Integrative Medicine in China

1 min

In September of 2010, I went to China to meet with leaders of the integrative medicine movement there. I lectured to doctors and medical students, and toured the Museum of Traditional Chinese Medicine at the Shanghai College of Traditional Chinese Medicine. It contains an astonishing 14,000 exhibits, including medical devices dating back to the Neolithic Age. Fascinating to see this long, unbroken history of a culture’s medical knowledge and practices. Learn more about Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM).

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Traditional Chinese Medicine falls into four categories: herbal, animal, mineral and metallic medicines. Of these, the primary category is herbal. This room has more than 3,000 herbal specimens.
My Chinese is rusty, so I was happy to find that the exhibits have English subtitles.
Most displays featured herbs, but there were also exhibits of animal-based preparations based on seahorses, snakes, insects and so on.
These are replicas of acupuncture needles dating back to the Han Dynasty (from 206 B.C. to 220 A.D.). The needles in those days were made of bone, but the philosophical underpinning for their use was the same as it is today - balancing Jing, Qi and Shen, the three vital elements of the human body. Jing is best described as the ultimate essence and source of life. Qi is energy and Shen is spirit.
Once metalworking developed in ancient China, metal acupuncture needles soon appeared, made of iron, copper, bronze, silver or - as in this case - gold.
On the lower right are acupuncture needles made of bone. In the upper left are "Bian-stones," specialized sharp-edged stone tools that appeared during China's Neolithic, or "New Stone" Age. They were used as part of an early form of acupuncture therapy.