Qihuang Sets Sail: Chinese Medicine from the Storms of the Modern Era to a Global Stage
From the 'Abolish TCM' Storm to WHO Recognition — A Century of TCM's Fate and Rebirth
「The superior physician heals the realm; the middling physician heals the person; the lesser physician heals the disease.」
(「上医医国,中医医人,下医医病。」)
— Tang dynasty · Sun Simiao, Beiji Qianjin Yaofang (《备急千金要方》) · “On Diagnosis and Prognosis” (《论诊候》)
Many people believe that TCM is just an “old relic” —
needles in a museum, herbs by the stove, grandfather’s folk remedies.
Yet nothing could be further from the truth.
From the late 16th century, when Matteo Ricci described TCM pulse-taking for Europe in De Christiana Expeditione apud Sinas (《利玛窦中国札记》, The Journals of Matteo Ricci), to the 17th century, when the Polish Jesuit Michel Boym published Flora Sinensis (《中国植物志》) in Vienna; from the 1929 “Abolish TCM” crisis that nearly severed TCM at its roots, to 2015, when Tu Youyou ascended the Nobel stage with artemisinin — an inspiration drawn from Ge Hong’s Zhouhou Beiji Fang (《肘后备急方》, Handbook of Prescriptions for Emergencies); and on to 2019, when the WHO adopted ICD-11, and 2022, when UNESCO inscribed “Traditional Medicine of China” on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity —
The art of Qihuang, having walked through storm and uncertainty, is now stepping calmly onto the world stage.
I. Late Imperial Era: The Beginnings of TCM’s Transmission Westward
📜 1. Matteo Ricci and De Christiana Expeditione apud Sinas (1615)
Matteo Ricci (利玛窦, 1552–1610), an Italian Jesuit missionary, arrived in China in 1582. He spent twenty-eight years in the country, mastering the Chinese language and writing prolifically.
His posthumous De Christiana Expeditione apud Sinas — known in English as China in the Sixteenth Century: The Journals of Matteo Ricci — was edited by Nicolas Trigault (金尼阁) and published in 1615 in Augsburg, Germany. It was later translated into Chinese by He Gaoji, Wang Zunzhong, and Li Shen, and published by Zhonghua Book Company in 1983.
In the book, Ricci, with the awe of an outside observer, gave Europe its first systematic introduction to TCM pulse diagnosis, materia medica, and tongue inspection:
“The Chinese have given much study to many things, especially to the theory of the pulse as explained by their physicians. By means of it they distinguish the various conditions of the body’s internal functions with a precision that moves one to wonder.”
This is one of the earliest written Western records of TCM pulse studies. Ricci did not dismiss TCM; rather, with a respectful pen, he recorded the Chinese medicine he had witnessed.
Source: Matteo Ricci, De Christiana Expeditione apud Sinas (《利玛窦中国札记》), Book I, Chapter 10; trans. He Gaoji et al., Zhonghua Book Company, 1983.
📖 2. Michel Boym and Flora Sinensis (1656)
Michel Boym (卜弥格, 1612–1659), a Polish Jesuit missionary, studied the Nestorian Stele of the late Ming court in China, and was also the first Westerner to introduce Chinese materia medica to Europe.
His Flora Sinensis (Vienna, 1656), published in 1656 in Vienna, is the first work in European history to systematically introduce Chinese plants and drugs — it depicted more than twenty Chinese substances including rhubarb (大黄), cassia bark (桂皮), lychee (荔枝), lotus root (藕), lingzhi (灵芝), poria (茯苓), and musk (麝香), accompanied by woodcut illustrations.
This was the first time that TCM bencao (materia medica) had been presented to Europeans in a modern botanical format, and was later cited by Carl Linnaeus and others.
Source: Michel Boym, Flora Sinensis, Vienna, 1656; See also: Edward Kajdański, The Envoy of the Chinese Empire: Michel Boym, Elephant Press.
🌍 3. Du Halde and Description de la Chine (1735)
Jean-Baptiste Du Halde (杜赫德, 1674–1743), a French Jesuit, compiled Jesuit archives and published the four-volume Description de la Chine (《中华帝国全志》) in Paris in 1735.
It included extensive translations and accounts of TCM pulse studies, acupuncture, materia medica, and case histories. The book influenced Enlightenment thinkers such as Voltaire and Montesquieu, giving Europe’s Enlightenment era its first fairly systematic view of Chinese medicine.
🩺 4. Acupuncture Becomes Fashionable in 19th-Century Europe
In the early 19th century, acupuncture entered European medical circles via French missionaries such as Joachim Bouvet (白晋) and Pierre Soulié (苏里). Around 1810, French physicians began to use acupuncture in clinical practice for analgesia. In 1822, the English physician James Morss Churchill published A Treatise on Acupunturation, systematically introducing acupuncture to the English-speaking world.
A single silver needle now crossed the ocean and took root in Europe.
II. Modern Era: TCM in the Storm (1840–1949)
After the Opium War, Western medicine poured into China in large numbers through missionaries, hospitals, and medical schools. For the first time, TCM met a genuine “rival.”
⚔️ 1. The Sino-Western Integrative School — The Wisdom of “Seeking Common Ground While Reserving Differences”
Faced with the surge of Western medicine, a number of TCM pioneers from the late Qing to the Republican era chose non-exclusion, attempting to integrate Chinese and Western medicine and learn from one another. This became known as the “Sino-Western Integrative School” (中西医汇通学派).
🤝 Tang Zonghai (唐宗海, 1847–1897)
A native of Sichuan, he authored Zhongxi Huitong Yijing Jingyi (《中西汇通医经精义》, Essentials of the Integrated Interpretation of the Medical Classics, published 1892) — the first medical work in China to explicitly pursue the goal of “Sino-Western integration.” Tang’s principle was: “Set aside differences of region and doctrine; seek only the single, balanced truth.”
🤝 Zhu Peiwen (朱沛文, mid-to-late 19th century)
A native of Guangdong, he authored Huayang Zangxiang Yuezuan (《华洋脏象约纂》, A Concise Compilation of Chinese and Foreign Theories of the Viscera, published 1892), comparing the viscera in the Huangdi Neijing (《黄帝内经》, Yellow Emperor’s Inner Canon) with Western anatomy item by item — the first Chinese work to systematically compare the viscera in Chinese and Western medicine.
🤝 Yun Tieqiao (恽铁樵, 1878–1935)
A native of Jiangsu, he authored Qunjing Jianzhi Lu (《群经见智录》, Records of Wisdom from the Classics, 1922) and Shanghan Lun Yanjiu (《伤寒论研究》, Research on the Treatise on Cold Damage). He advanced the idea that “TCM has real efficacy; we must trace the reasons for that efficacy”, refuting the simplistic dismissal of TCM as “unscientific.”
🤝 Zhang Xichun (张锡纯, 1860–1933)
A native of Hebei, he authored Yixue Zhongzhong Canxi Lu (《医学衷中参西录》, Records of Chinese Medicine Loyal to the Center While Drawing on the West) in three installments and thirty volumes — the most complete and practically valuable clinical work of the integrative school. His self-created “Aspirin and Gypsum Decoction” (combining Western aspirin with the Chinese drug gypsum) is regarded as an early model of combined Chinese-Western drug therapy.
“Loyalty to the center is the foundation; drawing on the West is the support.” — Zhang Xichun
Source: Zhang Xichun, Yixue Zhongzhong Canxi Lu (《医学衷中参西录》); Hebei People’s Press, 1957 revised edition.
📊 The Four Integrative Masters Compared
| Master | Lifespan | Representative Work | Core Principle |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tang Zonghai (唐宗海) | 1847–1897 | Essentials of the Integrated Interpretation of the Medical Classics | “Set aside differences of region and doctrine” |
| Zhu Peiwen (朱沛文) | 19th century | A Concise Compilation of Chinese and Foreign Theories of the Viscera | Item-by-item comparison of Chinese and Western viscera |
| Yun Tieqiao (恽铁樵) | 1878–1935 | Records of Wisdom from the Classics | “Trace the reason behind real efficacy” |
| Zhang Xichun (张锡纯) | 1860–1933 | Records of Chinese Medicine Loyal to the Center While Drawing on the West | “Loyal to the center, drawing on the West; clinical practice is fundamental” |
Source: Original editions; modernized punctuated editions by Zhonghua Book Company and Shanghai Science and Technology Press.
🔥 2. The “Abolish TCM” Crises (1912 & 1929)
The greatest tribulation of TCM in modern times came in the form of two “institutional” attempts at abolition.
⚠️ The First: The 1912 “Omission of TCM” Case
In 1912, the Beiyang government promulgated the New Educational Ordinance of the Republic of China, excluding Chinese medicine from the university education system — this is the well-known “Omission of TCM” (漏列中医案) case.
The matter triggered the first nationwide petition by the TCM community, with bodies such as the Shenzhou TCM Society and medical associations submitting joint appeals to the Ministry of Education. In the end, the Beiyang government did not write the word “abolish” into law, but the effort to bring TCM into the official education system failed.
🔥 The Second: The 1929 “Abolish Old Medicine” Proposal
In February 1929, the Central Health Committee of the Nationalist government convened its first session. The then-member Yu Yunxiu (余云岫, courtesy name Yu Yan 余岩, 1879–1954) submitted the “Proposal to Abolish Old Medicine as a Means of Removing an Obstacle to Medical and Public Health Work,” calling for the gradual elimination of TCM over fifty years.
Had the proposal passed, TCM would have had no foothold left.
🚩 The “March 17” National Medicine Demonstration
When the news spread, the nation was shocked. On 17 March 1929, 381 representatives from 242 TCM groups across 17 provinces gathered in Shanghai for the “National Conference of Medical Groups.” They elected Xie Guan (谢观), Lu Yuanlei (陆渊雷), and Yun Tieqiao (恽铁樵), among others, to go to Nanjing to petition. After the meeting, 17 March was established as “National Medicine Day.”
After fierce resistance, the proposal was ultimately not adopted. But TCM’s legal status, its right to run schools, and its right to hold examinations remained precarious for many years thereafter.
Source: Yijie Chunqiu (《医界春秋》, Medical Spring and Autumn), 1926–1937, ed. Zhang Zanchen, issues 34–39; Deng Tietao, ed., General History of Chinese Medicine · Modern Volume, People’s Medical Publishing House, 2000.
A medicine labeled “old” in its own homeland — what a cruel absurdity, and what a tragic dignity.
III. New China: The “Phoenix Nirvana” of TCM (1949–Present)
🌟 1. After 1949: “TCM Is a Great Treasure-House”
After 1949, the fate of TCM was fundamentally reversed.
“Traditional Chinese medicine and pharmacology are a great treasure-house; we should make great efforts to explore it and raise its level.”
(「中医药学是一个伟大的宝库,应当努力发掘,加以提高。」)
— Mao Zedong, 11 October 1958, in a directive on the Ministry of Health’s Summary Report on the Workshop for Western Physicians Studying TCM
- 1950: The First National Health Work Conference established the policy of “uniting Chinese and Western medicine.”
- 1956: Beijing College of Chinese Medicine, Shanghai College of Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou College of Chinese Medicine, and Chengdu College of Chinese Medicine were established in succession, bringing TCM into the modern higher education system for the first time.
- “Integration of Chinese and Western medicine” became one of the basic policies of national health work.
Source: Archives of the Ministry of Health of the People’s Republic of China; General History of Chinese Medicine · Modern Volume, People’s Medical Publishing House, 2000.
🏆 2. Tu Youyou and Artemisinin (2015 Nobel Prize)
Tu Youyou (屠呦呦, 1930– ), born in Ningbo, Zhejiang, is a researcher at the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences. In 2015 she received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, becoming the first scientist in mainland China to win a Nobel Prize in the natural sciences.
The inspiration for her discovery came from a TCM classic over 1,700 years old:
“A handful of qinghao (sweet wormwood), soak in two sheng of water, wring out the juice, and drink it all.”
(「青蒿一握,以水二升渍,绞取汁尽服之。」)
— Eastern Jin · Ge Hong (葛洪), Zhouhou Beiji Fang (《肘后备急方》) · “Prescriptions for Cold-Heat and Various Malarias” (《治寒热诸疟方》), c. 340 CE
In 1969, Tu Youyou was appointed leader of “Project 523” (research on new anti-malarial drugs). Inspired by the word “jin” (渍, soak in cold water) rather than “jian” (煎, decoct in high heat) in Zhouhou Beiji Fang, she successfully extracted artemisinin in 1971, and completed clinical verification by 1972.
Artemisinin-based drugs have saved millions of malaria patients worldwide, and the World Health Organization (WHO) has listed them as “the first-line treatment for malaria in the 21st century.”
Source: Tu Youyou, “Artemisinin — A Gift from Traditional Chinese Medicine to the World,” Nature, 2011 feature; Nobel Prize official website announcement, 2015.
This is TCM’s greatest single contribution to world medicine.
📚 3. WHO Recognition: ICD-11 Includes Traditional Medicine (2019)
On 25 May 2019, the 72nd World Health Assembly in Geneva adopted the International Classification of Diseases, 11th Revision (ICD-11).
This is the first time in the more than 100-year history of the ICD that “traditional medicine” has been included — Chapter 26 of ICD-11 sets aside a special section on “Traditional Medicine Conditions”, with 150 traditional medicine disease entries, covering systems including Chinese medicine, acupuncture, and Ayurveda.
“ICD-11 enables, for the first time, the counting of traditional medicine services and encounters” — WHO official website.
ICD-11 came into formal effect on 1 January 2022.
Source: WHO, ICD-11 Introduction and Chapter 26; World Health Assembly Resolution WHA72.15 (May 2019).
🏛️ 4. UNESCO List: Traditional Medicine of China (2022)
From 28 November to 3 December 2022, the 17th session of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) was held in Rabat, Morocco.
The meeting formally inscribed “Traditional Medicine of China” on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
This is the 43rd Chinese item on a UNESCO intangible cultural heritage list, and represents the highest-level international cultural recognition that TCM has ever received.
Source: UNESCO ICH official website ich.unesco.org, Reference 01965, Traditional medicine of China, Inscribed 2022.
📜 Five Historical Moments (1949–2022)
| Year | Event | Significance |
|---|---|---|
| 1958 | Mao’s “Treasure-House” directive | The political cornerstone of TCM’s revival |
| 1956 | Four TCM colleges established | TCM enters modern higher education |
| 2015 | Tu Youyou wins the Nobel Prize | A major TCM contribution to world medicine |
| 2019 | WHO adopts ICD-11 | Traditional medicine enters the international disease classification for the first time |
| 2022 | UNESCO inscription on the ICH list | TCM receives international cultural recognition |
Source: See citations in the preceding sections.
IV. TCM Overseas: Toward the World
“Peach and plum trees do not speak, yet a path forms beneath them.” — Shiji (《史记》) · “Biography of General Li” (《李将军列传》)
🏯 1. Japan: Kampo Medicine
TCM was introduced to Japan during the Sui and Tang dynasties and was localized into “Kampo medicine” (漢方, Kanpō).
- 148 kinds of Kampo preparations are covered by Japanese national health insurance (Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, Kampo Formulation Drug Standards).
- Long-term users of Kampo medicine number in the millions.
- 1976: The “Japan Society of Oriental Medicine” was established, later reorganized as the “Japan Kampo Medicine Association.”
- 2012: The “Japan Society of Chinese Medicine” was founded, coexisting with the Kampo association.
Source: Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, Kampo Formulation Drug Standards; Yakazu Dōmei (矢数道明), History of Kampo Medicine.
🌏 2. South Korea: Korean Medicine
After TCM was introduced to the Korean peninsula, it developed into “Korean Medicine” (한의학, Hanuihak). South Korea has 11 Korean medicine colleges (statistics from the late 2010s), and “Korean Medicine” is a legally recognized part of the national healthcare system, running parallel to Western medicine.
🩺 3. Europe and the United States: From Rejection to Recognition
🇺🇸 The United States: Legalization of Acupuncture (1970s–1997)
- 1971: Journalist James Reston published an account in The New York Times of his personal experience with acupuncture post-operative analgesia, sparking broad public attention in the United States.
- 1973: Nevada became the first state to legalize acupuncture.
- November 1997: The U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) convened a major Acupuncture Consensus Statement conference, formally recognizing the efficacy of acupuncture for certain conditions — the first time the U.S. government officially endorsed acupuncture.
- Today, all 50 U.S. states recognize acupuncture, and TCM clinics are spread across major cities such as New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.
Source: NIH Office of Alternative Medicine, Acupuncture Consensus Statement, 1997.
🇪🇺 Europe: From France to the United Kingdom
- France: The earliest European country to embrace acupuncture, with hospital trials already underway in the 1820s.
- United Kingdom: The Traditional Herbal Medicinal Products Regulations were passed in 2016.
- Germany: From 2015, certain acupuncture treatments have been included in health insurance coverage.
🌍 4. The Global Map: 180+ Countries and Regions
According to public data from the World Health Organization, TCM has spread to more than 180 countries and regions, and the number of people worldwide who have used TCM reaches into the billions.
Source: WHO Traditional Medicine Strategy 2014–2023 and 2019–2023, who.int.
V. Why Qihuang Library Writes This
“If you do not know where you came from, you cannot know where you are going.”
Writing this long article is not an exercise in nostalgia; it is to make sure that every reader here knows three things —
🌱 1. TCM Is Not an “Old Relic”
TCM is a living medical system that is still being researched, verified, and embraced by the world. From the birth of Flora Sinensis in Vienna in 1656, to artemisinin receiving the Nobel Prize in Stockholm in 2015, to ICD-11’s adoption in Geneva in 2019 —
TCM has never stopped “going abroad,” and it has never stopped “growing up.”
🌏 2. TCM Is an Important Component of Chinese Cultural Soft Power
TCM is not an isolated “medicine.” It is an integration of astronomy, geography, climate, phenology, philosophy, and ethics — it carries the Eastern thinking of “the unity of heaven and humanity” (天人合一), “the harmony of yin and yang” (阴阳和合), and “treatment according to the person” (因人制宜), and is the unique contribution of Chinese civilization to the world.
🪶 3. Qihuang Library: The “Sincerity” of Citable Sources
For every piece of content on Qihuang Library (岐黄书房):
- Quotations from classical texts are always cited to the original Work · Section.
- Modern data are always cited to the institution and document.
- Contested claims are always marked as “one account holds” or “according to records.”
We do not play the role of the self-praising “miracle doctor”; we serve as the “cultural translator” with citable sources.
VI. The “Five Gates” of Qihuang’s Voyage Abroad
If we liken TCM’s “going abroad” to a great voyage, then it must pass through five gates —
🚪 The First Gate: The Gate of Language (16th–18th centuries)
From Matteo Ricci, Michel Boym, and Du Halde to the missionary physicians of the 19th century — translating Chinese medical books into Latin, French, and English.
🚪 The Second Gate: The Gate of Theory (19th century)
From anatomy, physiology, and pharmacology — reinterpreting “qi and blood” (气血), “channels and collaterals” (经络), and “yin and yang” (阴阳) within the framework of modern science.
🚪 The Third Gate: The Gate of Institutions (20th–21st centuries)
From the “Abolish TCM” crisis, to the establishment of TCM colleges, to WHO recognition — making TCM a “legitimate medicine,” not “folk experience.”
🚪 The Fourth Gate: The Gate of Evidence (20th–21st centuries)
From artemisinin to evidence-based acupuncture — proving efficacy with modern randomized controlled trials (RCTs).
🚪 The Fifth Gate: The Gate of Culture (21st century)
From ICD-11 to the UNESCO list — placing TCM on the world stage with a dual identity of “medicine + culture.”
“The Way of Qihuang is at once ancient and modern, Chinese and Western, bodily and spiritual, art and principle.”
Coda
“A great physician is marked by dedication and sincerity.”
(「大医精诚。」)
— Tang dynasty · Sun Simiao (孙思邈), Beiji Qianjin Yaofang (《备急千金要方》) · “The Great Physician’s Dedication and Sincerity” (《大医精诚》)
A hundred years ago, Yu Yunxiu and his ilk wanted to sever TCM at the root in China; a hundred years later, TCM has entered the WHO’s International Classification of Diseases, and UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
In a hundred years, TCM was not crushed, nor did it stagnate in self-satisfaction — it learned to coexist with Western medicine through storm, accepted the scrutiny of modern science amid doubt, and walked toward the world openly.
This is the resilience of Eastern civilization, the victory of the “art of Qihuang,” and the result of the generations of TCM practitioners, Western physicians, cultural figures, and patients who carried it forward together.
📜 Qihuang’s voyage abroad — a century of brilliance; 🌏 Qihuang’s voyage abroad — happening now; 🌱 Qihuang’s voyage abroad — a long road ahead.
May every reader here — know that TCM is more than an “old relic”, know that TCM is being seen by the world, and know that your bond with this thousand-year-old medicine is far from over.
“The road ahead is long; I shall search up and down.” — Warring States · Qu Yuan, Li Sao (《离骚》)
Qihuang Library continues, with you, to ask about herbs, the Way, and the lives of the people.