Study On Origin Of Traditional Chinese Medical Therapy:an Interdisciplinary Research On Yifa Fangyi Lun

Objective: Nowadays, the research of the origin of traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) is at a standstill. Being lack of historical materials as well as research ideas and methods might be the reasons. Therefore, the present study, based on the analysis of TCM origin from the five cardinal directions, which was recorded in the chapter Yifa Fangyi Lun from the book Huangdi Neijing, proposed a new way to solve the problem by using the interdisciplinary research method for reference, such as culture system, in hopes of promoting the development of the study on Chinese medicine origin.Methods: Literature method and interdisciplinary research method are adopted mainly in this study. By applying new visual angles, namely, history, archaeology, historical geography, history of regional society, history of science and technology, ethnology, anthropology, mythology, philosophy and Taoism to the study of TCM origin, this paper reinterpreted Yifa Fangyi Lun, which tells about the origin of Chinese medical therapy from the five cardinal directions.Results: The study found that the five traditional medical therapies originated from different ethnic groups who live in the five cardinal points in ancient China. Specifically, moxibustion therapy was descended from the northern nomadic people, Bian-stone therapy of ancient times from the eastern Dongyi tribes, nine-needle therapy from the southern Baiyue tribes, drug therapy from the western ancient Qiang people and Dao-Yin An-Qiao therapy from the central Huaxia people.Conclusion: The study made a breakthrough in the conventional viewpoint of TCM origin by putting five cardinal directions origin forward as a hypothesis and introduced the idea that Yifa Fangyi Lun could be taken as the earliest records of the origin of Chinese medical therapy. Hence, the reconstruction of Chinese medical history in pre-Qin period was assumed.