In this paper,the name,origin,producing area,harvesting and processing changes of Paeonia lactiflora used in classical prescriptions were studied by textual research of herbal medicine and field investigation. Chinese herbaceous peony wasn' t distinguished before the Northern and Southern Dynasties; Tao Hongjing proposed that there were two kinds of P. lactiflora in the Northern and Southern Dynasties,but they were not clearly defined; since the Song and Yuan Dynasties,the method of distinguishing P. lactiflora by flower color and root color was proposed. In the Ming Dynasty,people put forward the criteria similar to modern ones,that is,to divide red peony and white peony by means of harvesting and processing,and to continue for future generations. Since modern times,different growth patterns and processing methods have been used to classify red peony and white peony. Paeoniae Radix Alba has gradually formed three major cultivation genuine producing areas: Hangzhou,Sichuan and Bozhou,while Paeoniae Radix Rubra in modern times has praised the wild medicinal materials produced in Inner Mongolia,Toronto and other places. According to textual research,Paeoniae Radix Alba was highly praised in Song Dynasty. When people in Song Dynasty revised the previous literature,they changed " Shaoyao" into " Baishao" and continued to use Paeoniae Radix Alba for future generations. Therefore,the origin of P. lactiflora in classical prescriptions before the Song Dynasty should be determined by the combination of prescription function and prescription meaning evolution; After the Song Dynasty,the origins of " Red Paeonia Root" and " White Paeonia Root" in prescriptions are basically the same as those in today's prescriptions,which should be recorded in ancient prescriptions. For the medicinal flavor of " Paeonia Root" recorded in prescriptions after the Song Dynasty,the origins can be determined by functional domination and the evolution of prescriptions.
China ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal/history* ; History, 15th Century ; History, 16th Century ; History, 17th Century ; History, Medieval ; Humans ; Paeonia ; Phytotherapy ; Plants, Medicinal

After being introduced to Japan, the Chinese acupuncture and massage therapy has changed a lot, in which the influence aroused by the blind practitioners cannot be ignored. Through analyzing the development and the transition of the blind acupuncture and massage industry in Japan, it is found that the tube needle technique, changeable acupoints concept, technical deviation and the importance on acupoints rather than meridians are still existed commonly today, which are introduced by the blind acupuncture and massage practitioners, the special group in Japan. In the process of development, the interaction with the governmental strategy has played the essential role in the consolidation of the above features.
Acupuncture ; education ; history ; manpower ; Acupuncture Points ; Acupuncture Therapy ; history ; History, 15th Century ; History, 16th Century ; History, 17th Century ; History, 18th Century ; History, 19th Century ; History, Ancient ; History, Medieval ; Humans ; Japan ; Massage ; history ; manpower ; Visually Impaired Persons

There is time-honored history and culture of medicinal plant cultivation in China. In the present review, the medicinal plant cultivation history in china was summarized, its current situation and question were analyzed, and the prospects of medicinal plant cultivation research were pointed out, with the purpose of accelerating the growth of medicinal plant cultivation research.
China ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; chemistry ; history ; History, 15th Century ; History, 16th Century ; History, 17th Century ; History, 18th Century ; History, 19th Century ; History, 20th Century ; History, 21st Century ; History, Ancient ; History, Medieval ; Materia Medica ; chemistry ; economics ; history ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; history ; trends ; Plants, Medicinal ; chemistry ; growth & development

Based on ancient literature of acupuncture in Canon of Chinese Medicine (4th edition), the articles regarding acupuncture for urinary incontinence were retrieved and collected to establish a database. By Weka data mining software, the multi-level association rules analysis method was applied to analyze the acupoints selection characteristics and rules of ancient acupuncture for treatment of urinary incontinence. Totally 356 articles of acupuncture for urinary incontinence were collected, involving 41 acupoints with a total frequency of 364. As a result, (1) the acupoints in the yin-meridian of hand and foot were highly valued, as the frequency of acupoints in yin-meridians was 2.6 times than that in yang-meridians, and the frequency of acupoints selected was the most in the liver meridian of foot-jueyin; (2) the acupoints in bladder meridian of foot-taiyang were also highly valued, and among three yang-meridians of foot, the frequency of acupoints in the bladder meridian of foot-taiyang was 54, accounting for 65.85% (54/82); (3) more acupoints selected were located in the lower limbs and abdomen; (4) specific acupoints in above meridians were mostly selected, presenting 73.2% (30/41) to the ratio of number and 79.4% (289/364) to the frequency, respectively; (5) Zhongji (CV 3), the front-mu point of bladder meridian, was seldom selected in the ancient acupuncture literature, which was different from modern literature reports. The results show that urinary incontinence belongs to external genitalia diseases, which should be treated from yin, indicating more yin-meridians be used and special acupoints be focused on. It is essential to focus inheritance and innovation in TCM clinical treatment, and applying data mining technology to ancient literature of acupuncture could provide classic theory basis for TCM clinical treatment.
Acupuncture Points ; Acupuncture Therapy ; history ; China ; Data Mining ; Databases, Bibliographic ; history ; History, 15th Century ; History, 16th Century ; History, 17th Century ; History, 18th Century ; History, 19th Century ; History, 20th Century ; History, 21st Century ; History, Ancient ; History, Medieval ; Humans ; Medicine in Literature ; Urinary Incontinence ; history ; therapy

This study aims to address questions regarding the translation of 'gout' into 'tongfeng' in East Asia. To this end, the formation process of the origins, 'gout' from Western medicine and 'tongfeng' from Oriental medicine, and the translational process were investigated through the relevant records and literature dating from the 16th century on. Symptoms associated with gout were originally mentioned in ancient Egypt and various terminologies were used to refer to gout, such as podagra, cheiragra and gonogra. The word 'gout', which is derived from Latin, was used for the first time in the 13th century. The reason for this linguistic alteration is thought to be the need for a comprehensive term to cover the various terms for gout in symptomatic body parts, since it can occur concurrently in many joints. However, it took hundreds of years before gout was independently established as a medical term. In oriental medicine, terms describing diseases with features similar to gout include bibing, lijiefeng, baihufeng and tongfeng. Among them, the concept of 'tongfeng' has been established since the Jin and Yuan dynasties. The cause, prevention and various treatments for tongfeng were proposed throughout the Ming and Qing dynasties. The early translation of gout and tongfeng in East Asia, respectively, is estimated to have occurred in the 18th century. The first literature translating gout in China was 'An English and Chinese Vocabulary in the Court Dialect (yinghua yunfu lijie)'. From the publication of this book until the late 19th century, gout was translated into an unfamiliar Chinese character 'Jiu feng jiao', likely because the translation was done mostly by foreign missionaries at the time, and they created a new word on the basis of Western medicine instead of researching and translating similar diseases in oriental medicine. In Japan, the first book translating gout was 'A Pocket Dictionary of the English and Japanese Language (Eiwa taiyaku shuchin jisho)', Japan's the first English-Japanese translation dictionary. In this book, gout was translated into tongfeng, a word adopted from oriental medicine. These differences from China are thought to be caused by Rangaku doctors, who, influenced by oriental medicine in the Jin and Yuan dynasties, played an important role in translating medical terminology at that time.
China ; Gout/*history ; History, 15th Century ; History, 16th Century ; History, 17th Century ; History, 18th Century ; History, 19th Century ; History, Ancient ; History, Medieval ; Japan ; Medicine, East Asian Traditional/*history ; *Terminology as Topic ; Translating

Through the cases of approximately 80 females in the case records of traditional physician Yi Sugwi (1664-1740?), the present study divided and reclassified the lives and diseases of females during the latter half of the Joseon Dynasty into childhood, obstetrics- and gynecology-related problems in adulthood, other diseases in adulthood, and old age and analyzed them. According to the results, female children were treated less preciously than were male children so that treatments by traditional physicians were sought out less when they were ill than in the case of male children, and acute infectious diseases were the most serious health problems. In the process of receiving treatment from traditional physicians as adults, females came in contact with traditional physicians, who were male, when necessary including face-to-face sessions and the reception of pulse examination but the yangban (literati-official) class practiced sex segregation as much as possible while the lower classes were considerably free from such restrictions. For female adults, the most serious health issues were pregnancy and childbirth so that they received help from traditional physicians and midwives when there were problems. Traditional physicians determined females' pregnancy and the health of fetuses and pregnant women through pulse examinations and medication and actively responded to diverse problems that surfaced in the process with medication and other treatments. Acute infectious diseases, too, were serious diseases suffered by females, and problems involving cold damage and the digestive system were among diseases frequently suffered by females in adulthood and old age. In old age, females often became ill in the arduous process of dealing with the deaths of adult descendants, siblings, and spouses, and tumors were among the major causes of their deaths. The deaths of those aged 70 or above were accepted as quite natural. Aged females endeavored to maintain their health and played the role of elders giving care to their descendants.
Adolescent ; Adult ; Aged ; Child ; Child, Preschool ; Communicable Diseases/etiology/*history/therapy ; Delivery, Obstetric/*history ; Female ; Gynecology/*history ; History, 17th Century ; History, 18th Century ; Humans ; Infant ; Infant, Newborn ; Korea ; Middle Aged ; Obstetrics/*history ; Young Adult

This study clarifies the causes of the repetitive occurrences of such phenomena as rinderpest, epidemic, famine, and tiger disasters recorded in the Joseon Dynasty Chronicle and the Seungjeongwon Journals in the period of great catastrophe, the late 17th century in which the great Gyeongsin famine (1670~1671) and the great Eulbyeong famine (1695~1696) occurred, from the perspective that they were biological exchanges caused by the new arrival of rinderpest in the early 17th century. It is an objection to the achievements by existing studies which suggest that the great catastrophes occurring in the late 17th century are evidence of phenomena in a little ice age. First of all, rinderpest has had influence on East Asia as it had been spread from certain areas in Machuria in May 1636 through Joseon, where it raged throughout the nation, and then to the west part of Japan. The new arrival of rinderpest was indigenized in Joseon, where it was localized and spread periodically while it was adjusted to changes in the population of cattle with immunity in accordance with their life spans and reproduction rates. As the new rinderpest, which showed high pathogenicity in the early 17th century, was indigenized with its high mortality and continued until the late 17th century, it broke out periodically in general. Contrastively, epidemics like smallpox and measles that were indigenized as routine ones had occurred constantly from far past times. As a result, the rinderpest, which tried a new indigenization, and the human epidemics, which had been already indigenized long ago, were unexpectedly overlapped in their breakout, and hence great changes were noticed in the aspects of the human casualty due to epidemics. The outbreak of rinderpest resulted in famine due to lack of farming cattle, and the famine caused epidemics among people. The casualty of the human population due to the epidemics in turn led to negligence of farming cattle, which constituted factors that triggered rage and epidemics of rinderpest. The more the number of sources of infection and hosts with low immunity increased, the more lost human resources and farming cattle were lost, which led to a great famine. The periodic outbreak of the rinderpester along with the routine prevalence of various epidemics in the 17thcentury also had influenced on domestic and wild animals. Due to these phenomenon, full-fledged famines occurred that were incomparable with earlier ones. The number of domestic animals that were neglected by people who, faced with famines, were not able to take care of them was increased, and this might have brought about the rage of epidemics like rinderpest in domestic animals like cattle. The great Gyeongsin and Eulbyeong famines due to reoccurrence of the rinderpest in the late 17th century linked rinderpester, epidemics and great famines so that they interacted with each other. Furthermore, the recurring cycle of epidemics-famines-rinderpest-great famines constituted a great cycle with synergy, which resulted in eco-economic-historical great catastrophes accompanied by large scale casualties. Therefore, the Gyeongsin and Eulbyeong famines occurring in the late 17th century can be treated as events caused by the repetition of various periodic disastrous factors generated in 1670~1671 and in 1695~1696 respectively, and particularly as phenomena caused by biological exchanges based on rinderpester., rather than as little ice age phenomena due to relatively long term temperature lowering.
Animals ; Cattle ; Communicable Diseases/epidemiology/etiology/*history ; Epidemics/*history ; History, 17th Century ; Korea/epidemiology ; Population Dynamics ; Rinderpest/epidemiology/*history/virology ; Starvation/epidemiology/etiology/*history ; Tigers/physiology

The history of international spread of Chinese acupuncture and moxibustion is divided into three sta ges in this paper, and the spreading characteristics are analyzed. The first stage is approximately from the 6th century to the end of the 15th century, during which acupuncture and moxibustion were spread to neighboring countries by personnel exchanges; the spread towards Korean peninsula, Japan and Vietnam was considered the most successful communication. The second stage lasts from the beginning of 16th century to 1970. At the early time of this stage, the employees of the Dutch East Indian Company introduced acupuncture and moxibustion to European countries through Indonesia and Japan, leading to a short and small fashion; also the United States and Australia were involved. At the late time of this stage, by medical aid teams dispatched by China government, acupuncture and moxibustion were introduced to African countries. The third stage starts from 1971. With the establishment of Sino-US diplomatic relations as an opportunity, acupuncture and moxibustion were being spread rapidly to the world through radio, TV and internet. So far it has been introduced to more than 140 countries and areas. Performing serious studies on the spreading characteristics of three stages will promote the international communication of acupuncture and moxibustion, by which the world will have a better understanding onthe broad and profound traditional cultures of China.
Acupuncture Therapy ; history ; China ; Europe ; History, 15th Century ; History, 16th Century ; History, 17th Century ; History, 18th Century ; History, 19th Century ; History, 20th Century ; History, Ancient ; History, Medieval ; Humans ; Internationality ; Japan ; Moxibustion ; history ; United States

Dermatology ; history ; History, 15th Century ; History, 16th Century ; History, 17th Century ; History, Medieval ; Humans ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; history

The academic thoughts of Lingnan acupuncture and moxibustion have been an essential part of Lingnan medicine. By exploration and arrangement of Lingnan medicine and books, journals and literatures regarding acupuncture and moxibustion, the ancient and modern acupuncturists and their academic contributions in Lingnan area were reviewed. As a result, the number of Lingnan acupuncturists and their works was low before Qing Dynasty, while from the Republic of China era to People's Republic of China, a considerable amount of acupuncturists emerged with quite a lot of works. By exploration and arrangement of Lingnan acupuncturists and their works and academic opinion, the acupuncture-moxibustion school characterized by Lingnan could be formed and developed.
Acupuncture ; education ; history ; manpower ; Acupuncture Therapy ; history ; China ; History, 17th Century ; History, 18th Century ; History, 19th Century ; History, 20th Century ; Humans ; Moxibustion ; history ; Physicians ; history