雙語科技百科(醫學) 第59期:中藥
Traditional Chinese Medicine
Traditional Chinese medicine ( shortened ) , the origin of which could be traced back to the primitive society, boasts a history of thou-sands of years. It has been the result of a constant accumulation and summary of Chinese people in the long-term period of productive labor, Iiving practices and medical practices. According to the written records in the ancient time, TCM originated in the primitive society; it was in the process of productive labor and Iiving practices that people at the time gradually discovered TCM and then developed it. People in the primitive society, when collecting the edible plants, often ate some so-called poisonous ones by mistake, which would often result in the occurrence of vomiting and diarrhea, even coma and death. This forced people at the time to identify the plants scrupulously in case something unexpected people felt sick, they might, however, think of using the plants to cure their illnesses, so the early medical practices were carried out. The Spring and Autumn and the Warring States Period witnessed a rapid development in the Chinese literature, philosophy, natural sciences, etc. , and meanwhile, the medical science was then greatly developed. The publication of the TCM treatise which typified the period, namely Huangdi Neijing , marked the formation of the unique theoretical system of until the late Eastern Han Dynasty was the first TCM treatise Shengnong Bencao Jing ( also Shennon,g's Classic of Materia Medica )published, which laid the theoretical foundation for TCM. Since the publication ofthe work, there have been hundreds of treatises on TCM, all of which have contributed a lot to its development. Among them, Bencao Gangmu ( also An Outline Treatise of Medical Herbs ) written by Li Shizhen in the Ming Dynasty was a world renowned treatise on TCM.
中藥起源很早，可以追溯到原始社會，有數千年的悠久歷史。中醫藥是我國人民在長期的生產勞動，生活實踐與醫療實踐中不斷地進行積累總結的結果。根據古代文字的記載，中藥起源於原始社會，是當時的人們在從事生產活動、生活實踐過程中逐漸發現和發展起來的。在原始社會時期，人們在採集可食用性植物時，常會誤食一些所謂的“毒物”，而引起嘔吐、腹瀉，甚至昏迷、死亡等情況，這就迫使人們不得不小心翼翼地去辨認這些植物，以防發生意外。但是，當人們發生疾病時，可能又想到利用這些植物治療某些疾病，於是便開展了早期的醫療實踐活動。春秋戰國時期是我國文學、哲學及自然科學等各方面迅速發展的時期，同時也帶動了醫學的發展，此時期具有代表性的中醫典籍《黃帝內經》問世，標誌着中醫學獨特理論體系已經形成。至東漢末年，我國的第一部中藥學專著《神農本草經》出版，奠定了中藥學的理論基礎。自《神農本草經》問世至今，歷代有關中藥學的專著有數百種之多，均對我國中藥學的發展作出了較大的貢獻，其中明代李時珍的《本草綱目》更是譽滿全球的中藥學專著。
