ASI
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Acupuncture
Lecture Number 2 – The
Ancient Empire
A World History Perspective: 206 BC - 580 AD
Medicine in the Ancient Empire
The Han Dynasty
Hua T’o
Chang Chung Ching
The 3 Kingdoms
The Western Chin Dynasty
A World History Perspective: 206 BC – 580 AD
206 BC - 001 BC
The Han dynasty founded in China (206 BC). The first Chinese ships reach the east coast of India, circa 100 BC. Roman adoption of the Julian calendar of 365.25 days in 46 BC.
001 AD - 200 AD
Romans learn the use of soap from the Gauls, 50 AD. Ming-Ti, the Emperor of China, introduces Buddhism, 58 AD The Roman Empire reaches its greatest geographical extent, 116 AD. Galen extracts plant juices for medicinal purposes, circa 190 AD. Silkworms arrive in China (from Korea) and subsequently in Japan, circa 200 AD.
201 – 400 AD
End of the Han Dynasty in China (220), followed by four centuries of division. The first form of a compass used in China (271). The first definite records of Japanese history (400).
401 – 580 AD
Beginnings of Alchemy and the search for the Philosopher’s Stone and the Elixir of Life (circa 410). The Vandals sack Rome (455). Tamo brings tea from India to China (500). The Ch’i Dynasty in southern China (479 - 502). The plague invades Constantinople, imported by rats from Egypt and Syria - it soon spreads all over Europe (542). Disastrous earthquakes shake the entire world (543). The plague, medically described by Gildas, reaches Britain (547). Mohammed born (570).
MEDICINE IN THE ANCIENT EMPIRE
With the establishment of the Han Dynasty, the Chinese military empire transformed into a tradition-conscious monarchy. It re-established its connection "beyond the centuries of the words," with the saints and the sages of the Golden Age.
The Han Dynasty
206 BC - 220 ADThe Han Dynasty was contemporary with the Roman Empire and represents the emergence of Chinese civilization at the world level through the Silk Road (122 BC), the Burma Road (115 BC), and the Maritime Routes, which led to contact with Iran, India, Southeast Asia, and the Mediterranean.
Medicine in The Roman Empire was a continuation of the Greek teachings of Hippocrates. The most famous (Greek) physician of Rome was Galen, who wrote: "The people love drugs!" His reference was, of course, to herbs.
In China, all forms of scientific thought led to a general stimulation. Medicine joined in this great intellectual movement and found expression in a number of works, classified as follows in the Han Shu, the Annals of the Han Dynasty:
The Nei Ching - the classics of medicine.
The Ching Fang - a collection of prescriptions.
The Fang Chung - treatises on the bedroom (i.e., sex and general hygiene.
The Shen Sien - methods and prescriptions for immortality.
Only the Nei Ching has reached us today, the last three works were lost.
It was during the Han Dynasty that the Classical Doctrine of Medicine was formulated.
The great masters of medicine in the Han Dynasty were Hua T’o and Chang Chung Ching.
Hua T’o
Hua T’o (136 - 208 AD) was the great surgeon of the Han Dynasty; he is probably the most famous Chinese physician in history. His writing name was Yuan Hua. His works included Ma Tsuei Fa (Anesthetics) and Ch’ai Fu Shu (The Art of Abdominal Section). He was famous for the one-needle style of acupuncture. His recommendation was to use as few points as possible and to not mix points.
Hua T’o is credited with extraordinary surgical operations of the same style as those attributed to Pien Ts’io, including laparotomies, thoracotomies, grafting of organs, intestinal resections, rhinoplasties, and lithotomies, carried out under general anesthesia by Indian hemp. Note that this is difficult to accept by modern scientific investigators because of the lack of adequate instrumental equipment; the only operation we can reasonably attribute to him is the trepanation he is said to have recommended for the Emperor Ts’ao Ts’ao.
Ts’ao Ts’ao reigned over Northern China. Suffering from violent headaches, he was cured by Hua T’o with a single needle acupuncture treatment. From then on, Ts’ao Ts’ao tried unsuccessfully to keep Hua T’o in his service. So Ts’ao Ts’ao had Hua T’o imprisoned, and then assassinated in 208 AD.
According to legend, Hua T’o tried to entrust his writings to his jailer who was too frightened of punishment to take them. In despair, Hua T’o burned his manuscripts. That is why the texts bearing his name, Hua Shih Chung Tsang Jing, compiled by Sun Sing Yen (1753 - 1818) are late, apocryphal compilations.
We owe the practice of hydrotherapy and medicinal baths to Hua T’o. He was an acupuncturist, an anatomist, and a therapist. When he acknowledged that acupuncture had to be used, he would apply it in two or three places. He carried out the same procedure in the case of moxibustion.
But if the source of the ailment was in those parts of the body where the needle, the moxa, or the hydrotherapy could have no effect (for example in the bones, the bone marrow, the stomach, or the intestines), he gave a preparation of ma-yo (hemp) to the patient, who, after a few moments, would become as insensate as if he were completely intoxicated or deprived of life. Then he would cut open, incise, or amputate, as required, and remove the cause of the illness; then he would stitch together the tissues and apply liniments.
After a certain number of days (at the end of one month according to the reckoning of the later Han period), the patient would be well again without having felt the slightest pain during the operation.
Hua T’o is thought to have published anatomical charts showing the inside of the human body. He noticed that physical exercise facilitated the digestion and circulation, and strengthened the body. He also invented the Wu Chin Hi, the game of the five animals (tiger, stag, bear, monkey, and crane). As a therapist, he used the first known anesthetics (ma fei san - Indian hemp), sutures, antiseptics, antinflammatories, and anti-helminthics.
He operated on General Kuan Yun Chang, who had received a poisoned arrow in his right arm, by cutting down to the bone and applying an ointment. It was reported that the General was able to move his arm as soon as the wound was stitched. This episode is a classic and has inspired many texts and engravings.
For seventeen hundred years, tradition has kept alive the veneration of this master of medicine and surgery.
Chang Chung Ching
Chang Chung Ching (born circa 158 - 166 AD): Known as the Chinese Hippocrates, Chang Chung Ching was a codifier of symptomatology and therapeutics, and was the first to clearly differentiate between yin and yang symptoms.
His work included the Shang Han Lun, a Treatise on Ailments caused by Cold, which was subsequently divided into the Shang Han Lun proper and the Chin Kwei Yao Lio Fang, a summary dealing with the Prescriptions of the Golden Box. These comprise a work as significant as the Nei Ching.
The 3
Kingdoms
220 - 280 AD
After a period of splendor, the Han Dynasty split into the Three Kingdoms, which were followed by an ephemeral restoration known as the Western Chin Dynasty.
The Western
Chin Dynasty
265 - 346 AD
This short-lived restoration led into a period of confusion caused by invasions from the barbaric dynasties of the north. This roughly coincided with the beginning of the Middle Ages in the Western civilization.
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