Investigation About Tongzhi Fang And Tongyong Fang In Chinese Medicine

Tongzhi Fang or Tongyong Fangisa frequentterm inancient medical books of traditional Chinese medicine through past ages and is also one of the most important terms in pharmacology which occupies a very important position in pharmacology. But so far, there is no scientific definition of Tongzhi Fang and Tongyong Fang in Terms of TCM or academic authoritative works and textbooksFrom the published content related to the research of Tongzhi Fang and Tongyong Fang, there are still different understandings of their meanings. It is unable to agree upon whether it treats many syndromes of one disease, or it treats some disease of western medicine or Chinese medicine, or it treats one syndrome of many diseases. Tongzhi Fang as a professional term exists currently in name only. Therefore, by tracing back to the origin, it is of great academic significance to investigate the understanding of past physicians on Tongzhi Fang and the real content of literature about Tongzhi Fang in order to recognize theconnotation of Tongzhi Fang and to perform a research of Tongzhi Fang.Based on philologyresearch methods, this article investigates the connotation of Tongzhi/Tongyong Fang and their relationship with Main Formula and Specific Formula by collection, sorting, comparison and analysis of information related to Tongzhi/Tongyong Fang as well as Main Formula and Specific Formula in past medical books.Results show that there were widespread records about Tongzhi/Tongyong Fang in past medical books. The description about its semantic meaning or concept connotation appeared relatively late. There was no substantial difference between Tongzhi Fang and Tongyong Fang in semantic understanding, application, record form and content. In respect of therapy indication, both Tongzhi Fang and Tongyong Fang involve various aspects such as disease, syndrome, symptom, etc. The study also found that there were more confusion about the formulation and use of Tongzhi/Tongyong Fang as well as Specific Formula and Main Formula in ancient medical books, which has different understanding than the modern understanding.Based on results of this research, in reference to modern awareness about concept of disease, syndrome, symptom and the TCM connotation of differential treatment (treatment based on disease differentiation and syndrome differentiation), this article defines the semantic meaning of Tongzhi/Tongyong Fang, SpecificFormula and Main Formula that Tongzhi Fang is a prescription to treat various diseases; Special Formula is a special prescription to treat one disease; Main Formula is a main prescription aiming at dominant or basic pathogenesis of some disease.The relationship among these three has been discussed from angle of theoretical thinking and several points have been proposed that the appearance and development of Tongzhi/Tongyong Fang, Specific Formula, Main Formula are in accordance with the expansion stage of thinking development of TCM differential treatment; It is of certain applicable significance for selection of clinical prescription to know the connotation difference of Tongzhi/Tongyong Fang, SpecificFormula and Main Formula;it is necessary to perform a research of Tongzhi prescription from different dimension of disease, Syndrome and symptom.This article is of great significance to understand the academic connotation of TCM Tongzhi Fang, Specific Formula and Main Formula as well as to promote the research of Tongzhi Fang.