| At present, there are two key obstacles in the study of five flavors of Chinese material medica. The first obstacle lies in the chaos mark of five flavors of Chinese medicine in ancient books of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). The second one is the not well matching of five flavors theory and the five flavors of Chinese medicine. This study is focus on the above two obstacles.Illuminated by the study of linguistics, this paper introduces the method of structuralism, and set five flavors theory of Chinese medicine as a system (structure) to study. In this system, there exists two sub-structures (parts), one is the five flavors of Chinese medicine, and the other is the theory of five flavors. On this basis, the paper classifies the development of five flavors theory of Chinese medicine into4historical stages, which are:Stage1:From the ancient China to Xizhou period (long ago～771B.C.)Stage2:From Chunqiu period to Western Han dynasty (770B.C.～25D.C.)Stage3:From Eastern Han dynasty to Wudai dynasty (25～960D.C.)Stage4:From Song dynasty to Yuan dynasty (960～1368D.C.)In stage1, there are mainly3recognitions, which are:1the original meaning of flavor is taste, which is the real feeling;2the obtaining of flavors is by the activity of taste;3people of this stage have classified the flavors into at least sweet and bitter.In stage2, with the origin of five element and Yin-yang theory, five flavors are generated, along with the origin of five flavors theories, which are five element matching theory, efficacy of five flavors, Qi-flavor Yin-Yang thinness-thickness theory, and the adverse action of five flavors. The constructions of these theories include long-term clinical practice, introducing social knowledge, resembling thoughts, etc. while in this stage, five flavors theories are referred to food theories exclusively, do not have any relation with the Chinese medicine.In stage3, the name of five flavors of Chinese medicine is appearing. In <Shenong’s Herbal (Shenong Bencao jing)>, the methods of marking five flavors of Chinese medicine are mainly by tasting, and few by reverse-deduction from five element theory. While due to different factors affecting the results of tasting, different books recorded different property of five flavors in one Chinese herb. Until Northern-Southern dynasty, TAO Hong-jing unified the mark of five flavors in Chinese medicine, and put forward the principle of recognition-inheriting in <Collective Notes to the Cannon of Materia Medica (BenCaoJing JiZhu)>, setting the foundation of marking five flavors in Chinese medicine for the future books. After this, the correction of marking five flavors of Chinese medicine is mainly due to the species correction of this herb. Although the name of five flavors of Chinese medicine was introduced in to books of material medica, they did not pay attention to the theories. The theories of five flavors were developed by the clinical doctors. The doctors put forward the Yunqi doctrine in <Plain Questions (Suwen)>, in which many contents were correlated with the theory of five flavors. Besides, the author does not believe the theory of five flavors and the five flavors of Chinese medicine are mixed together in this stage.In stage4, books of material medica of the early and middle period of Northern Song dynasty followed the tradition of stage3, mark five flavors of Chinese medicine by tasting and revise them by species correction; while in the late period and Southern Song, Jin, and Yuan dynasty, the marking of five flavors of Chinese medicine were changed. Many efficacy flavors have appeared in the books of this period, embodying the affects from Confucian "reasoning study (Li Xue)". The five flavor theory of this stage further developed. Radiation thinking was used to bring out many theories which could be concluded into the school of theories, such as tonification and purgation based on visceral conditions school of five flavor theories. Besides, the paper believes that this stage is the period which five flavors theories were truly combined with five flavors of Chinese medicine, and the system of five flavors theories of Chinese medicine was gradually established overall.On the above-disscussion, the paper made a summy on the system of five flavors theories of Chinese medicine. The system of five flavors theories of Chinese medicine includes two parts, i.e. five flavor theories of Chinese medicine and flavor of Chinese medicine. The two parts have different origins and developments. Until Northern Song dynasty, they were mixed together. Five flavor theories originated in an early time. The theories gradually come into form with the theory of five elements theory.<Huangdi’s Internal Classics (Huangdi Neijing)> systemically expounded five flavor theories. These theories were mainly deduced from philosophy and flavors of food, but did not relate with medicines. In Tang and Song dynasty, five flavor theories of medicine were further developed at the effects of Yunqi doctrine and image resembling doctrine into a pluralism form. In the late of Northern Song dynasty, flavor of medicine and five flavor theories began to be merged together. Five flavor theories changed into five flavor theories of medicine. Before Ming dynasty, there were mainly8systemic five flavor theories of medicine. Flavor of medicine was firstly recorded in<Shennong’s Herbal (Shennong Bencao jing)>. The mark of medicine flavor was mainly by mouth-tasting determination in the beginning. While as many factors may influence the results of tasting, the mark of the same medicine flavor in ancient books was different. In Southern and Northern dynasty, TAO Hong-jing sorted and unified the mark of medicine flavor, and put forward the principle of marking medicine flavors-following the recognition of the previous recognition-in material medica books. With the guidance of this principle, the marking of medicine flavor in books was stable before the Northern Song dynasty. The revise of medicine flavor was mainly due to the revise of variety and medication parts of the medicine. In Amplification on Canon of Materia Medica (Bencao Yanyi)>, theoretical medicine flavors appeared. Since then, many books revised tasting flavors into theoretical flavors of medicine. Even though, they have revised few flavors comparing to the overall flavors of medicines.The system of five flavors theories of Chinese medicine can be separated into synchrony and diachronic system of five flavor theories of Chinese medicine. The synchrony system includes five schools of theories, which are five element matching school, tonification and purgation based on visceral conditions school, Qi-flavor Yin-Yang thickness-thinness and rising-descending school, adapted Yunqi school, and other efficacy school; and medicine flavors. The diachronic system includes three sub-systems, the paper also discussed about them. Meanwhile, this paper points out the system of five flavors theories of Chinese medicine is an open system, synchrony system of five flavor theories of Chinese medicine is under the condition of construction. Synchrony and diachronic system of five flavor theories of Chinese medicine are just relative conception, at certain history period and condition they can change into each other.In the conclusion and discussion part, the paper mainly discusses the following items:1. Oringin of the theory of five flavor of Chinese medicine and its systemThe theory of five flavor is closely related with the theory of five elements."Huangdi Neijing" first recorded this theory. While there was no the theory of five flavor of Chinese medicine untile Song dynasty. The synchrony system of theory of five flavor of Chinese medicine includes two parts, ie. the theories and the flavors of medicine. The theories include5theories, and the flavors include mainly flavors getting from tasting and small parts of flavors getting from deducting from the theories.2. The marking of five flavor of Chinese medicine in synchrony system should following such principles:①mainly marking the five flavor from "theories flavor",②follows the authority if theories flavor differs,③marking the five flavor from tastes if the medicine do not have theories flavor,④follows the records of authority books if flavor differs;⑤flavors of new medicine should be marked through tasting or deducting from the flavor of medicine in the similar classes if not suitable for tasting.3. The developing mode of five flavor theories of Chinese medicine are mainly three:①introduction of philosophic ideas,②ummary of clinical experiences,③radioaction thought combined with the above-mentioned modes. Meanwhile, the theories were checked and recheched by clinical practices.4. The paper also explains why five flavor theories can not give a good explanation between five flavor of Chinese medicine and five flavor theories from three aspects, firstly, five flavor theories of Chinese medicine system was accepted in general; secondly, five flavor theories is only one aspects of the properties of Chinese medicine, while the efficacy of this medicine is an embody of all the properties; thirdly, theories of five flavor appeared earlier than five flavor of Chinese medicine, which means the theories were not concluded from Chinese medicines, therefore, they can not well explain the efficacy from five flavors of Chinese medicine.5. The paper explaines the practical value of five flavor theories of Chinese medicine from two aspects, the fist, five flavor theories of Chinese medicine were extensively accepted by ancient doctors; the second, due to the check and recheck of clinical practice, the theories are improved. Therefore, the theories have practical value. Meanwhile, as many faults exists, we should improve and develp the theories according to its own mode.New ideas are brought out in this paper, which are:1Structuralism and genetic methods are adopted in the system of flavors of Chinese medicine for the first time. Synchrony and diachronic system are classified.2Flavors of Chinese medicine are studied from a historical point of view.8schools of five flavor theories are put forward, the principle of marking five flavor of Chinese medicine in synchrony system and evaluations on real value of five flavor theories of Chinese medicine are discussed and determined. |
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