Famous Chinese Physicians of the Past

Source of Illustrations

The illustrations were published in Medicine in China by Hakim Mohammad Said, 1965 Hamdard Academy, Karachi, Pakistan. The book is no longer in print. Mr. Said was in contact with ITM during the 1980's regarding the promotion of traditional herbal medicine. The pictures are taken from artworks displayed at the Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Beijing, China. Mr. Said visited China in 1963, at a time when China was closed to most foreigners; he was the head of Pakistan's largest pharmaceutical organization and founder of the Society for the Promotion of Eastern Medicine. During his visit, which inspired the book, he was presented with considerable political indoctrination regarding the recent revolution in China (just 14 years at that time). In describing the revival of traditional Chinese medicine under the Communist regime, he conveyed this message:

The reactionary KMT (Guomingtang) government never cared to study and to promote this cultural heritage but even went so far as to adopt the policy of uprooting the national medical science altogether. "The Banning of Traditional Chinese Medicine," brazenly ratified in 1929, was a glaring evidence of this attitude. While this act had never been put into force thanks to the protest of the entire nation, traditional medicine continued to be unjustly trampled.

The Chinese Communist Party and the great leader of the Chinese people, Chairman Mao, have consistently attached great importance to this medical heritage. As early as 1944, Chairman Mao, in the conference of culture and education held in Yenan called for the unity of doctors trained along western lines and those of the traditional medicine. And, in 1950, at the early stage of establishment of New China, integration of these two schools of medicine was emphasized as one of the four directives in guiding medical work. To unite the medical workers both of the western-trained and traditional medicine, to promote the national medical heritage, is always the basic policy of the Party in approaching traditional medicine.

His book recounts the history of Chinese medicine and describes the developments since the Chinese revolution. He had visited hospitals, research centers, and pharmaceutical factories. He also consulted a large number of books, pamphlets, and periodicals to put together the information for his books.

Source of Information about Traditional Doctors of China

In 1984, The Commercial Press in Hong Kong published the Dictionary of Traditional Chinese Medicine, edited by Xie Zhufan, Associate Professor of Medicine and Huang Xiaokai, Associate Professor of English at the Beijing Medical College. This book provides brief descriptions of about 100 famous physicians of Chinese medical history and about 100 famous medical works. In addition, it provides definitions of 1,000 commonly used medical terms, names of about 1,000 herbs and formulas with descriptions, and about 1,000 terms associated with acupuncture, including the names of the acupuncture equipment, points, meridians, and needling techniques. The information presented about the doctors illustrated, including spelling of their names in pinyin, dates of birth, medical accomplishments, and books written by them, were taken from this book.