2,The history of Chinese medicine.

3,The features of TCM.

4,What will we offer?

*Some articles are from "A practical English-Chinese Library of TCM"

1,What is TCM(Traditional Chinese Medicine)?

2,The history of Traditional Chinese Medicine.

3,What are the features of TCM?

TCM has many characteristics both in the understanding of the human body's physiology and pathology and in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases. These characteristics, however, can be summarized in the following two aspects:
1, The Concept of the Organism as a Whole
By "organic whole" we mean entirely and unity. TCM attaches great importance to the unity of the human body itself and its relationship with nature, and holds that the human body itself is an organic whole and has very close and inseparable relations with the external natural surroundings. The concept of emphasizing the unity within the body and the unified relations between the body and the outside world is known as that of an organic whole.
1) The Unity within the Body
The human body is made up of viscera, bowels, tissues and other organs. Each of them has its own special physiological functions. All these different physiological function are a component part of the entire life process of the body. And this determines the unity within the body. Therefore, the component parts of the human body are inseparable from each other in structure, related, subsidiary and conditional to each other in physiology, and of certain influence upon each other in pathology. These mutual relations and influences are centered around the five viscera (the heart, the liver, the spleen, the lung and the kidney) and come into effect through the channels and collateral. For instance, the heart is interior-exteriorly related to the small intestine, controls blood circulation, and has its " specific opening" in the tongue proper and so on.
2) The Unity between the Human Body and Nature
Man lives in nature and takes nature as his vital conditions for living. In the meantime, he is influenced directly or indirectly by the movements and changes in nature, to which he is bound to make corresponding physiological and pathological responses. For example. As the climate varies with the four seasons in a year, the normal pulse conditions(including pulse rate, rhythm, volume, tension, etc.) are also varied. The pulse becomes string-like in spring, full in summer, floating in autumn and sunken in winter. This provides a basis for doctors to distinguish abnormal pulse conditions from the normal ones during the clinical diagnosis. The occurrence, development and changes of many diseases are seasonal. Of course, people can certainly reduce or eliminate some seasonal diseases by doing physical exercises, transforming nature and taking active measures of prevention. TCM physicians also have observed that along with alternation of early morning, late afternoon, daytime and night in a day, a disease may become severer or milder.
Based on the theory of the circulation of Qi characteristics of TCM, the pathogenesis of the human body is often influenced by the periodic changes of the climate, which take place every 12 years or every sixty years.
3) The Guiding Function of the Concept of the Organism as a Whole
The concept of the organism as a whole not only embodies TCM's understanding of the human body itself and the relationship between it and nature, but also provides the medical workers with a necessary method of thinking in treating diseases. Such a concept penetrates through the entire theory concerning the physiology and pathology of TCM, and of great significance in guiding diagnosis and treatment. For example, TCM believes "the heart has its specific opening in the tongue proper", so the physiological functions and pathological changes of the heart can be known by observing the tongue. Pale tongue indicates the blood deficiency of the heart; purple tongue with petechiae, the blood stagnation of the heart. To cure these diseases, the first important thing of all is to find our where the key pathogenesis is according to the relationship between the heart and the tongue, by taking into consideration of the concept of the organism as a whole, and by making a comprehensive analysis of the case.
Why does the human body have such a close relationship with nature, and why does the human body itself act in accordance with such a strict time rhythm and regularity? In recent years, some scholars have pointed our that these result both from the adaptation of all living things to the changes of physical surroundings such as the earth's revolution, rotation and so on, and from the domination of some structure with the body, now it has been proved that in the nucleus suprachiasmaticus, epiphysis, pituitary bodies and adrenal gland, there exist such structures as to control the time rhythm and regularity. From the foregoing it is easy to see that the concept of "Tian Ren Xing Ying"(relevant adaptation of the human body to natural environment in TCM) has its material base and a scientific basis as well.
2, Diagnosis and Treatment Based on an Overall Analysis of signs and Symptoms
By "Bian Zheng" we mean analyzing the relevant information, signs and symptoms collected through the four methods of diagnosis (observation, listening and smelling, inquiring , pulse feeling and palpation) in the light of the theory of TCM, having a good idea of the cause, nature and location of a disease, and the relationship between pathogenic factors and the vital energy, and summarizing them into "Zheng" of a certain nature(syndrome). By "Shi Zhi" we mean determining the corresponding therapeutic method according to the conclusion of an overall differentiation of symptoms, signs and others.

4, What will we offer?