results of pharmacological experience during their time periods. it was the first systematic summary of chinese herbal medicine. most of the pharmacological theories and compatibility rules and the proposed "seven emotions and harmony" principle have played a role in the practice of medicine for thousands of years. therefore, it has been a textbook for medical workers in modern china. the full text of shennong ben cao jing in english can be found online. post-han dynasty in the centuries that followed, several shorter books tried to summarize or systematize the contents of the yellow emperor's inner canon. the canon of problems (probably second century ce) tried to reconcile divergent doctrines from the inner canon and developed a complete medical system centered on needling therapy. the ab canon of acupuncture and moxibustion (zhenjiu jiayi jing 針灸甲乙經, compiled by huangfu mi sometime between 256 and 282 ce) assembled a consistent body of doctrines concerning acupuncture; whereas the canon of the pulse (maijing 脈經; c. 280) presented itself as a "comprehensive handbook of diagnostics and therapy." around 900–1000 ad, chinese were the first to develop a form of vaccination, known as variolation or inoculation, to prevent smallpox. chinese physicians had realised that when healthy people were exposed to smallpox scab tissue, they had a smaller chance of being infected by the disease later on. the common methods of inoculation at the time was through crushing smallpox scabs into powder and breathing it through the nose. prominent medical scholars of the post-han period included tao hongjing (456–536), sun simiao of the sui and tang dynasties, zhang jiegu (c. 1151–1234), and li shizhen (1518–1593). people's republic in 1950, chinese communist party (ccp) chairman mao zedong announced support of traditional chinese medicine, but he did not personally believe in and did not use it. in 1952, the president of the chinese medical association said that, "this one medicine, will possess a basis in modern natural sciences, will have absorbed the ancient and the new, the chinese and the foreign, all medical achievements—and will be china's new medicine!" during the cultural revolution (1966–1976) the ccp and the government emphasized modernity, cultural identity and china's social and economic reconstruction and contrasted them to the colonial and feudal past. the government established a grassroots health care system as a step in the search for a new national identity and tried to revitalize traditional medicine and made large investments in traditional medicine to try to develop affordable medical care and public health facilities. the ministry of health directed health care throughout china and established primary care units. chinese physicians trained in western medicine were required to learn traditional medicine, while traditional healers received training in modern methods. this strategy aimed to integrate modern medical concepts and methods and revitalize appropriate aspects of traditional medicine. therefore, traditional chinese medicine was re-created in response to western medicine. in 1968, the ccp supported a new system of health care delivery for rural areas. villages were assigned a barefoot doctor (a medical staff with basic medical skills and knowledge to deal with minor illnesses) responsible for basic medical care. the medical staff combined the values of traditional china with modern methods to provide health and medical care to poor farmers in remote rural areas. the barefoot doctors became a symbol of the cultural revolution, for the introduction of modern medicine into villages where traditional chinese medicine services were used. in the second decade of the twenty-first century, chinese communist party general secretary xi jinping strongly supported tcm, calling it a "gem". as of may 2011, in order to promote tcm worldwide, china had signed tcm partnership agreements with over 70 countries. his government pushed to increase its use and the number of tcm-trained doctors and announced that students of tcm would no longer be required to pass examinations in western medicine. chinese scientists and researchers, however, expressed concern that tcm training and therapies would receive equal support with western medicine. they also criticized a reduction in government testing and regulation of the production of tcms, some of which were toxic. government censors have removed internet posts that question tcm. hong kong at the beginning of hong kong's opening up, western medicine was not yet popular, and western medicine doctors were mostly foreigners; local residents mostly relied on chinese medicine practitioners. in 1841, the british government of hong kong issued an announcement pledging to govern hong kong residents in accordance with all the original rituals, customs and private legal property rights. as traditional chinese medicine had always been used in china, the use of traditional chinese medicine was not regulated. the establishment in 1870 of the tung wah hospital was the first use of chinese medicine for the treatment in chinese hospitals providing free medical services. as the promotion of western medicine by the british government started from 1940, western medicine started being popular among hong kong population. in 1959, hong kong had researched the use of traditional chinese medicine to replace western medicine. historiography of chinese medicine historians have noted two key aspects of chinese medical history: understanding conceptual differences when translating the term 身, and observing the history from the perspective of cosmology rather than biology. in chinese classical texts, the term 身 is the closest historical translation to the english word "body" because it sometimes refers to the physical human body in terms of being weighed or measured, but the term is to be understood as an "ensemble of functions" encompassing both the human psyche and emotions. this concept of the human body is opposed to the european duality of a separate mind and body. it is critical for scholars to understand the fundamental differences in concepts of the body in order to connect the medical theory of the classics to the "human organism" it is explaining.: 20 chinese scholars established a correlation between the cosmos and the "human organism." the basic components of cosmology, qi, yin yang and the five phase theory, were used to explain health and disease in texts such as huangdi neijing. yin and yang are the changing factors in cosmology, with qi as the vital force or energy of life. the five phase theory wu xing of the han dynasty contains the elements wood, fire, earth, metal, and water. by understanding medicine from a cosmology perspective, historians better understand chinese medical and social classifications such as gender, which was defined by a domination or remission of yang in terms of yin. these two distinctions are imperative when analyzing the history of traditional chinese medical science. a majority of chinese medical history written after the classical canons comes in the form of primary source case studies where academic physicians record the illness of a particular person and the healing techniques used, as well as their effectiveness. historians have noted that chinese scholars wrote these studies instead of "books of prescriptions or advice manuals;" in their historical and environmental understanding, no two illnesses were alike so the healing strategies of the practitioner was unique every time to the specific diagnosis of the patient. medical case studies existed throughout chinese history, but "individually authored and published case history" was a prominent creation of the ming dynasty. an example such case studies would be the literati physician, cheng congzhou, collection of 93 cases published in 1644. critique historians of science have developed the study of medicine in traditional china into a field with its own scholarly associations, journals, graduate programs, and debates with each other. many distinguish "medicine in traditional china" from the recent traditional chinese medicine (tcm), which took elements from traditional texts and practices to construct a systematic body. paul unschuld, for instance, sees a "departure of tcm from its historical origins." what is called "traditional chinese medicine" and practiced today in china and the west is not thousands of years old, but recently constructed using selected traditional terms, some of which have been taken out of context, some badly misunderstood. he has criticized chinese and western popular books for selective use of evidence, choosing only those works or parts of historical works that seem to lead to modern medicine, ignoring those elements that do not now seem to be effective. a 2007 editorial the journal nature wrote that tcm "remains poorly researched and supported, and most of its treatments have no logical mechanism of action." critics say that tcm theory and practice have no basis in modern science, and tcm practitioners do not agree on what diagnosis and treatments should be used for any given person. a nature editorial described tcm as "fraught with pseudoscience". a review of the literature in 2008 found that scientists are "still unable to find a shred of evidence" according to standards of science-based medicine for traditional chinese concepts such as qi, meridians, and acupuncture points, and that the traditional principles of acupuncture are deeply flawed. "acupuncture points and meridians are not a reality", the review continued, but "merely the product of an ancient chinese philosophy". in june 2019, the world health organization included traditional chinese medicine in a global diagnostic compendium, but a spokesman said this was "not an endorsement of the scientific validity of any traditional medicine practice or the efficacy of any traditional medicine intervention." a 2012 review of cost-effectiveness research for tcm found that studies had low levels of evidence, with no beneficial outcomes. pharmaceutical research on the potential for creating new drugs from traditional remedies has few successful results. proponents suggest that research has so far missed key features of the art of tcm, such as unknown interactions between various ingredients and complex interactive biological systems. one of the basic tenets of tcm is that the body's vital energy (ch'i or qi) is circulating through channels called meridians having branches connected to bodily organs and functions. the concept of vital energy is pseudoscientific. concepts of the body and of disease used in tcm reflect its ancient origins and its emphasis on dynamic processes over material structure, similar to classical humoral theory. tcm has also been controversial within china. in 2006, the chinese philosopher zhang gongyao triggered a national debate with an article entitled "farewell to traditional chinese medicine", arguing that tcm was a pseudoscience that should be abolished in public healthcare and academia. the chinese government however, took the stance that tcm is a science and continued to encourage its development. there are concerns over a number of potentially toxic plants, animal parts, and mineral chinese compounds, as well as the facilitation of disease. trafficked and farm-raised animals used in tcm are a source of several fatal zoonotic diseases. there are additional concerns over the illegal trade and transport of endangered species including rhinoceroses and tigers, and the welfare of specially farmed animals, including bears. philosophical background traditional chinese medicine (tcm) is a broad range of medicine practices sharing common concepts which have been developed in china and are based on a tradition of more than 2,000 years, including various forms of herbal medicine, acupuncture, massage (tui na), exercise (qigong), and dietary therapy. it is primarily used as a complementary alternative medicine approach. tcm is widely used in china and it is also used in the west. its philosophy is based on yinyangism (i.e., the combination of five phases theory with yin–yang theory), which was later absorbed by daoism. philosophical texts influenced tcm, mostly by being grounded in the same theories of qi, yin-yang and wuxing and microcosm-macrocosm analogies. yin and yang symbol for balance. in traditional chinese medicine, good health is believed to be achieved by various balances, including a balance between yin and yang. yin and yang yin and yang are ancient chinese concepts which can be traced back to the shang dynasty (1600–1100 bce). they represent two abstract and complementary aspects that every phenomenon in the universe can be divided into. primordial analogies for these aspects are the sun-facing (yang) and the shady (yin) side of a hill. two other commonly used representational allegories of yin and yang are water and fire. in the yin–yang theory, detailed attributions are made regarding the yin or yang character of things: phenomenonyinyang celestial bodies moonsun gender femalemale location insideoutside temperature coldhot direction downwardupward degree of humidity damp/moistdry the concept of yin and yang is also applicable to the human body; for example, the upper part of the