Chinese Medicine --- 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

The theoretical framework of Chinese medicine was established more than two millennia ago. A great deal of ancient medical knowledge is preserved in the pre-Qin (221-207 BC) Inner Cannon (Nei Jing), a comprehensive record of Chinese medical theories up to that time. The Han dynasty (206 BC - 220 AD) produced an authoritative and valuable practical guide--even to present day--to the treatment of illness, the Treatise on Diseases Caused by Cold Factors (Shang Han Lun) by Zhang Chunjing.

One of the best-known Chinese medical works is the Materia Medica(Beng Cao Gang Mu), compiled in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 AD) by Li Shizhen. This encyclopedic work heralded a new era in the world history of pharmacology. It includes descriptions of 1,892 different kinds of medicines. These works have all been translated into several foreign languages and have exercised a profound influence on East Asian and European countries.