Chinese Medicine (Practice Or Licensing) Examinations Of Guangzhou In Republic Of China

In Republic of China, health administration came up with the reference of western models, following the establishment of medical management system, including implementation of practice registration of medical practitioners, and registration for the staffs with non-formal education qualifications after passing the special examination. This test was similar to the present qualification examination. Because it was modeled after the traditional Chinese medicine education, and the Republic of China government did not recognize Chinese medicine school education, it's the main way for people to pass the exam and take registration to practice medicine in the Republic. The implementation of practice management including Chinese medicine (practice or licensing) exam content and methods, affected the development of Chinese medicine at different levels. Guangzhou was one of the earliest cities carrying out the practice of Chinese medicine management and examination implementation during the Republic. It is positive to study Chinese medicine (practice) examination policy and implementation in Guangzhou as a case, for the understanding of modern Chinese medical affairs'start, change and development.With the study of the literature archives, newspaper reports and other historical materials, it is certain that Chinese medicine (practice or licensing) examinations were hosted eight times in Guangzhou in two decades from 1922 to 1942. This study not only outlines the policy, the implementation of conditions and topics, responses, etc of the 8 exams, but also analyzes the examination period, eligibility requirements, examination branches, question forms and other changes and reasons.Although Chinese medicine has a history of thousands of years without interrupt, it's almost passed on from a well-known doctor, or was in self-taught form etc, with no uniform system of TCM education and having uneven personnel.Thousands of eligible doctors of Chinese medicine had access to legal practice through the medicine (practice or licensing) examination hosted by Guangzhou government regulating the medical practice act and as a result, quack were dismissed or eliminated. However, due to the newly start-up modern style of Chinese medicine (practice) examination system, and intense debate between Chinese and western medicine practitioners, there were many problems in policy and implementation.As for the examination cycle, as the conventional way of registration of Chinese medicine, Chinese medicine (practice) exam should have been held regularly. An original regulation also prescribe such an examination should be held every year, but later was canceled. Chinese medicine practice tests were mainly organized by the health department by presenting a petition to the local government from time to time. This unstable situation affected the stability of Chinese medicine personnel in Guangzhou.Since the Chinese medicine school education had never been recognized by the government education sector, the requirement of the qualification of the examination was sometime tight sometime lax. At the first moment, the health administrative departments urged that all Chinese medicine practitioners should take school education with diploma, in order to cancel normalization of Chinese medicine (practice) exam, however, at the later moment even Chinese medicine school graduates should also pass the examination to sign up. This swing of the pendulum reflected the confusion of health administration caused by the lack of recognition of Chinese medicine school education status of government.Branches and questions of the examination got continuous improvement through several tests. Taking examination branches for example, there was no specific requirement in the initial phrase. As in 1933, surgery, internal medicine, gynecology, pediatrics four branches came up, but in 1935, branches were reduced only to internal medicine and surgery, however, in 1942, increased to medicine, surgery, pediatrics, gynecology, ophthalmology and pharmacology six ones. Examination paper included "paper" and "Q&A" two kinds of forms.Examination board and marking system were gradually improved. But its shortage was that there was not a relative standard syllabus for candidates to follow.Although Chinese medicine (practice or licensing) examinations in Republic of China had many limits for its historical factors, but trying to put Chinese medicine into modern medical administrative management within the scope of efforts, promoted the legal process of Chinese medicine administration. Historical data and experience of Chinese medicine (practice or licensing) examinations in Guangzhou enriched the research in Lingnan medical history, and have some historical reference for Chinese medicine contemporary administrative management.