History
Last revised:
c. 1st century BCE
Huangdi Neijing (Inner Canon of the Yellow Emperor): fragmentary texts of different medical lineages compiled in the Han period. Basis of yin-yang theory, qi and organ systems.
200–250 CE
Shennong Ben Cao Jing: first systematic summary of Chinese herbal medicine (Eastern Han).
196–220 CE
Shang Han Lun (Treatise on Cold Damage) collated by Zhang Zhongjing: the first medical work to combine yin-yang and five-phases theory with drug therapy; source of many classical formulas.
1578
Bencao Gangmu (Compendium of Materia Medica) by Li Shizhen: an encyclopaedia of drugs from the 16th century.
early 20th century
Chinese modernisers seek to curb traditional practices; practitioners reorganise selected elements under the name “Chinese medicine”.
1950–1960s
State support in the PRC, standardised textbooks, integration with modern medicine; “barefoot doctors” from 1968 (Cultural Revolution).
2015
Nobel Prize for the discovery of artemisinin (Tu Youyou), inspired by an old herbal text.
2019 – 2022
WHO adopts ICD-11 with a supplementary traditional medicine chapter; in effect from 1 Jan 2022.