recognizes. It is TCM which is taught and practiced the world over today.
The following list provides a time line for the development of TCM through history:
- Time and writer unknown, Huang Di Nei Jing (Classic of Internal Medicine by Emperor Huang). The earliest existent classic of TCM passed on to the present.
- Warring States Period (5th century BC to 221 BC): Silk scrolls recording channels and collaterals.
- Eastern Han Dynasty (206 BC–AD 220))to Three Kingdoms Period (220 - 280 AD):
- Jìn Dynasty (265-420)
- Tang Dynasty((June 18, 618–June 4, 907))
- Song Dynasty.
- Emergence of Wenbing School
- Yuan Dynasty(1271 to 1368)
- Ming Dynasty (1368 to 1644)
- Qing Dynasty(1644-1912)
Thus almost all dynasties patronized this holistic form of medicine and thus helped its growth.
