Speaking of China's medical culture, it has a long history of thousands of years, so it is very rich.

However, both China people and foreigners lack a comprehensive and profound understanding of its rich cultural connotation, which leads to some misunderstandings.

The fundamental reason is that for a long time, we have not studied and publicized the medical culture enough. In the long run, it is undoubtedly very unfavorable to the inheritance, development and promotion of Chinese medicine.

Here, select the important ones and discuss them briefly for readers.

Commonly known as "materia medica" in China ancient books.

The earliest monograph on traditional Chinese medicine in China is Shennong's Herbal Classic in Han Dynasty, and the Newly Revised Materia Medica promulgated in Tang Dynasty is the earliest pharmacopoeia in the world.

Li Shizhen's Compendium of Materia Medica in Ming Dynasty summarized the experience of drug use before16th century, and made great contributions to the development of pharmacology in later generations.

Traditional Chinese medicine is divided into Chinese patent medicine and Chinese herbal medicine according to the processing technology.

Some people say that Chinese medicine is bark and grass roots, and some of it is true.

Chinese medicine cannot be separated from bark and roots, such as neem bark, peony bark, madder root and cogongrass rhizome, but not all bark and roots are Chinese medicine; Traditional Chinese medicine mainly originated in China. In addition to plant medicines, animal medicines such as snake gall, bear gall, Agkistrodon acutus, velvet antler and antlers, crustaceans such as pearls and clam shells, and minerals such as keels and magnets are all traditional Chinese medicines for treating diseases.

A few Chinese medicines originated from foreign countries, such as American ginseng.

At present, with the development and research of traditional Chinese medicine resources, many folk medicines also belong to the category of traditional Chinese medicine.

Therefore, Chinese medicine is based on the theory of Chinese medicine and is used to prevent and treat diseases. Plants, animal minerals and their processed products, whether produced in China or abroad, are called traditional Chinese medicine.

Traditional Chinese medicine has a unique theoretical system and application forms, which fully embodies the characteristics of natural resources, history and culture in China.

First, poison is not "poison"

Dating back to the ancient Shennong era, it was recorded in "Huai Nan Zi Xiu Wu Xun": "Shennong ... tasted the taste of herbs, and the ups and downs of the water spring made people know and avoid it.

At this time, 72 kinds of poisons were encountered in one day.

"So, in ancient times, all drugs for treating diseases were generally called" poison ".

Su Wenyi's Treatise on Prescriptions and Medicine says: "Its disease comes from the inside, and its treatment should be toxic.

"In the eyes of the ancients, it is a three-point poison of medicine, which actually refers to the characteristics of medicine; Later used to refer to the more toxic drugs.

The medical question and answer is explained in this way: "Husband medicine is poison, so Shennong distinguishes a hundred herbs and calls it' tasting poison'.

The cure of medicine is nothing more than pulling out poison with poison and detoxifying with poison.

Zhang Zhongjing, a medical sage, has an incisive theory: "Medicine refers to grass, wood, insects, fish, poultry and animals, and those who can cure diseases are all called poison", "Anyone who can ward off evil spirits and be healthy is called poison.

"Shennong encountered 72 kinds of poisons in one day, which means that he identified the characteristics of more than 70 kinds of drugs in one day.

The characteristics of medicine, used correctly, can cure diseases and save lives, but used wrongly, it will hurt people and kill people.

For Chinese medicine, in a word, it is to fight poison with poison.

Shennong's taste of a hundred herbs is a great move to explore and a noble move to forget one's life.

It is no wonder that the authors of the first masterpiece of traditional Chinese medicine, which began in the pre-Qin Dynasty and was written in the Eastern Han Dynasty, combined the painstaking efforts and wisdom of several generations of pharmacologists for hundreds of years. They prefer to remain anonymous, and the title of Shennong Materia Medica Classic is not only influenced by ancient customs, but also a memorial to the sage of China national pharmacology. It is not difficult to see that the word "poison" has rich cultural connotations.

It is this poison that has made indelible contributions to the prosperity of the Chinese nation and to the treatment and health care of diseases.

Second, four qi cures diseases.

Chinese medicine has "qi" What is "Qi"? It can cure diseases? Our answers are all yes.

Shen Nong's Classic of Materia Medica says: "Medicine has four qi: cold, hot, warm and cool.

""Treat cold with hot medicine and heat with cold medicine.

The "four qi" of medicine comes from this.

Speaking of "Qi" in TCM theory, there are actually 27 meanings.

This "qi" is not a concept in our daily life, but specifically refers to "medicinal properties".

Our ancestors used cold, heat, warmth and coolness to explain the characteristics of medicine, which is much more specific and scientific than "poison". This Chinese medicine tonic is not only rich in content, but also has a unique cultural interest.

There are qi, heart, blood, kidney, spleen, liver, lung, yin and yang. The corresponding prescriptions are Buxin Dan, Bugan San, Bufei San, Siwu Tang, Guipi Tang, Buyin Pill, Buxue Jin Rong Pill, Buzhong Yiqi Decoction, Sijunzi Decoction, Qiju Dihuang Pill, Liuwei Dihuang Pill and Lily.

This tonic is mostly for nourishing dirty qi.

This "supplement" is conditioning and strengthening; This "qi" refers to the physiological function, that is, regulating and enhancing the physiological function of the five internal organs through drugs, so that they can play a normal role, which fully embodies the role of traditional Chinese medicine in curing the root cause of human functional organs.

Shennong's Classic of Materia Medica divides drugs into three categories (namely "classes") and says: "Medicine is used to nourish life, Chinese medicine is used to nourish nature, and medicine is used to treat diseases.

"He also said:" The doctor … is the king, and the life will be nurtured on the same day ","Chinese medicine … is the minister, and human nature should be nurtured ",and" the doctor … is the auxiliary, and the attending is the ground ".

The so-called nourishing life and nature highlights the nourishing effect of traditional Chinese medicine on the human body, thus ensuring the normal function of the body and various organs and tissues, which is one of the reasons why many people believe in traditional Chinese medicine.

This is the progress of traditional Chinese medicine, which is also its characteristic and full of cultural significance.

This feature of Chinese medicine is integrated into every kind of medicine because it is very important for treating diseases.

Use hot medicine for colds and cold medicine for fevers. Here, the nature of drugs and diseases is opposite, so-called complementary opposites, which is a concrete manifestation of medical culture.

Otherwise, if "heat is used to benefit heat (fever is treated by hot medicine, as in the next sentence) and cold is used to increase cold", it will lead to "internal injury of essence and qi, and external (present) disappearance", which is a serious mistake in treatment (Han Ji lue).

Sun Simiao seriously criticized those doctors who "cold is cold (cold disease, but cold is used to make the disease colder, the next sentence is like this) and heat is warm," which is aggravating (that is, aggravating) their illness ",which will definitely lead to death.

In traditional Chinese medicine, this medication method is called "active treatment", that is, conventional treatment.

There is also an "anti-governance", which will be described in the "fifth" of this article.

This shows how important it is to use the "four qi" of medicine to treat diseases. Many people who have eaten Chinese medicine may know little about it.

Third, the anecdote of drug tonic.

In addition, there are flavor supplements.

Shennong's Herbal Classic says: "Medicine has five flavors: sour, salty, sweet, bitter and pungent".

What effect do these five flavors have on human body? There is a clear statement in Su Wen Xuan Ming's Five Qi Articles: "Five flavors enter the liver, bitter into the heart, sweet into the spleen, pungent into the lung and salty into the kidney".

It can be seen that medicinal materials have different tastes and different effects. The reason is that sour taste can be astringent, bitter taste can be drained, sweet taste can be alleviated, spicy taste can be dispersed, and salty taste can be softened and moist.

According to the medicinal functions of the five flavors and their entry into the corresponding viscera, they can also play their "nourishing" (or nourishing or conditioning) role.

I'm afraid these are connotations that ordinary people are not familiar with.

There are more unexpected supplements, which will be described in the "fifth" of this article.

Fourth, monarchs, ministers and assistant ambassadors.

This is a political term. Ancient emperors and governors were called monarchs, and those who assisted monarchs were called ministers. There is a strict hierarchy between monarch and minister.

Ancient pharmacists introduced it into the prescription of drug compatibility and became the basic principle of prescription composition.

As early as the early years of the Western Han Dynasty, Qi Bo replied to the Yellow Emperor's Prescription of Monarch and Minister with "the main disease refers to the monarch, the auxiliary monarch refers to the minister, and the minister should be called the envoy". Shennong's Herbal Classic said: "Medicine has monarch, minister, assistant and envoy to announce the funeral".

He further explained in the Ming Dynasty: "Generally speaking, drugs for treating diseases have their own owners, attending persons and monarchs; Auxiliary treatment, minister also; Those who help each other violate the monarch's medicine, Zuo Ye; Meridian-guiding makes the medicine for treating diseases reach the diseased area, so it is also used. "

It clearly explains the functions of monarch, minister, assistant and envoy.

More specifically, monarch drugs are drugs that play a major role in major diseases or syndromes, and can be used alone or in combination with several flavors as needed; Minister drugs are drugs that assist monarch drugs to strengthen the treatment of main symptoms or syndromes, or drugs that simultaneously treat main symptoms or syndromes play a major role; Adjuvant drugs are drugs that assist monarch and minister drugs to play a therapeutic role, or treat secondary symptoms, or eliminate (reduce) the toxicity of monarch and minister drugs, or act as anti-adjuvant drugs to make drugs play a role in regulating menstruation or harmonizing.

This paper takes Mahuang Decoction, the first prescription in Treatise on Febrile Diseases, as an example, mainly treating exogenous wind-cold exterior syndrome.

The monarch drug Ephedra (3 Liang) is pungent and warm, relieving exterior syndrome and dispelling cold, dispersing lung and relieving asthma, with few adverse reactions.

Minister drugs-Guizhi (Liang), Xin Ganwen, Wen Jing and Ying-helped Ephedra to perspire and relieve exterior syndrome.

Adjuvant-almond (70), bitter and warm, lowers lung qi and helps ephedra to relieve asthma.

The basic drug, Radix Glycyrrhizae Preparata (1 2), tastes bitter and warm, harmonizes all the drugs, and restricts excessive sweating of cannabis and cinnamon.

Hemp, cinnamon and apricot all enter the lungs and have the effect of inducing menstruation, so no longer use drugs to induce menstruation.

The medicinal properties of Herba Ephedrae, Ramulus Cinnamomi, Semen Armeniacae Amarum and Radix Glycyrrhizae Preparata restrict, supplement and coordinate with each other, forming a powerful drug force to overcome exogenous wind and cold, and its clinical effect is very remarkable, and it has become a famous prescription and classic prescription throughout the ages.

The composition of traditional Chinese medicine prescription is not a simple combination of several drugs, but an organic whole basically formed in rich clinical practice.

The core of cultural connotation is "harmony" emphasized by Confucianism.

Fifth, philosophy in medicine.

Chinese medicine has its own pharmacology, as mentioned above; And its philosophy is often ignored or unknown.

We know that philosophy teaches people how to understand things and the world at a higher level, and find out the laws from them, so as to better guide us from the "inevitable kingdom" to the "free kingdom".

Here is just a brief talk about the philosophy of traditional Chinese medicine.

(1) The medicinal property is "Yin and Yang": "Yin and Yang" was originally a concept in China's ancient philosophy, which summarized the two different properties of everything in the world, from the universe to the contradiction, as well as the * * * nature and personality of plants, animals and insects.

Here, we only choose some concepts related to nature, medicine and human body to look at one thing: heaven and earth, sun and moon, men and women, rigidity and softness, exercise, ups and downs, life and death, chronic decline, cold and heat, good and evil, gain and loss, increase and decrease, qi and blood, viscera ... "Shennong Materia Medica Classic" says: "Medicine has yin and yang coordination, mother and brother.

Later doctors used "yin and yang" to explain pharmacology.

Gao Li, a doctor in the Jin Dynasty, said in the chapter of "Medicine Types" in Ten Books of Dongyuan Decoction Materia Medica: "Warm and cool, cold and hot, four qi are also true.

Warm people, the sun in the sky is also; Cold is also the clouds in the sky.

This is the yin and yang of heaven ... sweet, sweet, sour, bitter and salty, with five flavors.

Singandan, the sun of the earth; Sour, bitter and salty, the yin of the earth is also.

This is the yin and yang of the earth.

Thin taste is yang in yin, thin taste is smooth, and bitterness is salty. Thick taste is yin in yin, thick taste is laxative, and so is acid, bitter and salty.

Thick gas is yang in yang, thick gas is fever, and sweet temperature is also; Thin gas is the yin in the yang, and it is vented, sweet and cold ... sweetness diverges into yang, and sweetness overflows into yin.

"Through yin and yang, it not only illustrates the characteristics of medicine, but also expounds the efficacy of medicine, which has strong generality and regularity.

(2) there is "anti-governance" in the governance.

The second part mentioned "active governance" and "anti-governance".

Anti-treatment is the opposite of positive treatment, and it is a treatment method to refuse positive treatment when the disease appears illusion, or when there is a big cold syndrome or a big heat syndrome.

Among them, "using heat because of cold", using hot medicine to treat heat syndrome in real winter vacation, only a small amount of cold medicine or cold medicine will have an effect; There is a kind of "cold due to heat", which refers to the treatment of true heat syndrome and deficiency cold syndrome with cold-cooling drugs. Only a small amount of warm drugs or cold drugs and hot drinks can play a role.

This not only embodies the syndrome differentiation of traditional Chinese medicine, but also embodies the dialectics of drug use, which has profound philosophical connotation and is the unique feature of traditional Chinese medicine culture.

(3) There is a philosophy of tonic.

In the third part, Zhang Yi, a doctor in Jin Dynasty, is quite philosophical and unique when talking about two aspects of medicine supplement.

1. In the article "Explanations of Three Methods for Treating Diseases by Sweating", from the perspective of strengthening the body resistance and eliminating pathogenic factors, he thinks that eliminating pathogenic factors is strengthening the body resistance, which is unique, and puts forward a viewpoint of "five supplements" different from Su Wen's: "nourishing the liver with salt, nourishing the heart with sweetness, nourishing the spleen with acid, and nourishing the lung with bitterness".

Taking "Xin" as an example, it originally entered the lungs and belonged to gold; Liver belongs to wood, and gold can make wood, so we use "Xin bu gan" (hereinafter imitation).

Zhang Yi is emphasizing the elimination of evil in his treatment, believing that eliminating evil is to protect himself from evil, and the key point is to attack the law. His so-called "tonic" actually contains the meaning of "attacking and governing", and later people call him "attacking and dispatching".

2. In Addendum, he is even more eloquent: "Inviting is the way to complement words, which is generally harmful to those who have more than enough, and making up for the lack means making up.

Yang is full of yin deficiency, so it is appropriate to hurt Yang and replenish Yin; If the yin is excessive and the yang is insufficient, it will damage the yin and replenish the yang. "

So, how to make up for it? He explained it this way: if it is a heat syndrome, use cold medicines such as mirabilite and rhubarb to "nourish yin and hurt yang"; If it is cold syndrome, use hot drugs such as dried ginger and aconite to "tonify yang and hurt yin".

His conclusion is surprising: "Can you make it up with hot medicine?" And cold medicine also means tonic.

"There are only two situations that can be seen, which is why Zhang Congzheng became a superman.

The philosophy and cultural details need us to savor carefully in order to cure the samadhi of culture.

(4) Medication should be "neutral".

"Neutralization" is a Confucian philosophy, which holds that if it can be achieved, everything will be harmonious.

Shuowen says ... the regulator of things is the sum.

"Neutralization, used in pharmacology, has three meanings: first, harmony, using different factors in a moderate way to make the proportion appropriate, such as the chef's cooking soup, contains the meaning of the method; The second is a harmonious, balanced and unified country.

"Harmony" is the avenue of the world.

Confucius said, "A gentleman is harmonious but different.

"It means that a gentleman uses his own correct opinions to correct other people's wrong opinions, so that everything is just right, but he refuses to blindly agree.

It can be seen that gentlemen know the truth of "harmony" very well, and our ancient physicians are such gentlemen! Yang Bojun vividly explained "harmony" in Annotations on the Analects of Confucius: "Harmony is like the sum of five flavors and eight sounds, and there must be different materials such as water, fire, sauce and vinegar to harmonize tastes; There must be different tones of high, low and fast to make music harmonious.

There is also the best combination of ministers, officials and assistants, which is why several drugs in Mahuang Decoction can achieve the best effect of warming the interior and relieving exterior symptoms, while the combination of ephedra with asarum and Notopterygium can not achieve this effect.

There is not only the relationship of mutual coordination (cooperation) but also the relationship of mutual restriction between monarch and minister. Yan Zi said, "So do monarchs and ministers.

Your so-called ability, regardless of whether it exists or not, is made up of whether I offer it or not; You said no, but why not? I can provide it for you.

It means: the same is true for the monarch and the minister. Can't say yes, the minister also said yes. You said no, and I said no, so "Who can eat the water in the water?" If the harp is single-minded, who can listen "If you promise, I will give it to you, and vice versa.

So did the monarch of Fang Yaozhong and his subjects.

Congmaxing Shigan Decoction is a famous prescription for treating lung heat stagnation syndrome. Ephedra is a monarch drug, which spreads lung and relieves asthma, meaning "fire is the cause of stagnation", but it is warm in nature, so it is a minister drug together with gypsum, and its taste is sweet and bitter. Gypsum can not only clear away lung heat, but also restrict the warmth of ephedra, so that it can be used. Compatibility of the two drugs can relieve lung depression and clear cough due to lung heat.

I think the vitality of Chinese medicine prescriptions for thousands of years is by no means accidental. The second, third, fourth and fifth contents mentioned in this paper are unique in the world pharmaceutical theory and culture.

They not only combine the wisdom of our ancestors' materialist dialectics in pharmacy, but also form the standards that Chinese medicine prescriptions must follow, and also have extremely rich cultural connotations.

Sixth, medication has the art of war.

The ancients said, "Medicine is like fighting a soldier, and medicine is like a general." .

"With the strategy and tactics in Sun Tzu's Art of War, so is medication. We should not only be familiar with the properties of drugs, but also get to the point of pathogenesis, with a clear aim, so as to achieve the purpose of treating diseases.

If drugs are used as soldiers, it is necessary to understand the relationship between them: drugs belong to categories, and soldiers have types of equipment; Drugs are lightly used and reused, and soldiers assist in attacking; Drugs have priority to attack and supplement, and soldiers are strong and weak; Medicine has excellent compatibility, and there are magic weapons ... Xu Dachun, a famous doctor in Qing Dynasty, is not only skilled in medical skills, but also proficient in the art of war. "The method of winning (commanding battle) with knives is unknown (widely studied)", and he is a representative figure in this field. He once wrote "Taking Poison as War Theory" to tell the truth.

He vividly and thoroughly expounded: occupying the unexplored part of the disease spreading along the six meridians in advance is like cutting off the only way for the enemy; For fierce diseases, we should guard the parts that have not yet become ill as soon as possible, just like guarding our dangerous territory; For diseases caused by food accumulation, we must first eliminate food accumulation, just as the enemy's food has been burnt; For the complications of new and old diseases, it is like cutting off the enemy's internal force to prevent the new and old diseases from meeting ... In addition, it is said that it is like sending reconnaissance troops to distinguish the meridians when using drugs; According to the cold and heat of the disease, there are countermeasures, just like implementing the strategy of mutual differentiation and alienation ... If the disease is developing, it is not appropriate to attack and treat it when it is raging. It's like exhausting the enemy. When the illness declines, we must pursue the place where the illness has receded and replenish elite drugs, which is like destroying the enemy's nest.

It also involves many aspects, so I won't give examples here.

In a word, it fully enlightens us to explore the truth between drug abuse and military use in depth, and is by no means deliberately sensational.

Xu Dachun finally concluded: The Art of War is a book that completely contains the methods of treating diseases.

How thought-provoking

Seventh, the concept of traditional Chinese medicine.

When it comes to the concept of Chinese medicine, there seems to be no problem, but it is not the case.

Among many ordinary people and even professionals, there is still a vague understanding of this.

Here is just a hot topic "Is natural medicine equal to Chinese medicine?" .

When the upsurge of "natural medicine" rose in the world a few years ago, people in our own industry also advocated replacing "traditional Chinese medicine" with "natural medicine", saying that this was an important measure to connect with the world and let westerners accept Chinese medicine.

This move has caused quite a stir in the pharmaceutical industry and has continued to this day.

People with a little knowledge know that "natural medicine" was put forward and rose because westerners were afraid of the side effects of chemically synthesized drugs, so western medical circles turned to nature to find new ways to use drugs. Through research, one or more medicinal components are extracted from some animals and plants with special medicinal components by science and technology, and made into drugs for clinical use. This is undoubtedly a new field and development of contemporary pharmacy.

What is incredible is: why do some people contact Chinese medicine at once under the guise of accepting new things, and think that Chinese medicine decoction is "a thick black soup of grassroots bark, which is unsanitary, unpalatable and has unknown ingredients, which is terrible"; Chinese medicine pill Westerners say it is "a dark pill, which is unacceptable".

So I came to the conclusion that Chinese medicine is backward and its composition is unclear, so it should be changed into "natural medicine" as soon as possible, otherwise there will be no market and no future in the world.

Is "Chinese medicine" really desperate, so miserable that it has to change its name and surname to survive? Our view is clear: "natural medicine" is not the same as "Chinese medicine", so please keep a clear head.

The concept and connotation of "natural medicine" have been briefly described above; The concept and connotation of "Chinese medicine" are by no means the same.

Although most Chinese herbal medicines are taken from "nature" and some can be directly used as medicine, it is not a real "Chinese medicine". We call it "traditional Chinese medicine" and cannot generalize it. First of all, it refers to all kinds of processed parts.

The function of processing is not only to remove impurities and facilitate preparation and administration, but also to eliminate or reduce the toxic and side effects of drugs, change the performance of drugs and strengthen the curative effect.

Take Rehmannia as an example. Rehmannia can clear heat and cool blood. Rehmannia glutinosa has the effects of warming nature, nourishing kidney and enriching blood after it is evaporated with wine.

Processing is always divided into water system, fire system, water-fire system and so on.

Water system includes washing, bleaching, soaking, pickling, water flying and so on. Fire processing includes roasting, roasting, simmering, frying, roasting, roasting, roasting and so on. The combination of water and fire includes steaming, boiling and quenching.

And each method contains several specific methods in detail, with extremely rich connotations.

And these processing methods have now become our national treasure secrets.

Secondly, traditional Chinese medicine refers to prescription drugs made according to the characteristics and laws of four qi and five flavors, monarch, minister, assistant and envoy, instead of mixing them randomly and then making them into soup, pills, powder or ointment as needed ... Therefore, "traditional Chinese medicine" and "natural medicine" can neither be confused nor substituted for each other.

Is it necessary for Chinese medicine practitioners with thousands of years' history to confuse the camp because of the rise of "natural medicine", to retreat automatically, approach actively, or even declare surrender? Traditional Chinese medicine is the medicine of the Chinese nation. Only the first in the country can be the medicine of the world.

Its unique laws and cultural connotations, such as four flavors and five flavors, the assistance of monarch and minister, and anti-governance, cannot be easily abandoned, let alone replaced at will.

It can't be said that it is a "pot of thick black soup" or "a mass of black pills" in the west, so I feel that Chinese medicine is backward and has no confidence.

If the decoction is abandoned, the characteristics of traditional Chinese medicine (syndrome differentiation and treatment) will lose its luster and the consequences will be serious.

Now there are fuzzy mathematics and fuzzy logic, which is undoubtedly an advanced scientific category.

From this, I thought of a pot of soup and a ball of pills. At present, I can't tell the pharmaceutical ingredients after their mixture. So, why not call it a "fuzzy pharmacy"? From this, I think that there are many "vague" problems in the world, whether it is nature or science, waiting for us to investigate, study and reveal. How much do we know about the universe, and how much is vague and unknown? But don't we have comprehensive cosmology? There are still many vague and unknown places about the earth where human beings live. Isn't there a comprehensive study? Just say how vague and unknown we are about the human body itself. The advent of human genome map is undoubtedly a great progress, and comprehensive human science still faces many topics to be explored.

Humans will not blame a natural phenomenon because they are in a vague state; Humans will not blame many ancient buildings such as pyramids because they are vague; Humans will not be confused about their organs, tissues and functions, but blame them ... Similarly, what's the big deal for humans to be confused about the ingredients of a pot of medicine soup and a pill for a while? Besides, they have existed for thousands of years and hundreds of millions of people have been treated and maintained. This article alone is enough to prove the scientificity and effectiveness of traditional Chinese medicine.

I don't believe this, tell these truths to westerners, and they will compete with Chinese medicine! Let the world know the connotation and culture of Chinese medicine, and how rich it is! Our task is to promote Chinese medicine to the world, and at the same time increase the propaganda of medical culture.

I advocate that "traditional Chinese medicine" and "natural medicine" should coexist, learn from each other, get along well with each other and seek their own development.

The world is so big and there are so many people. These two things can't coexist.

They each have their own characteristics and advantages, and there is absolutely no need to "combine into one".

Gold always shines.

Don't westerners still eat pancakes, fried dough sticks, bean juice and vegetables from China? Or sing China's songs and Peking Opera, say China's cross talk, and wear China's cheongsam and cloth shoes? If really necessary, foreigners will still drink Chinese medicine soup and take Chinese medicine pills.

compatibility of traditional chinese medicine

Compatibility refers to the selective use of more than two drugs according to the needs of diseases and the characteristics of drugs.

The occurrence and development of diseases are often complicated and rapidly changing, often manifested in the combination of excess and deficiency, cold and heat, and the simultaneous treatment of several diseases. It is difficult to take care of all parties with only one medicine.

Therefore, it is often necessary to use more than two drugs at the same time in clinic.

When drugs are used together, there will be some interactions between drugs, such as some can enhance or reduce the original curative effect, some can inhibit or eliminate side effects, and some can produce or enhance side effects.

Therefore, when using more than two kinds of drugs, we must choose, which raises the problem of drug compatibility.

The predecessors called the application of single drug and the compatibility between drugs "seven emotions". In the "seven emotions", except for single medicine, the other six aspects are all about compatibility.

It is divided into the following parts: (1) monotherapy: that is, only one drug can be used without compatibility, which is called monotherapy.

For example, Jinqing Powder simply uses Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi to treat hemoptysis caused by lung heat.

(2) Stage: Drugs with similar performance and curative effect are used together to enhance the original curative effect.

For example, gypsum combined with Anemarrhena asphodeloides can obviously enhance the curative effect of clearing heat and purging fire; The combination of rhubarb and mirabilite can obviously enhance the curative effect of diarrhea fever; The combination of scorpion and centipede can obviously enhance the spasmolysis and tetany.

(3) Matching: that is, drugs with certain performance and curative effect, or different performance and curative effect, but with the same therapeutic purpose are used together, with one drug as the main and another drug as the auxiliary, which can improve the curative effect of the main drug.

If Astragalus membranaceus is compatible with Poria cocos, Poria cocos can improve the curative effect of Astragalus membranaceus.

(4) Mutual fear: that is, the toxic reaction or side effects of one drug can be alleviated or eliminated by another drug.

For example, the toxicity of raw Pinellia ternata and raw South Star can be reduced or eliminated by ginger, so raw Pinellia ternata and raw South Star are afraid of ginger.

(5) Mutual killing: that is, one drug can reduce or eliminate the toxicity or side effects of another drug.

For example, ginger can reduce or eliminate the toxicity or side effects of raw Pinellia ternata and raw South Star, so ginger kills raw Pinellia ternata and raw South Star.

It can be seen that mutual fear and mutual killing are actually two dosage forms with the same compatibility, especially in the mutual treatment between drugs.

(6) Mutual harm: when two drugs are used together, one drug can reduce or even lose the original curative effect of the other drug.

For example, ginseng hates radish seeds, because radish seeds will weaken the qi-invigorating effect of ginseng.

(7) On the contrary, the combination of the two drugs can produce or enhance toxic reactions or side effects.

Such as "eighteen evils" and "nineteen fears".

The above-mentioned six aspects except single line can be summarized into four items, that is, in the case of compatible application: ① Some drugs improve the curative effect due to synergistic effect and should be fully utilized in clinical medication; ② Some drugs may antagonize each other and weaken the original curative effect, so attention should be paid when using drugs; ③ Some drugs can reduce or eliminate the original toxicity or side effects due to interaction, so they must be considered when applying toxic drugs or potent drugs; ④ Some drugs produce or enhance toxic and side effects due to interaction, which are incompatible and should be avoided in principle.

Based on the above, it can be seen that from single drug to compatible application, it is gradually accumulated and enriched through a long process of practice and understanding.

Compatibility and application of drugs are the main forms of traditional Chinese medicine.

The medicines are combined according to a certain weight, a certain proportion is determined, and an appropriate dosage form, namely a prescription, is made.

Prescription is the development of drug compatibility and a higher form of drug compatibility application.