A Record of Healing the World with Traditional Chinese Medicine

In ancient times, people lived on raw meat and wild plants and were often stricken by miasma and disease. Shennong traveled across mountains and rivers, tasting hundreds of herbs to discern their properties and flavors. One day, he encountered seventy-two poisons before finally discovering that tea could cure them. His willingness to test remedies on himself laid the foundation of Chinese medicine: putting people first and saving lives. In those days, tribal shamans treated illness with prayers, but amid the indistinction between shamanism and medicine, people had already begun exploring primitive treatments, using stone needles to lance boils and moxibustion to warm the meridians.

The Yellow Emperor and Qibo sat together to discuss the Way, and the Huangdi Neijing came into being. “Yin and yang are the Way of heaven and earth”: these few words laid bare the foundations of medicine. The book likened the human body to a microcosm, with the five organs corresponding to the five elements and qi and blood flowing like mighty rivers. Thus were established the core principles of Chinese medicine: viewing the body as a whole and treating illness according to its pattern. Like boats navigating a dark night, later generations of physicians followed this beacon as they forged ahead through the vast river of medicine.