| With respect to the origin of dietotherapy, there is a traditional idea that "food and medicine share the same the source". While the ancients were searching for the food, they did not only find the effects of medicines, but also had a better understanding of food and had discovered the medical effects of food, which formed the rudiment of dietotherapy. With the development of medicine science, dietetics and philosophy and under the interaction of social politics, economy and culture, the monographs on dietotherapy appeared in Pre-Qin Dynasty and dietotherapy was firmly established in Tang Dynasty, underwent the elementary development in Song and Yuan Dynasty and prospered in Ming and Qing Dynasty.Since Zhou Dynasty, Chinese philosophy that emphasized diet came into being. Yellow Emperor's Canon of Internal Medicine (Huang Di Nei Jing) was considered as the foundation stone of dietotherapy. Although it did not include a particular chapter on dietotherapy, the relatively complete and systemic theory related to dietotherapy could be found in various chapter, which not only included the theory of abstemious diet, relationship between the five flavors and human body, food temperature, compatibility and incompatibility of diet and diet recuperating, but also talked about the specific methods of dietotherapy. Based on my research, I think it is reasonable to consider Shen Nong and Huang Di's Food Restriction (Shen Nong Huang Di Shi Jin) as the foremost monograph on dietotherapy. The book must be compiled by recording some food that were listed in Shen Nong's Herbal Classic (Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing) and some relevant food restrictions in Huang Di's Food Restriction (Huang Di Shi Ji). During the period of West Han Dynasty, Zhang Qin had brought many kinds of food back from foreign countries after his trip to western regions as an envoy, which expanded the categories of food and drugs to a large extent for the first time. Then during Wei and Jin Dynasties, the cruel political situation forced many scholar-bureaucrats to escape from reality. They initiated the ethos of quiet talk and pursued the life of freedom. At the same time, they made efforts to preserve their health so as to advance the development of the science of health preserving and produce a lot of works on health preserving, such as Tao Hongjing's Preserving Health and Prolonging Life (Yang Xing Yan Ming Lu), Ji Kang's Health Preserving (Yang Sheng Lun) and Zhang Zhan's Summary of Health Preserving (Yang Sheng Ji Yao).Tang Dynasty is the most flourishing period in Chinese history. Its stable society, prosperous economy and highly-developed culture had built the foundation for the emergence of monographs on dietotherapy. In Sun Simiao's Valuable Prescriptions for Emergency (Qian Jin Shi Zhi or Bei Ji Qian Jin Yao Fang), Chapter 26 focuses on "diet therapy". Although it is a particular chapter on the dietotherapy, it contains abundant things, records the foremost discussion on food's value of health preserving and therapy in the form of herbal medicine and brings forth the conception of "diet treatment" and diet "diet therapy" for the first time. Then "dietotherapy", as an independent subject, was gradually formed. The book specially emphasizes the reasonable mixture of food and the principles of dietotherapy "use the medicine after dietotherapy doesn't take effects".As the earliest extant monograph on the medicine of dietotherapy, Dietotherapy Herbal Medicine (Shi Liao Ben Cao) contains all Meng Shen's experiences and opinions and the achievement and developmental status of dietotherapy in Tang Dynasty. It includes abundant contents with respect to the further interpretation of dietotherapy methods of animal's viscera, expansion of the application of algal fungi food and the broadening of compatibility and incompatibility of diet. The book attaches importance to several detail factors' impact on dietotherapy, emphasizes the importance of correct method of eating and the origin of the food and promotes the idea that food herbal medicine should be used according the particular person, time and area. At the same time, it has made a complete and detailed research on the harvesting time. The author did not only attach importance to the effects of food, but also recorded many methods of cooking and food preserving as well as emphasizing the deliciousness of food. Dietotherapy Herbal Medicine sums up the achievements made before Tang Dynasty and has a great influence on the later development of dietotherapy. In a word, it inherited past traditions and broke new grounds for the future of dietotherapy. Cheng Shiliang's Edible Herbal Medicine (Shi Xing Ben Cao) in South Tang Dynasty made a more detailed classification of dietotherapy herbal medicines than Tang Dynasty. The compatibility and incompatibility of diet, forms of food and the differences between the varieties of food were attached great importance in this book.In Song and Yuan Dynasties, the communication activities of diet culture had undergone an unprecedented development. On one hand, it stimulated people's discussion on food so as to advance the development of dietotherapy. On the other hand, it had enriched the contents of dietotherapy, thus having expanded the categories of food and increased the number of edible medicine for dietotherapy. During this period, people's emphasizing on the science of medicine and the invention of typography stimulated the publication of lots of works on medicine and pharmacology as well as the book on diet and cooking, comprehensive monograph on dietetics, notes on food and general cyclopedia compiled based on food categories.Hu Sihui's Principle of Correct Diet (Yin Shan Zheng Yao), written in 1330, was an important monograph on dietotherapy in Yuan Dynasty. It had recorded many kinds of food in a broad scope, including precious court dishes as well as the common food for the masses. Some food were rarely seen in other dietotherapy books even the herbal medicine books. Principle of Correct Diet did not only add many kinds of herbal medicine that had not been recorded in other books, but also had a better understanding of herbal medicine. Featuring its evident ethnic characteristics, it served as an important document for the research on Mongolian dietotherapy and medicine in Yuan Dynasty, had set an excellent example for the interaction between Mongolian and traditional Chinese dietotherapy and reflected the historical fact of medical communication between various nationalities in Yuan Dynasty.From emergence to prosperity, herbal medicine of dietotherapy had undergone a long time development. In Song and Yuan Dynasties, it had experienced a quite slow developmental phrase, when there were very few works and achievements. After such an interim, it gradually prospered in Ming Dynasty.In Ming and Qing Dynasties, the prosperity of economy stimulated the development of food industry. The research on diet was considered as a fashion and many scholars began to write books on diet actively. Therefore, seen from both quantity and the abundance of contents, the books completed during this period had exceeded that of previous dynasties. Many books also reflected the relatively high level of diet at that time. Therefore, with the enrichment of works on herbal medicine, the advancement of medicine and pharmacology and the development of dietetics, dietotherapy prospered consequently. The prosperity of dietotherapy of Ming Dynasty represented itself mainly in following aspects: the number increased greatly than before, for example, there appeared nine books with the same name of "Herbal Food"; the content became more abundant, not only emphasizing the compatibility and incompatibility of diet, but also attaching importance to other aspects and having a better understanding of them; the emergence of numbers of herbal for relief of famines had enriched the category of herbal medicine. Although such books cited even copied from each other, their achievements and influence could not be decreased thereby. The edible herbal and herbal for relief of famines during this period has played an important role in the history of herbal for dietotherapy as well as the history of dietotherapy.The dietotherapy thought in Ming Dynasty attached relative importance to the flavor of "lightness" and "freshness". It was mentioned no only in books on dietotherapy and health preserving but also in other common books. With respect to the medicine and pharmacology, the emergence of Li Shizhen's Compendium of Materia Medica (Ben Cao Gang Mu), which had recorded lots of food medicine, was a brilliant achievement in the history of herbals. Lots of monographs on dietotherapy herbals published later took Compendium of Materia Medica as a reference. Generally speaking, such books had no innovative contents and great achievement. For example, Wu Wenbing's Properties of All Edible Herbals (Yao Xing Quan Bei Shi Wu Ben Cao) mainly recorded the nature, flavor, effect as well as the form and origin of the food, the compatibility and incompatibility of diet and the method of eating. It also provided the methods of health preserving by diet, the cooking of food, the dietotherapy recipes and the effects and cooking of hundreds of soups, wines and porridges. Mu Shixi's Summary of Food (Shi Wu Ji Yao) had cited many literatures and was easy to be applied to actual use because of its rich content in compact words. Many literatures cited in this book did not come down, so we could have of understanding of them more or less based on this book.During this period, herbal for the relief of famines, as a special branch of dietotherapy herbals, was represented by Zhu Su's Herbal for the Relief of Famines (Jiu Huang Ben Cao), most plants mentioned in which book were planted by the author himself and drawn based on the actual objects. Therefore, the pictures in the book are real and precise. The aim of this book was not to cure illness but to relieve the famines, so there were few contents on the method of treatment in it. As a special work on herbal for the relief of famines, its description of the forms of food were more detailed than other books on normal herbals, therefore, it helped people distinguish the herbals easily. Further more, some methods of processing of plants are considered very scientific by now. Since the publication of Herbal for the Relief of Famines, many scholars became interested in the research on edible plants and had published a series of monographs of such category. The research on edible wild plants became popular at this time. The influence of herbals for the relief of famines had gone down to Qing Dynasty and had benefited many people.In Qing Dynasty, people attached more importance to dietotherapy and number of dietotherapy herbal increased greatly. The development of dietotherapy herbal not only had a close relationship with the political and economic situation and the social environment at that time, but also was greatly influenced by the achievements of the science of herbal and level of diet culture at that time. The works on herbals in Qing Dynasty developed in both number and contents. Many valuable works had been published, such as Zhao Xuemin's Gleaning of Compendium of Materia Medica (Ben Cao Gao Mu Shi Yi), Wu Qijun's Textual Research on the Name and Picture of Plants (Zhi Wu Ming Shi Kao), Wang Ang's Essentials of Materia Medica (Ben Cao Bei Yao) and Wu Yiluo's New Compilation of Materia Medica (Ben Cao Cong Xin). There were relatively abundant books on diet and health preserving in Qing Dynasty. To sum up the relevant themes, "food restriction" was always the principle emphasized by dietitians and experts on health preserving. Besides, seen from many books, people in Qing Dynasty attached more importance to the lightness, freshness and cleanness of food. The number of monographs on dietotherapy during this period was about the same as that of Ming Dynasty. The valuable works included Shen Lilong's Summary of Food and Herbal (Shi Wu Ben Cao Hui Zhuan), which includes abundant contents in compact words, Long Bai's Textual Research on Food (Shi Wu Kao), which created a four-character lines on the nature, flavor, form and effect of food so as to make it convenient for the readers to remember, Zhang Mu's Illness-Curing Diet Argument (Tiao Ji Yin Shi Bian), which featured the interpretation of pharmacology, and Wang Shiwei's Sui Xi Ju Food Recipe (Sui Xi Ju Yin Shi Pu), which was a great work on dietotherapy that did not easily chime in with the arguments of former scholars, but to make an complete textual research on any details.In a word, dietotherapy constitutes part of traditional Chinese medicine and also part of the Chinese culture of health. TCM dietotherapy supplements each other with Chinese medicine science, Chinese pharmacology and Chinese science of health preserving. It is abstracted by the experts and popular among the masses with its own independent system. For thousands of years, the efforts, works and experiences of the scholars have left abundant literatures on dietotherapy for us. As the fundamental part of literatures on dietotherapy, books on dietotherapy herbals, under the influence of the food-emphasizing and health preserving philosophy established since early Zhou Dynasty, emerged in Pre-Qin Dynasty, shaped up in Han and Tang Dynasties and prospered in Ming and Qing Dynasties. While in different periods, it represented itself with various characteristics according to the different economic, political and cultural environment then.
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