Qin Shi Huang

Qin Shi Huang (November / December 260 BC – September 10, 210 BC), personal name Zheng, was king of the Chinese State of Qin from 247 BC to 221 BC (officially still the Zhou Dynasty), and then the first emperor of a unified China from 221 BC to 210 BC, ruling under the name First Emperor.
Having unified China, he and his prime minister Lǐ Sī passed a series of major reforms aimed at cementing the unification, and they undertook some gigantic construction projects, most notably the precursor version of the current Great Wall of China. For all the tyranny of his autocratic rule, Qin Shi Huang is still regarded by many today as the founding father in Chinese history whose unification of China has endured for more than two millennia (with interruptions).
Qin Shi Huang was born in the Chinese month zhēng (正), the first month of the year in the Chinese calendar then in use, and so he received the name Zheng (政), both characters being used interchangeably in ancient China. In Chinese antiquity, people never joined family names and given names together as is customary today, so it is anachronistic to refer to Qin Shi Huang as "Ying Zheng". The given name was never used except by close relatives, therefore it is also incorrect to refer to the young Qin Shi Huang as "Prince Zheng", or as "King Zheng of Qin". As a king, he was referred to as "King of Qin" only. Had he received a posthumous name after his death like his father, he would have been known by historians as "King NN. (posthumous name) of Qin", but this never happened.
After conquering the last independent Chinese state in 221 BC, Qin Shi Huang was the king of a state of Qin ruling over the whole of China, an unprecedented accomplishment. Wishing to show that he was no longer a simple king like the kings of old during the Warring States Period, he created a new title, huangdi (皇帝), combining the word huang (皇) from the legendary Three Huang (Three August Ones) who ruled at the dawn of Chinese history, and the word di (帝) from the legendary Five Di (Five Sovereigns) who ruled immediately after the Three Huang. These Three Huang and Five Di were considered perfect rulers, of immense power and very long lives. The word huang also meant "big", "great". The word di also referred to the Supreme God in Heaven, creator of the world. Thus, by joining these two words for the first time, Qin Shi Huang created a title on a par with his feat of uniting the seemingly endless Chinese realm, in fact uniting the world. Ancient Chinese, like ancient Romans, believed their empire encompassed the whole world, a concept referred to as all under heaven.
This word huangdi is rendered in most Western languages as "emperor", a word which also has a long history dating back to ancient Rome, and which Europeans deem superior to the word "king". Qin Shi Huang adopted the name First Emperor (Shi Huangdi, literally "commencing emperor"). He abolished posthumous names, by which former kings were known after their death, judging them inappropriate and contrary to filial piety, and decided that future generations would refer to him as the First Emperor (Shi Huangdi). His successor would be referred to as the Second Emperor (Er Shi Huangdi, literally "second generation emperor"), the successor of his successor as the Third Emperor (San Shi Huangdi, literally "third generation emperor"), and so on, for ten thousand generations, as the Imperial house was supposed to rule China for ten thousand generations. "ten thousand" is equivalent to "forever" in Chinese, and it also signifies "good fortune".
Qin Shi Huang had now become the First Emperor of the State of Qin. The official name of the newly united China was still "State of Qin", as Qin had absorbed all the other states. The names Zhonghua (中華) or Zhongguo (中國) were never used officially for the country of China until 1912 when the Republic of China (中華民國) was founded. Contemporaries called the emperor "First Emperor", dropping the phrase "of the State of Qin", which was obvious without saying. However, soon after the emperor's death, his regime collapsed, and China was beset by a civil war. Eventually, in 202 BC the Han Dynasty managed to reunify the whole of China, which now became officially known as the State of Han (漢國), or Empire of Han. Qin Shi Huang could no longer be called "First Emperor", as this would imply that he was the "First Emperor of the Empire of Han". The custom thus arose of preceding his name with Qin (秦), which no longer referred to the State of Qin, but to the Qin Dynasty, a dynasty replaced by the Han Dynasty. The word huangdi (emperor) in his name was also shortened to huang, so that he became known as Qin Shi Huang. It seems likely that huangdi was shortened to obtain a three-character name, because it is rare for Chinese people to have a name composed of four or more characters.
This name Qin Shi Huang (i.e., "First Emperor of the Qin Dynasty") is the name that appears in the Records of the Grand Historian written by Sima Qian, and is the name most favored today inside China when referring to the First Emperor. Westerners sometimes write "Qin Shi Huangdi", which is improper given Chinese naming conventions; it is more conventional to write "Qin Shi Huang" or "First Emperor". At the time of the young Zheng's birth, China was divided into warring feudal states. This period of Chinese history is referred to as the Warring States Period. The competition was extremely fierce and by 260 BCE there were only a handful of states left (the others having been conquered and annexed), but Zheng's state, Qin, was the most powerful. It was governed by Legalist philosophy and focused earnestly on military matters.
Zheng was born in Handan (邯鄲), the capital of the enemy State of Zhao. He was the son of Zichu (子楚), a prince of the royal house of Qin who served as a hostage in the State of Zhao under an agreement between the states of Qin and Zhao. Zichu later returned to Qin after many adventures and with the help of a rich merchant called Lü Buwei (呂不韋), and he managed to ascend the throne of Qin, Lü Buwei becoming chancellor (prime minister) of Qin. Zichu is known posthumously as King Zhuangxiang of Qin. According to a widespread story, Zheng was not the actual son of Zichu, but the son of the powerful chancellor Lü Buwei. This tale arose because Zheng's mother had originally been a concubine of Lü Buwei before he gave her to his good friend Zichu shortly before Zheng's birth. However, the story is dubious since the Confucians would have found it much easier to denounce a ruler whose birth was illegitimate.
Zheng ascended the throne in 247 BC at the age of 12 and a half, and was king under a regent until 238 BC when, at the age of 21 and a half, he staged a palace coup and assumed full power. He continued the tradition of tenaciously attacking and defeating the feudal states (dodging a celebrated assassination attempt by Jing Ke while doing so) and finally took control of the whole of China in 221 BC by defeating the last independent Chinese state, the State of Qi.
Then in that same year, at the age of 38, the king of Qin proclaimed himself First Emperor (see chapter above).


First Emperor: the unifier

To avoid a recurrence of the political chaos of the Warring States Period, Qin Shi Huang and his prime minister Li Si completely abolished feudalism.
They instead divided the empire into thirty-six commanderies (郡). Power in the commanderies was in the hands of governors dismissed at will by the central government. Civilian and military powers were also separated to avoid too much power falling in the hands of a single civil servant.
Thus, each commandery was run by a civilian governor (守 shōu) assisted by a military governor (尉 wèi). The civilian governor was superior to the military governor, a constant in Chinese history. The civilian governor was also reassigned to a different commandery every few years to prevent him from building up a base of power.
An inspector (監 jiàn) was also in post in each commandery, in charge of informing the central government about the local implementation of central policies, reporting on the governors' exercise of power, and possibly resolving conflicts between the two governors.
This administrative system was only an extension to the whole empire of the system already in place in the State of Qin before the Chinese unification. In the State of Qin, feudalism had been abolished in the 4th century BC, and the realm had been divided into commanderies, with governors dismissed at will by the ruler.
Qin Shi Huang ordered all the members of the former royal houses of the conquered states to move to Xianyang (咸陽), the capital of Qin, in modern day Shaanxi province, so they would be kept under tight surveillance for rebellious activities.
The emperor also developed an extensive network of roads and canals connecting the provinces to accelerate trade between them and to accelerate military marches to revolting provinces.
Qin Shi Huang and Li Si unified China economically by standardizing the Chinese units of measurements such as weights and measures, the currency, the length of the axles of carts (so every cart could run smoothly in the ruts of the new roads), the legal system, and so on.
Perhaps most importantly, the Chinese script was unified. Under Li Si, the seal script of the state of Qin, which had already evolved organically during the Eastern Zhou out of the Zhou dynasty script, was standardized through removal of variant forms within the Qin script itself. This newly standardized script was then made official throughout all the conquered regions, thus doing away with all the regional scripts and becoming the official script for all of China.
Contrary to popular belief, Li Si did not invent the script, nor was it completely new at the time. Edicts written in the new script were carved on the walls of sacred mountains around China, such as the famous carved edicts of Mount Taishan, to let Heaven know of the unification of Earth under an emperor, and also to propagate the new script among people.
However, the script was difficult to write, and an informal Qin script remained in use which was already evolving into an early form of clerical script.
Qin Shi Huang also had most previously existing books burned, excepting some held in the palace archives.
Qin Shi Huang continued military expansion during his reign, annexing regions to the south (what is now Guangdong province was penetrated by Chinese armies for the first time) and fighting nomadic tribes to the north and northwest.
These tribes (the Xiongnu) were subdued, but the campaign was essentially inconclusive, and to prevent the Xiongnu from encroaching on the northern frontier any longer, the emperor ordered the construction of an immense defensive wall, linking several walls already existing since the time of the Warring States.
This wall, for whose construction hundreds of thousands of men were mobilized, and an unknown number died, is a precursor of the current Great Wall of China. It was built much further north than the current Great Wall, which was built during the Ming Dynasty, when China had at least twice as many inhabitants as in the days of the First Emperor, and when more than a century was devoted to building the wall (as opposed to a mere ten years during the rule of the First Emperor). Very little survives today of the great wall built by the First Emperor.
Death and aftermath
The emperor died while on a tour to Eastern China, searching for the legendary Islands of the Immortals (off the coast of Eastern China) and for the secret of eternal life.
Reportedly, he died of swallowing mercury pills, which were made by his court scientists and doctors, containing too much mercury. Ironically, these pills were meant to make Qin Shi Huang immortal.
His death occurred on September 10, 210 BC (Julian Calendar) at the palace in Shaqiu prefecture, about two months away by road from the capital Xianyang.
Prime minister Li Si, who accompanied him, was extremely worried that the news of his death could trigger a general uprising in the empire, given the brutal policies of the government, and the resentment of the population forced to work on Herculean projects such as the great wall in the north of China or the mausoleum of the emperor.
It would take two months for the government to reach the capital, and it would not be possible to stop the uprising. Li Si decided to hide the death of the emperor, and return to Xianyang.
Most of the imperial entourage accompanying the emperor was left uninformed of the emperor's death, and each day Li Si entered the wagon where the emperor was supposed to be traveling, pretending to discuss affairs of state.
The secretive nature of the emperor while alive allowed this stratagem to work, and it did not raise doubts among courtiers. Li Si also ordered that two carts containing fish be carried immediately before and after the wagon of the emperor. The idea behind this was to prevent people from noticing the foul smell emanating from the wagon of the emperor, where his body was starting to decompose severely.
Eventually, after about two months, Li Si and the imperial court were back in Xianyang, where the news of the death of the emperor was announced.
Qin Shi Huang did not like to talk about death and he never really wrote a will. After his death, Li Si and the chief eunuch Zhao Gao persuaded his eighteenth son Huhai to forge the Emperor's will.
They forced his first son Fusu to commit suicide, stripped the command of troops from Meng Tian, a loyal supporter of Fusu, and killed his family. Huhai became the Second Emperor (Er Shi Huangdi), known by historians as Qin Er Shi.
Qin Er Shi was not nearly as capable as his father. Revolts against him quickly erupted. His reign was a time of extreme civil unrest, and everything the First Emperor had worked for crumbled away, for a short period. The imperial palace and state archives were burned: this has been disastrous for later historians, because after the burning of the books by his father, almost the only written records left were those in the palace archives.
Within four years of Qin Shi Huang's death, his son was dead. Thus did the Qin Dynasty come to an end. It was during Qin Er Shi's "rule" that powerful families came to war, with the strongest of them rising to power and bringing order back to the land, thus starting the next dynasty of emperors.
The next Chinese dynasty, the Han Dynasty, rejected legalism (in favor of Confucianism) and moderated the laws, but kept Qin Shi Huang's basic political and economic reforms intact. In this way his work was carried on through the centuries and became a lasting feature of Chinese society.
Mausoleum and Terracotta Army
Qin Shi Huang was buried in his mausoleum, with the famous Terracotta Army, near modern day Xi'an (Shaanxi province).
For 2000 years, a secret army of clay soldiers has protected the hidden tomb of China's first emperor, Qin Shi Huang. Until 1974 none knew of its existence; now Chinese archaeologists are gradually unfolding the mystery.
To guard him in his afterlife the emperor ordered an army of over 8000 life size clay soldiers to be made. When he died, the burial place was as magnificent and bizarre as even the treasure laden tombs of the Egyptian pharaohs.
The site measures some three miles across and took 700,000 conscripts to construct it. Many wonders of the tomb were described by a Chinese historian, Sima Qian, writing less than a century after the emperor's death. He wrote of rare jewels, a map of the heavens with stars represented by pearls, and, on the floor of the tomb a panorama map of China with the rivers and seas represented by flowing mercury.
Sima Qian never mentioned, however, the terracotta army - which was discovered by a team of well diggers. It is the detail of the terracotta armies that makes it so valuable. The soldiers were created with a series of mix-and-match clay molds and then further individualized by the artists' hand.
No two terracotta soldiers are identical. The sculptures represent a standard of art that experts previously believed was far beyond the craftsmen of the Qin Dynasty. Each man was built with solid legs and a hollow torso. The soldiers were originally armed with bronze spears and bows and arrows. But soon after the burial there was a revolution in China and the rebels broke into the vaults to steal the weapons.
All the standing warriors were attached to clay plinths that rested on the tiled floor, which still resembles a modern pavement. The soldiers were arranged in battle formation, with 600 clay horses and 100 life-sized working wooden chariots.
Chinese archaeologists have been meticulous and patient in their work. The main tomb containing the emperor has yet to be opened and there is still hope that it remains intact. It is said that molten copper was used to seal it.
A magnetic scan of the site has revealed that a large number of coins are lying in the unopened tomb, occasioning speculation that the royal treasury was interred with the emperor. Scans of the earth atop the tomb have revealed unusually high concentrations of mercury in the shape of china's waters, adding further to the credibility of Sima Qian's description.
Qin Shi Huang in historiography
In traditional Chinese historiography, the First Emperor was almost always portrayed as a brutal tyrant, superstitious (a result of his interest in immortality and assassination paranoia), and sometimes even as a mediocre ruler.
Ideological prejudices against the Legalist State of Qin were established as early as 266 BCE, when Confucian philosopher Xun Zi compared it later, Confucian historians condemned the emperor who had burned the classics and buried Confucian scholars alive. They eventually compiled the list of the Ten Crimes of Qin to highlight his tyrannical actions.
The famous Han poet and statesman Jia Yi concluded his essay The Faults of Qin (過秦論), with what was to become the standard Confucian judgment of the reasons for Qin's collapse. Jia Yi's essay, admired as a masterpiece of rhetoric and reasoning, was copied into two great Han histories and has had a far-reaching influence on Chinese political thought as a classic illustration of Confucian theory.
He explained the ultimate weakness of Qin as a result of its ruler's ruthless pursuit of power, harsh laws and unbearable burdens placed on the population in projects such as the Great Wall - the precise factor which had made it so powerful; for as Confucius had taught, the strength of a government ultimately is based on the support of the people and virtuous conduct of the ruler.
Because of this systematic Confucian bias on the part of Han scholars, some of the stories recorded about Qin Shi Huang are doubtful and some may have been invented to emphasize his bad character. Some of the stories are plainly fictitious, designed to tarnish the First Emperor's image, e.g. the story of a stone fallen from the sky engraved with words denouncing the emperor and prophesying the collapse of his empire after his death.
This makes it difficult to know the truth about other stories. For instance, the accusation that he had 460 scholars executed by having them buried with only their heads above ground and then decapitated seems unlikely to be completely true, but we have no way to know for certain.
Only in modern times were historians able to penetrate beyond the limitations of traditional Chinese historiography. The political rejection of the Confucian tradition as an impediment to China's entry into the modern world opened the way for changing perspectives to emerge.
In the three decades between the fall of the Qing Dynasty and the outbreak of the Second World War, with the deepening dissatisfaction with China's weakness and disunity, there emerged a new appreciation of the man who had unified China.
In the time when he was writing, when Chinese territory was encroached upon by foreign nations, leading Kuomintang historian Xiao Yishan emphasized the role of Qin Shi Huang in repulsing the northern barbarians, particularly in the construction of the Great Wall.
Another historian, Ma Feibai (馬非百), published in 1941 a full-length revisionist biography of the First Emperor entitled Qin Shi Huangdi Zhuan (《秦始皇帝傳》), caling him "one of the great heroes of Chinese history".
Ma compared him with the contemporary leader Chiang Kai-shek and saw many parallels in the careers and policies of the two men, both of whom he admired. Chiang's Northern Expedition of the late 1920s, which directly preceded the new Nationalist government at Nanjing was compared to the unification brought about by Qin Shi Huang.
With the coming of the Communist Revolution in 1949, new interpretations again surfaced. The establishment of the new, revolutionary regime meant another re-evaluation of the First Emperor, this time following Marxist theory.
The new interpretation given of Qin Shi Huang was generally a combination of traditional and modern views, but essentially critical. This is exemplified in the Complete History of China, which was compiled in September 1955 as an official survey of Chinese history.
The work described the First Emperor's major steps toward unification and standardization as corresponding to the interests of the ruling group and the merchant class, not the nation or the people, and the subsequent fall of his dynasty a manifestation of the class struggle.
The perennial debate of the fall of the Qin Dynasty was also explained in Marxist terms, the peasant rebellions being a revolt against oppression — a revolt which undermined the dynasty, but which was bound to fail because of a compromise with "landlord class elements".
Since 1972, however, a radically different official view of Qin Shi Huang has been given prominence throughout China. The re-evaluation movement was launched by Hong Shidi's biography Qin Shi Huang. The work was published by the state press to be a mass popular history, and sold 1.85 million copies within two years.
In the new era, Qin Shi Huang was seen as a farsighted ruler who destroyed the forces of division and established the first unified, centralized state in Chinese history by rejecting the past. Personal attributes, such as his quest for immortality, so emphasized in traditional historiography, were scarcely mentioned.
The new evaluations described how, in his time (an era of great political and social change), he had no compunctions in using violent methods to crush counter-revolutionaries, such as the "industrial and commercial slave owner" chancellor Lü Buwei. Unfortunately, he was not as thorough as he should have been and after his death, hidden subversives, under the leadership of the chief eunuch Zhao Gao, seized power and used it to restore the old feudal order.
To round out this re-evaluation, a new interpretation of the precipitous collapse of the Qin Dynasty was put forward in an article entitled "On the Class Struggle During the Period Between Qin and Han" by Luo Siding, in a 1974 issue of Red Flag, to replace the old explanation. The new theory claimed that the cause of the fall of Qin lay in the lack of thoroughness of Qin Shi Huang's "dictatorship over the reactionaries, even to the extent of permitting them to worm their way into organs of political authority and usurp important posts."
Qin Shi Huang was ranked #17 in Michael H. Hart's list of the most influential figures in history.Reference by Mao ZedongMao Zedong, chairman of the People's Republic of China, was reviled for his persecution of intellectuals. Being compared to the First Emperor, Mao responded: "He buried 460 scholars alive; we have buried forty-six thousand scholars alive... You [intellectuals] revile us for being Qin Shi Huangs. You are wrong. We have surpassed Qin Shi Huang a hundredfold. ,
Qin Shi Huang in fiction
During the Korean War, the play Song of the Yi River was produced. The play was based on the attempted assassination of Qin Shi Huang (called "Ying Zheng") by Jing Ke of Wei, at the request of the Prince of Yan, in 227 BCE. In the play Ying Zheng was portrayed as a cruel tyrant and an aggressor and invader of other states. Jing Ke, in contrast, was a chivalrous warrior who said that "tens of thousands of injured people are all my comrades." A huge newspaper ad for this play proclaimed: "Invasion will definitely end in defeat; peace must be won at a price." The play portrayed an underdog fighting against a cruel, powerful foreign invader with help from a sympathetic foreign volunteer.
Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986), the Argentine writer, wrote an acclaimed essay on Qin Shi Huang, 'The Wall and the Books' (La muralla y los libros), included in the 1952 collection Other Inquisitions (Otras Inquisiciones). It muses on the opposition between large-scale construction (the Wall) and destruction (book-burning) that defined his reign, in order to make a point about 'the aesthetic experience'.
The book Lord of the East, published in 1956, is a historical romance about the favourite daughter of Qin Shihuang, who runs away with her lover. The story uses Qin Shihuang to create the barrier for the young couple.
The 1984 book Bridge of Birds (by Barry Hughart) portrays the emperor as a power-hungry megalomaniac who achieved immortality by having his heart removed by an "Old Man of the mountain."
The Chinese Emperor, by Jean Levi, appeared in 1984. This work of historical fiction moves from discussions of politics and law in the Qin state to fantasy, in which the First Emperor's terracotta soldiers were actually robots created to replace fallible humans.
In the Area 51 book series, Qin Shi Huang is revealed to be an alien exile stranded on Earth during an interstellar civil war. The Great Wall is actually designed to display the symbol for 'help' in his language, and he orders it built in the hope that a passing spaceship would notice it and rescue him.
In the Magic Tree House book series, one book is titled "Day of the Dragon King." The Dragon King is Qin Shi Huangdi.
Films and television
The 1963 Japanese movie Shin No Shikoutei portrays Qin Shihuang as a battle-hardened emperor with his roots in the military. Despite his rank, he is shown lounging around a campfire with common men. A female character, Lady Chu, serves as a foil who questions whether the emperor's cause is just. He converts her from an enemy to a loyal concubine.
Hong Kong Asia Television Limited (ATV) Channel made a TV drama called "Qin Shi Huang" (秦始皇) during the 1980s. It was one of ATV's most expensive projects, with about 50 episodes chronicling Qin Shi Huang's life from his youth to his death. The title song summed up most of the storyline: "The land shall be under my foot; nobody shall be equal to me."
The 1996 movie The Emperor's Shadow uses legends about Qin Shi Huang to make a political statement on Chinese Communism. The film focuses on his relationship with the rebellious musician Gao Jianli, known historically as a friend of the would-be assassin Jing Ke. Gao plays a song for the assassin before he sets out to kill the emperor.
The 1999 movie The Emperor and the Assassin focuses on the identity of the emperor's father, his supposed heartless treatment of his officials, and a betrayal by his childhood lover, paving the way for Jing Ke's assassination attempt. The director of the film, Chen Kaige, sought to question whether the emperor's motives were meritorious. A major theme in this movie is the conflict between the Emperor’s dedication to his vows and to his lover, Lady Zhao.
In Histeria, Pepper Mills wanted Shi Huang Di's autograph, but realized that he was not Scooby DooThe 2001 Hong Kong TVB serial drama A Step into the Past, based on a book with the same title, stars Raymond Lam Fung as Zhao Pan, a man from the Kingdom of Zhao who takes over the identity of the emperor (called "Ying Zheng") and rises to power. He is unwittingly helped by Hong Siu Lung, a time traveller from the 21st century.
The 2002 movie Hero, starring Jet Li, tells the story of assassination attempts on Qin Shi Huang (played by renowned Chinese actor Chen Daoming) by legendary warriors. It portrays him as a powerful ruler willing to take any steps to bring unification to his people.
In 2005 The Discovery Channel ran a special on Qin Shi Huang called First Emperor: The Man Who Made China
In The Myth (2005), Jackie Chan plays both a modern-day archaeologist and a general under Qin Shi Huang.
Bob Bainborough portrayed Qin Shi Huang in an episode of History Bites.
Music
Emperor Qin is the protagonist in the opera The First Emperor by Tan Dun and has been sung by Plácido Domingo on its world premiere.
Video games
The 1995 computer game Qin: Tomb of the Middle Kingdom depicts a fictional archeological mission to explore the First Emperor's burial site. The emperor is featured in several voiceovers in Mandarin Chinese.
The video game Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb portrays Indiana Jones entering the tomb of Qin Shi Huang to recover The Heart of the dragon which some believe is real.
In the 2005 computer game Civilization IV, Qin Shi Huang is one of the two playable leaders of China. The other is Mao Zedong.
Miscellaneous
Qin Shi Huang was interested in immortality and visited Zhifu Island. These deeds became a very popular story of the emperor sending a Zhifu islander, Xu Fu (徐福), as the religious leader of ships with hundreds of young men and women in search of the pill of immortality. These people never returned, as they knew that if they did return without the "immortality pill", they would surely be executed. The legend claims that they settled down in one of the Japanese islands.
The emperor often took tours to major cities in his empire to inspect the efficiency of the bureaucracy and to symbolize the presence of Qin's prestige. (It was on one of these tours that he died). Nevertheless, these trips provided opportunities for assassins, the most famous of whom was Zhang Liang.
Late in life, after his assassination had been attempted too often for comfort, he grew paranoid of remaining in one place too long and would hire servants to bear him to different buildings in his palace complex to sleep in each night. He also hired several "doubles" to make it less clear which figure was the emperor.
Qin Shi Huang's three great achievements are unifying Chinese characters, unifying currency system, and unifying measurement units.

I Ching

The I Ching (often spelled as I Jing, Yi Ching, Yi King, or Yi Jing ; also called "Book of Changes" or "Classic of Changes") is the oldest of the Chinese classic texts. A symbol system designed to identify order in what seem like chance events, it describes an ancient system of cosmology and philosophy that is at the heart of Chinese cultural beliefs. The philosophy centers on the ideas of the dynamic balance of opposites, the evolution of events as a process, and acceptance of the inevitability of change (see Philosophy, below). In Western cultures, the I Ching is regarded by some as simply a system of divination; many believe it expresses the wisdom and philosophy of ancient China.
The book consists of a series of symbols, rules for manipulating these symbols, poems, and commentary.
Implications of the title
易 (yì), when used as an adjective, means "easy" or "simple", while as a verb it implies "to change".經 (jīng) here means "classic (text)", derived from its original meaning of "regularity" or "persistency", implying that the text describes the Ultimate Way which will not change throughout the flow of time.
The conception behind this title, thus, is profound. It has three implications:
1. Simplicity - the root of the substance. The fundamental law underlying everything in the universe is utterly plain and simple, no matter how abstruse or complex some things may appear to be.2. Variability - the use of the substance. Everything in the universe is continually changing. By comprehending this one may realize the importance of flexibility in life and may thus cultivate the proper attitude for dealing with a multiplicity of diverse situations.3. Persistency - the essence of the substance. While everything in the universe seems to be changing, among the changing tides there is a persistent principle, a central rule, which does not vary with space and time.
(易一名而含三義：易簡一也；變易二也；不易三也。 commented on by Zheng Xuan (鄭玄 zhèng xúan) in his writings Critique of I Ching (易贊 yì zàn) and Commentary on I Ching (易論 yì lùn) of Eastern Han Dynasty).
Due to the profound ideas conveyed by the title itself, it is practically impossible to arrive at an unbiased translation which could preserve the original concepts intact. The translation of the title into English used to be Book of Changes, though a slightly more accurate name, Classic of Changes, appears more frequently in recent use.


History

Traditionally it was believed that the principles of the I Ching originated with the mythical Fu Hsi (伏羲 Fú Xī).
In this respect he is seen as an early culture hero, one of the earliest legendary rulers of China (traditional dates 2852 BCE-2738 BCE), reputed to have had the 8 trigrams (八卦 bā gùa) revealed to him supernaturally. By the time of the legendary Yu (禹 Yǔ) 2070 BC–2061 BC, the trigrams had supposedly been developed into 64 hexagrams (六十四卦 lìu shí­ sì gùa), which were recorded in the scripture Lian Shan (《連山》 Lián Shān; also called Lian Shan Yi). Lian Shan, meaning "continuous mountains" in Chinese, begins with the hexagram Bound (艮 gèn), which depicts a mountain (::) mounting on another and is believed to be the origin of the scripture's name.
After the traditionally recorded Xia Dynasty was overthrown by the Shang Dynasty, the hexagrams are said to have been re-deduced to form Gui Cang (《歸藏》 Gūi Cáng; also called Gui Cang Yi), and the hexagram Field (坤 kūn) became the first hexagram. Gui Cang may be literally translated into "return and be contained," which refers to earth as the first hexagram itself indicates. At the time of Shang's last king, Zhou Wang, King Wen of Zhou is said to have deduced the hexagram and discovered that the hexagrams beginning with Force (乾 qián) revealed the rise of Zhou. He then gave each hexagram a description regarding its own nature, thus Gua Ci (卦辭 guà cí, "Explanation of Hexagrams").
When King Wu of Zhou, son of King Wen, toppled the Shang Dynasty, his brother Zhou Gong Dan is said to have created Yao Ci (爻辭 yáo cí, "Explanation of Horizontal Lines") to clarify the significance of each horizontal line in each hexagram. It was not until then that the whole context of I Ching was understood. Its philosophy heavily influenced the literature and government administration of the Zhou Dynasty (1122 BCE - 256 BCE).
Later, during the time of Spring and Autumn (722 BCE - 481 BCE), Confucius is traditionally said to have written the Shi Yi (十翼 shí yì, "Ten Wings"), a group of commentaries on the I Ching. By the time of Han Wu Di (漢武帝 Hàn Wǔ Dì) of the Western Han Dynasty (circa 200 BCE), Shi Yi was often called Yi Zhuan (易傳 yì zhùan, "Commentary on the I Ching"), and together with the I Ching they composed Zhou Yi (周易 zhōu yì, "Changes of Zhou"). All later texts about Zhou Yi were explanations only, due to the classic's deep meaning.Western ("Modernist") viewIn the past 50 years a "Modernist" history of the I Ching has been emerging, based on context criticism and research into Shang and Zhou dynasty oracle bones, as well as Zhou bronze inscriptions and other sources (see below). These reconstructions are dealt with in a growing number of books, such as The Mandate of Heaven: Hidden History in the I Ching, by S. J. Marshall, and Richard Rutt's Zhouyi: The Book of Changes, (see References, below). Scholarly works dealing with the new view of the Book of Changes include doctoral dissertations by Richard Kunst and Edward Shaughnessy. These and other scholars have been helped immensely by the discovery, in the 1970s, by Chinese archaeologists, of intact Han dynasty era tombs in Mawangdui near Changsha, Hunan province. One of the tombs contained more or less complete 2nd century BCE texts of the I Ching, the Dao De Jing and other works, which are mostly similar yet in some ways diverge significantly from the "received," or traditional, texts preserved by the chances of history.
The tomb texts include additional commentaries on the I Ching, previously unknown, and apparently written as if they were meant to be attributed to Confucius. All of the Mawangdui texts are many centuries older than the earliest known attestations of the texts in question. When talking about the evolution of the Book of Changes, therefore, the Modernists contend that it is important to distinguish between the traditional history assigned to texts such as the I Ching (felt to be anachronistic by the Modernists), assignations in commentaries which have themselves been canonized over the centuries along with their subjects, and the more recent scholarly history aided by modern linguistic textual criticism and archaeology. Many hold that these perspectives are not necessarily mutually exclusive, but, for instance, many Modernist scholars doubt the actual existence of Fuxi, think Confucius had nothing to do with the Book of Changes, and contend that the hexagrams came before the trigrams. Modern scholarship comparing poetic usage and formulaic phrasing in this book with that in ancient bronze inscriptions has shown that the text cannot be attributed to King Wen or Zhou Gong, and that it likely was not compiled until the late Western Zhou, perhaps ca. the late 9th century BC. Rather than being the work of one or several legendary or historical figures, the core divinatory text is now thought to be an accretion of Western Zhou divinatory concepts. As for the Shi Yi commentaries traditionally attributed to Confucius, scholars from the time of the 11th century A.D. scholar Ouyang Xiu onward have doubted this, based on textual analysis, and modern scholars date most of them to the late Warring States period, with some sections perhaps being as late as the Western Han period. StructureThe text of the I Ching is a set of predictions represented by a set of 64 abstract line arrangements called hexagrams (卦 guà). Although just the numbers 1 to 64 could have been used, the ancient Chinese instead used a figure composed of six stacked horizontal lines (爻 yáo). Each line is either Yang (an unbroken, or solid line), or Yin (broken, an open line with a gap in the centre). With six such lines stacked from bottom to top there are 26 or 64 possible combinations, and thus 64 hexagrams represented.
The hexagram diagram is conceptually subdivided into two three-line arrangements called trigrams (卦 guà). There are 23, hence 8, possible trigrams. The traditional view was that the hexagrams were a later development and resulted from combining the two trigrams. However, in the earliest relevant archaeological evidence, groups of numerical symbols on many Western Zhou bronzes and a very few Shang oracle bones, such groups already usually appear in sets of six. A few have been found in sets of three numbers, but these are somewhat later. Note also that these numerical sets greatly predate the groups of broken and unbroken lines, leading modern scholars to doubt the mythical early attributions of the hexagram system (see, e.g., Shaugnessy 1993).
Each hexagram represents a description of a state or process. When a hexagram is cast using one of the traditional processes of divination with I Ching, each of the yin or yang lines will be indicated as either moving (that is, changing), or fixed (that is, unchanging). Moving (also sometimes called "old", or "unstable") lines will change to their opposites, that is "young" lines of the other type -- old yang becoming young yin, and old yin becoming young yang.
The oldest method for casting the hexagrams, using yarrow stalks, is a biased random number generator, so the possible answers are not equiprobable. While the probability of getting young yin or young yang is equal, the probability of getting old yang is three times greater than old yin. The yarrow stalk method was gradually replaced during the Han Dynasty by the three coins method. Using this method, the imbalance in generating old ying and old yang was eliminated. However, there is no theoretical basis for indicating what should be the optimal probability basis of the old lines versus the young lines. Of course, the whole idea behind this system of divination is that the oracle will select the appropriate answer anyway, regardless of the probabilities.
There have been several arrangements of the trigrams and hexagrams over the ages. The bā gùa is a circular arrangement of the trigrams, traditionally printed on a mirror, or disk. According to legend, Fu Hsi found the bā gùa on the scales of a tortoise's back. They function rather like a magic square, with the four axes summing to the same value (e.g., using 0 and 1 to represent yin and yang, 000 + 111 = 111, 101 + 010 = 111, etc.).
The King Wen sequence is the traditional (i.e. "classical") sequence of the hexagrams used in most contemporary editions of the book. The King Wen sequence was explained for the first time in STEDT Monograph #5, where it is shown to contain within it a demonstration of advanced mathematical knowledge.TrigramsThe solid line represents yang, the creative principle. The open line represents yin, the receptive principle. These principles are also represented in a common circular symbol (☯), known as taijitu (太極圖), but more commonly known in the west as the yin-yang (陰陽) diagram, expressing the idea of complementarity of changes: when Yang is at top, Yin is increasing, and the reverse.
In the following lists, the trigrams and hexagrams are represented using a common textual convention, horizontally from left-to-right, using '' for yang and '¦' for yin, rather than the traditional bottom-to-top. In a more modern usage, the numbers 0 and 1 can also be used to represent yin and yang, being read left-to-right.
There are eight possible trigrams (八卦 bāguà):
Trigram Figure Binary Value Name Nature Direction Elemental1 (☰) 111 Force (乾 qián) heaven (天) northwest Lingam2 ¦ (☱) 110 Open (兌 duì) swamp (澤) west Water3 ¦ (☲) 101 Radiance (離 lí) fire (火) south Sol4 ¦¦ (☳) 100 Shake (震 zhèn) thunder (雷) east Fire5 ¦ (☴) 011 Ground (巽 xùn) wind (風) southeast Air6 ¦¦ (☵) 010 Gorge (坎 kǎn) water (水) north Luna7 ¦¦ (☶) 001 Bound (艮 gèn) mountain (山) northeast Earth8 ¦¦¦ (☷) 000 Field (坤 kūn) earth (地) southwest Yoni
The first three lines of the hexagram, called the lower trigram, are seen as the inner aspect of the change that is occurring. The upper trigram (the last three lines of the hexagram), is the outer aspect. The change described is thus the dynamic of the inner (personal) aspect relating to the outer (external) situation. Thus, hexagram 04 ¦¦¦¦ Enveloping, is composed of the inner trigram ¦¦ Gorge, relating to the outer trigram ¦¦ Bound.Hexagram Lookup Table
Upper →
Lower ↓Ch'ienHeaven ¦¦ChênThunder ¦¦K'anWater ¦¦KênMountain ¦¦¦K'unEarth ¦SunWind ¦LiFlame ¦TuiSwampCh'ienHeaven 1 34 5 26 11 9 14 43¦¦ChênThunder 25 51 3 27 24 42 21 17¦¦K'anWater 6 40 29 4 7 59 64 47¦¦KênMountain 33 62 39 52 15 53 56 31¦¦¦K'unEarth 12 16 8 23 2 20 35 45
¦SunWind 44 32 48 18 46 57 50 28
¦LiFlame13 55 63 22 36 37 30 49
¦TuiSwamp 10 54 60 41 19 61 38 58The hexagramsThe text of the I Ching describes each of the 64 hexagrams, and later scholars added commentaries and analyses of each one; these have been subsumed into the text comprising the I Ching.
Each hexagram's common translation is accompanied by the corresponding R. Wilhelm translation, which is the source for the Unicode names.
Hexagram R. Wilhelm01. Force (乾 qián) The Creative02. ¦¦¦¦¦¦ Field (坤 kūn) The Receptive03. ¦¦¦¦ Sprouting (屯 chún) Difficulty at the Beginning04. ¦¦¦¦ Enveloping (蒙 méng) Youthful Folly05. ¦¦ Attending (需 xū) Waiting06. ¦¦ Arguing (訟 sòng) Conflict07. ¦¦¦¦¦ Leading (師 shī) The Army08. ¦¦¦¦¦ Grouping (比 bǐ) Holding Together09. ¦ Small Accumulating (小畜 xiǎo chù) Small Taming10. ¦ Treading (履 lǚ) Treading (Conduct)11. ¦¦¦ Prevading (泰 tài) Peace12. ¦¦¦ Obstruction (否 pǐ) Standstill13. ¦ Concording People (同人 tóng rén) Fellowship14. ¦ Great Possessing (大有 dà yǒu) Great Possession15. ¦¦¦¦¦ Humbling (謙 qiān) Modesty16. ¦¦¦¦¦ Providing-For (豫 yù) Enthusiasm17. ¦¦¦ Following (隨 suí) Following18. ¦¦¦ Corrupting (蠱 gǔ) Work on the Decayed19. ¦¦¦¦ Nearing (臨 lín) Approach20. ¦¦¦¦ Viewing (觀 guān) Contemplation21. ¦¦¦ Gnawing Bite (噬嗑 shì kè) Biting Through22. ¦¦¦ Adorning (賁 bì) Grace23. ¦¦¦¦¦ Stripping (剝 bō) Splitting Apart24. ¦¦¦¦¦ Returning (復 fù) Return25. ¦¦ Without Embroiling (無妄 wú wàng) Innocence26. ¦¦ Great Accumulating (大畜 dà chù) Great Taming27. ¦¦¦¦ Swallowing (頤 yí) Mouth Corners28. ¦¦ Great Exceeding (大過 dà guò) Great Preponderance29. ¦¦¦¦ Gorge (坎 kǎn) The Abysmal Water30. ¦¦ Radiance (離 lí) The Clinging31. ¦¦¦ Conjoining (咸 xián) Influence32. ¦¦¦ Persevering (恆 héng) DurationHexagram R. Wilhelm33. ¦¦ Retiring (遯 dùn) Retreat34. ¦¦ Great Invigorating (大壯 dà zhuàng) Great Power35. ¦¦¦¦ Prospering (晉 jìn) Progress36. ¦¦¦¦ Brightness Hiding (明夷 míng yí) Darkening of the Light37. ¦¦ Dwelling People (家人 jiā rén) The Family38. ¦¦ Polarising (睽 kuí) Opposition39. ¦¦¦¦ Limping (蹇 jiǎn) Obstruction40. ¦¦¦¦ Taking-Apart (解 xiè) Deliverance41. ¦¦¦ Diminishing (損 sǔn) Decrease42. ¦¦¦ Augmenting (益 yì) Increase43. ¦ Parting (夬 guài) Breakthrough44. ¦ Coupling (姤 gòu) Coming to Meet45. ¦¦¦¦ Clustering (萃 cuì) Gathering Together46. ¦¦¦¦ Ascending (升 shēng) Pushing Upward47. ¦¦¦ Confining (困 kùn) Oppression48. ¦¦¦ Welling (井 jǐng) The Well49. ¦¦ Skinning (革 gé) Revolution50. ¦¦ Holding (鼎 dǐng) The Cauldron51. ¦¦¦¦ Shake (震 zhèn) Arousing52. ¦¦¦¦ Bound (艮 gèn) The Keeping Still53. ¦¦¦ Infiltrating (漸 jiàn) Development54. ¦¦¦ Converting The Maiden (歸妹 guī mèi) The Marrying Maiden55. ¦¦¦ Abounding (豐 fēng) Abundance56. ¦¦¦ Sojourning (旅 lǚ) The Wanderer57. ¦¦ Ground (巽 xùn) The Gentle58. ¦¦ Open (兌 duì) The Joyous59. ¦¦¦ Dispersing (渙 huàn) Dispersion60. ¦¦¦ Articulating (節 jié) Limitation61. ¦¦ Centre Confirming (中孚 zhōng fú) Inner Truth62. ¦¦¦¦ Small Exceeding (小過 xiǎo guò) Small Preponderance63. ¦¦¦ Already Fording (既濟 jì jì) After Completion64. ¦¦¦ Not-Yet Fording (未濟 wèi jì) Before Completion
The hexagrams, though, are mere mnemonics for the philosophical concepts embodied in each one. The philosophy centres around the ideas of balance through opposites and acceptance of change.

Chinese Philosophy

Chinese philosophy is philosophy written in the Chinese tradition of thought. Chinese philosophy has a history of several thousand years; its origins are often traced back to the Yi Jing (the Book of Changes), an ancient compendium of divination, which introduced some of the most fundamental terms of Chinese philosophy. Its age can only be estimated (its first flowering is generally considered to have been in about the 6th century BC), but it draws on an oracular tradition that goes back to neolithic times.
Early BeliefsEarly Shang Dynasty thought was based upon cyclicity. This notion stems from what the people of the Shang Dynasty could observe around them: day and night cycled, the seasons progressed again and again, and even the moon waxed and waned until it waxed again. Thus, this notion, which remained relevant throughout Chinese history, reflects the order of nature. In juxtaposition, it also marks a fundamental distinction from western philosophy, in which the dominant view of time is a linear progression. During the Shang, fate could be manipulated by great deities (Chinese: 神; py: shen), commonly translated as Gods. Ancestor worship was present and universally recognized. There was also human and animal sacrifice.
When the Shang were overthrown by the Zhou, a new political, religious and philosophical concept was introduced called the "Mandate of Heaven". This mandate was said to be taken when rulers became unworthy of their position and provided a shrewd justification for Zhou rule. During this period, archaeological evidence points to an increase in literacy and a partial shift away from the faith placed in Shang Di, with ancestor worship becoming commonplace and a more worldly orientation coming to the fore.
Hundred Schools of ThoughtIn around 500 BC, after the Zhou state weakened and China moved in to the Spring and Autumn Period, the classic period of Chinese philosophy began (it is an interesting fact that this date nearly coincides with the emergence of the first Greek philosophers). This is known as the Hundred Schools of Thought (諸子百家; zhūzǐ bǎijiā; "various philosophers hundred schools"). Of the many schools founded at this time and during the subsequent Warring States Period, the four most influential ones were Confucianism, Daoism (often spelled "Taoism"), Mohism and Legalism.Imperial EraThe short founder Qin Dynasty, where Legalism was the official philosophy, quashed Mohist and Confucianist schools. Legalism remained influential until the emperors of the Han Dynasty adopted Daoism and later Confucianism as official doctrine. These latter two became the determining forces of Chinese thought until the 20th century, with the introduction Buddhist philosophy (mostly during Tang Dynasty) negotiated largely through perceived similarities with Daoism.
Neo-Confucianism was a revived version of old Confucian principles that appeared around the Song Dynasty, with Buddhist, Taoist, and Legalist features. It was later popularized during the reign of the Ming Dynasty.
The respective influences of Daoism and Confucianism are often described this way: "Chinese are Confucianist during the day, while they are Daoists at night". Moreover, many Chinese mandarins were government officials in the daily life and poets (or painters) in their spare time.Modern EraDuring the Industrial and Modern Ages, Chinese philosophy had also began to integrate concepts of Western philosophy, as steps toward modernization. By the time of the Xinhai Revolution in 1911, there were many calls, such as the May Fourth Movement, to completely abolish the old imperial institutions and practices of China. There have been attempts to incorporate democracy, republicanism, and industrialism into Chinese philosophy, notably by Sun Yat-Sen (Sūn yì xiān, in one Mandarin form of the name) at the beginning of the 20th century. Mao Tse-Tung (Máo zé dōng) added Marxism, Stalinism, and other communist thought.
When the Communist Party of China took over power, previous schools of thought, excepting notably Legalism, were denounced as backward, and later even purged during the Cultural Revolution. Their influence on Chinese thought, however, remains. The current government of the People's Republic of China is trying to encourage a form of market socialism.
Since the radical movement of the Cultural Revolution, the Chinese government has become much more tolerant with the practice of traditional beliefs. The 1978 Constitution of the People's Republic of China guarantees "freedom of religion" with a number of restrictions. Spiritual and philosophical institutions have been allowed to be established or re-established, as long they are not perceived to be a threat to the power of the CPC. (However, it should be noted that those organizations are heavily monitored by the state.) The influences of past are still deeply ingrained in the Chinese culture. As in Japan, philosophy in China has become a melting pot of ideas. It accepts new concepts, while attempting also to accord old beliefs their due.
ConfucianismConfucianism is a philosophical school developed from the teachings of the sage Confucius (Kongzi 孔子, 551 – 479 BC), collected in the Analects of Confucius. It is a system of moral, social, political, and religious thought that has had tremendous influence on Chinese history, thought, and culture down to the 21st century. Some Westerners have considered it to have been the "state religion" of imperial China. Its influence also spread to Korea and Japan.
The major Confucian concepts include rén (humanity or humaneness), zhèngmíng (rectification of names; e.g. a ruler who rules unjustly is no longer a ruler and may be dethroned), zhōng (loyalty), xiào (filial piety), and lǐ (ritual). Confucius taught both positive and negative versions of the Golden Rule. The concepts Yin and Yang represent two opposing forces that are permanently in conflict with each other, leading to perpetual contradiction and change. The Confucian idea of "Rid of the two ends, take the middle" is a Chinese equivalent of Hegel's idea of "thesis, antithesis, and synthesis", which is a way of reconciling opposites, arriving at some middle ground combining the best of both.Neo-ConfucianismDespite Confucianism losing popularity to Taoism and Buddhism, Neo-Confucianism combined those ideas into a more metaphysical framework. Its concepts include li (principle, akin to Plato's forms), qi (vital or material force), taiji (the Great Ultimate), and xin (mind).
They also thought that if you did your homework you would get a pig! Some kids would have 300.Taoism
Taoism (Daoism) is a philosophy and religion based on the texts the Tao Te Ching (Dào Dé Jīng; ascribed to Laozi) and the Zhuangzi (partly ascribed to Zhuangzi). The character Tao 道 (Dao) literally means "path" or "way". All major Chinese philosophical schools have investigated the correct Way to go about a moral life, but in Taoism it takes on the most abstract meanings, leading this school to be named after it. It advocated nonaction (wu wei), the strength of weakness, spontaneity, and relativism. Although it serves as a rival to Confucianism, a school of active morality, this rivalry is compromised and given perspective by the idiom "practise Confucianism on the outside, Taoism on the inside."Legalism
Legalism is a pragmatic political philosophy synthesized by Han Fei. With an essential principle like "when the epoch changed, the ways changed", it upholds the rule of law and is thus a theory of jurisprudence.
A ruler should govern his subjects by the following trinity:
1. Fa (法 fǎ): law or principle.2. Shu (術 shù): method, tactic, art, or statecraft.3. Shi (勢 shì): legitimacy, power, or charisma.
Legalism was the chosen philosophy of the Qin Dynasty. It was blamed for creating a totalitarian society and thereby experienced decline.Buddhism
Buddhism is a religion, a practical philosophy, and arguably a psychology, focusing on the teachings of Gautama Buddha, who lived on the Indian subcontinent most likely from the mid-6th to the early 5th century BCE. When used in a generic sense, a Buddha is generally considered to be someone who discovers the true nature of reality.
Although Buddhism originated in India, it has had the greatest impact on China. Since Chinese tradition focuses on ethics rather than metaphysics, it has developed several schools distinct from the originating Indian schools. The most prominent examples with philosophical merit are Sanlun, Tiantai, Huayan, and Chan (a.k.a. Zen). They investigate consciousness, levels of truth, whether reality is ultimately empty, and how enlightenment is to be achieved. Buddhism has a spiritual aspect that compliments the action of Neo-Confucianism, with prominent Neo-Confucians advocating certain forms of meditation.Mohism
Mohism (Moism), founded by Mozi, promotes universal love with the aim of mutual benefit. Everyone must love each other equally and impartially to avoid conflict and war. Mozi was strongly against Confucian ritual, instead emphasizing pragmatic survival through farming, fortification, and statecraft. Tradition is inconsistent, and human beings need an extra-traditional guide to identify which traditions are acceptable. The moral guide must then promote and encourage social behaviors that maximize general benefit. As motivation for his theory, Mozi brought in the Will of Heaven, but rather than being religious his philosophy parallels utilitarianism.Logicians
The logicians (School of Names) were concerned with logic, paradoxes, names and actuality (similar to Confucian rectification of names). The logician Hui Shi was a friendly rival to Zhuangzi, arguing against Taoism in a light-hearted and humorous manner. Another logician, Gongsun Long, told the famous When a White Horse is Not a Horse dialogue. This school did not thrive because the Chinese regarded sophistry and dialectic as impractical.


Main Schools of Thought

Confucius, seen as the Great Master but sometimes ridiculed by Taoists.
Mencius, Confucius' follower having idealist inspiration.Xun Zi, another Confucius' follower, closer to realism.Zhu Xi, founder of Neo-ConfucianismWang Yangming, most influential proponent of xinxue or "state of mind."
Lao Zi, the chief of Taoist school.
Zhuangzi, said to be the author of the Zhuangzi.Liezi, said to be the author of the Liezi.
Mozi, the founder of Mohist school.Han Fei, one of the theoreticians of LegalismLin-chi, a great Buddhist Ch'an thinker and teacher, essentially shaped what would become one of the largest schools of Buddhism (Rinzai school of Zen)
Concepts within Chinese philosophy
Although the individual philosophical schools differ considerably, they nevertheless share a common vocabulary and set of concerns.
Among the terms commonly found in Chinese philosophy are:
Tao (the Way, or one's doctrine)De (virtue, power)Li (principle)Qi (vital energy or material force)The Taiji (Great Heavenly Axis) forms a unity, from which two antagonistic concepts, Yin and Yang originate. The word Yin originally referred to a hillside facing away from the sun. Philosophically, it stands the gloomy, passive, female concept, whereas Yang (the hillside facing the sun) stands for the bright, active, male concept. Both concepts, though antagonistic, are also complementary and the present domination of one implies the future rise of the other, as moon's phases (this is one of the meanings of the well-known Yin-Yang figures).
Among the great controversies of Chinese philosophies are:
The relation between matter and principleThe method of discovering truthHuman nature
Among the commonalties of Chinese philosophies are:
Epistemological optimism. The belief that the big questions can be answered even if the answers are not currently known.The tendency not to view man as separate from nature.The tendency not to invoke a unified and personified supernatural power. Questions about the nature and existence of God which have profoundly influenced Western philosophy have not been important in Chinese philosophies.The belief that the purpose of philosophy is primarily to serve as an ethical and practical guide.The political focus: most scholars of the Hundred Schools were trying to convince the ruler to behave in the way they defended.
Comparison between Chinese and Western philosophy
The focuses of Western and Chinese philosophy are radically different, thus they have a considerable effect on mentalities of both societies. Western philosophy emphasizes ambition, individualism, rationality, power, and liberty, while Chinese philosophy emphasizes benevolence, harmony, wisdom, family, and honoring one's ancestors. Chinese philosophy primarily focuses more internally, while Western philosophy focus is more external.
In many ways, the Western and Chinese philosophies are the antithesis of each other. For example, Platonism stressed on the rule of law, and Confucianism preached a society ruled of ethics. While Enlightenment Thinking calls for liberty and democracy, Legalism demands unquestioned loyalty to imperial authority. While competition is essential in the ideology of Capitalism, cooperation is seen as the key for harmony in the philosophy of the East. Western philosophers primarily value reason and rationality, while the Far Eastern philosophers generally emphasize meditation and wisdom. This is not to say Chinese philosophy was irrational, nor to say that Western philosophy is unwise.
Despite their many differences, it would be far from the truth that Western and Chinese philosophy completely thought differently. The two philosophies explored deep into the realms of inquiry and covered similar grounds. Thus, naturally, they would have an ample number of schools that had thought similarly. For example, there were philosophers in China, such as the Logicians, that made scientific rationality their chief focus, while there were philosophers in the West, such as Marcus Aurelius, that saw meditation as the path to knowledge. It is just the mainstream philosophical schools that make Western and Chinese philosophy different.

About Bronze Age

The Bronze Age was a period in the civilization's development when the most advanced metalworking (at least in systematic and widespread use) consisted of techniques for smelting copper and tin from naturally occurring outcroppings of ore, and then alloying those metals in order to cast bronze. The Bronze Age is the 2nd stage of the three-age system for prehistoric societies, the 1st being the Stone Age, and the 3rd being the Iron Age. In that system, it follows the Neolithic in some areas of the world. In many parts of sub-Saharan Africa, the Neolithic is directly followed by the Iron Age.



Origins

The place and time of the invention of bronze are controversial, and it is possible that bronzing was invented independently in multiple places.
The earliest known tin bronzes are from Iran and Iraq and date to the late 4th millennium BC, but there are claims of an earlier appearance of tin bronze in Thailand in the 5th millennium BC. Arsenical bronzes were made in Anatolia and on both sides of the Caucasus by the early 3rd millennium BC. Some scholars date some arsenical bronze artefacts of the Maykop culture in the North Caucasus as far back as the mid 4th millennium BC, which would make them the oldest known bronzes, but others date the same Maykop artefacts to the mid 3rd millennium BC.
Bronze artifacts were exhumed in historic site of Majiayao culture (3100 BC to 2700 BC) of China. However, it is commonly accepted that China's Bronze Age began from around 2100 BC during the Xia dynasty.
The Erlitou culture, Shang Dynasty and Sanxingdui culture of early China used bronze vessels for rituals as well as farming implements and weapons.

Chinese Medicine

Traditional Chinese medicine (also known as TCM or T.C.M., ) is a range of traditional medical practices used in China that developed over several thousand years. These practices include herbal medicine, acupuncture, and massage. TCM is a form of Oriental medicine, which includes other traditional East Asian medical systems such as traditional Japanese and Korean medicine. TCM says processes of the human body are interrelated and constantly interact with the environment. Therefore the theory looks for the signs of disharmony in the external and internal environment of a person in order to understand, treat and prevent illness and disease.
TCM theory is based on a number of philosophical frameworks including the Theory of Yin-yang, the Five Elements, the human body Meridian system, Zang Fu organ theory, and others. Diagnosis and treatment are conducted with reference to these concepts. TCM does not usually operate within a western scientific paradigm but some practitioners make efforts to bring practices into an evidence-based medicine framework.


Backgound

Much of the philosophy of traditional Chinese medicine derived from Taoist philosophy, and reflects the classical Chinese belief that individual human experiences express causative principles effective in the environment at all scales.
These causative principles, whether material, essential, or spiritual, correlate as the expression of the fates decreed by heaven.
During the golden age of his reign from 2696 to 2598 B.C, as a result of a dialogue with his minister Ch'i Pai (岐伯), the Yellow Emperor is supposed by Chinese tradition to have composed his Neijing Suwen (內經 素問) or Basic Questions of Internal Medicine, also known as the Huangdi Neijing. Modern scholarly opinion holds that the extant text of this title was compiled by an anonymous scholar between the Chou and Han dynasties more than two thousand years later than tradition reports, although some parts of the extant work may have originated as early as 1000 B.C.
During the Han dynasty, Zhang Zhong Jing (張仲景), the Hippocrates of China, who was mayor of Chang-sha toward the end of the 2nd century AD, wrote a Treatise on Typhoid Fever, which contains the earliest known reference to Neijing Suwen. The Jin dynasty practitioner and advocate of acupuncture and moxibustion, Huang-fu Mi (215 - 282 AD), also quoted the Yellow Emperor in his Chia I Ching (甲乙經), ca. 265 AD. During the Tang dynasty, Wang Ping claimed to have located a copy of the originals of the Neijing Suwen, which he expanded and edited substantially. This work was revisited by an imperial commission during the 11th century AD.
However, Classical Chinese Medicine (CCM) is notably different from Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). The Nationalist government at that time elected to abandon and outlaw the practice of CCM as it did not want China to be left behind by scientific progress. For 30 years, CCM was forbidden in China and several people were prosecuted by the government for engaging in CCM. In the 1960's, Mao Zedong finally decided that the government could not continue to outlaw the use of CCM. He commissioned the top 10 doctors (M.D.'s) to take a survey of CCM and create a standardized format for its application. This standardized form is now known as TCM.
Today, TCM is what is taught in nearly all those medical schools in China, most of Asia and Northern America, that teach traditional medical practices at all. To learn CCM typically one must be part of a family lineage of medicine. Recently, there has been a resurgence in interest in CCM in China, Europe and United States, as a specialty. Jeffrey Yuen, allegedly of the 88th generation of a sect of CCM has lead this renewed interest in CCM.
Contact with Western culture and medicine has not displaced TCM. While there may be traditional factors involved in the persistent practice, two reasons are most obvious in the westward spread of TCM in recent decades. Firstly, TCM practices are believed by many to be very effective, sometimes offering palliative efficacy where the best practices of Western medicine fail, especially for routine ailments such as flu and allergies, and managing to avoid the toxicity of some chemically composed medicines. Secondly, TCM provides the only care available to ill people, when they cannot afford to try the western option. On the other hand, there is, for example, no longer a distinct branch of Chinese physics or Chinese biology.
TCM formed part of the barefoot doctor program in the People's Republic of China, which extended public health into rural areas. It is also cheaper to the PRC government, because the cost of training a TCM practitioner and staffing a TCM hospital is considerably less than that of a practitioner of Western medicine; hence TCM has been seen as an integral part of extending health services in China.
Attitudes toward TCM in China have been strongly influenced by Marxism and the May Fourth Movement. The notion of supernatural forces runs counter to the Marxist consept of dialectical materialism and strikes many Chinese as feudalistic and superstitious. Modern Chinese descriptions of traditional Chinese medicine tend to deemphasize the cosmological aspects of TCM and emphasize its compatibility with modern science and technology.
Timeline of TCM
The history of TCM can be summarized by a list of important doctors and books.
Time unknown, author unknown, Huang Di Nei Jing (Classic of Internal Medicine by Emperor Huang). The earliest classic of TCM passed on to the present.
Warring States Period (5th century BC to 221 BC): Silk scrolls recording channels and collaterals, Zu Bi Shi Yi Mai Jiu Jing (Moxibustion Classic of the Eleven Channels of Legs and Arms), and Yin Yang Shi Yi Mai Jiu Jing (Moxibustion Classic on the Eleven Yin and Yang Channels)
Eastern Han Dynasty (206 BC–AD 220))to Three Kingdoms Period (220 - 280 AD):
Zhen Jiu Zhen Zhong Jing (Classic of Moxibustion and Acupuncture Preserved in a Pillow) by Hua TuoShang Han Za Bing Lun (Treatise on Febrile and Miscellaneous Diseases) by Zhang Zhong Jing
Jìn Dynasty (265-420): Zhen Jiu Jia Yi Jing (Systematic Classic of Acupuncture and Moxibustion) by Huang Fumi.
Tang Dynasty((June 18, 618–June 4, 907))
Bei Ji Qian Jin Yao Fang (Emergency Formulas of a thousand gold worth) and Qian Jin Yi Fang (Supplement to the Formulas of a thousand gold worth) by Sun SimiaoWai Tai Mi Yao (Arcane Essentials from the Imperial Library) by Wang Tao
Song Dynasty (960-1279.)
Tong Ren Shu Xue Zhen Jiu Tu Jing (Illustrated Manual on the Point for Acupuncture and Moxibustion on the Bronze Figure) by Wang Weiyi.Emergence of Wenbing School
Yuan Dynasty(1271 to 1368): Shi Si Jing Fa Hui (Exposition of the Fourteen Channels) by Hua Shou
Ming Dynasty (1368 to 1644): Climax of acupuncture and Moxibustion. Many famous doctors and books. Only name a few:
Zhen Jiu Da Quan (A Complete Collection of Acupuncture and Moxibustion) by Xu FengZhen Jiu Ju Ying Fa Hui (An Exemplary Collection of Acupuncture and Moxibustion and their Essentials) by Gao WuZhen Jiu Da Cheng (Compendium of Acupuncture and Moxibustion) by Yang Jizhou, a milestone book.Ben Cao Gang Mu (本草綱目)(Compendium of Materia Medica) by Li Shizhen, the most complete and comprehensive herb bookWen Yi Lun by Wu YouShing
Qing Dynasty(1644-1912):
Yi Zong Jin Jian (Golden Reference of the Medical Tradition) by Wu Quan, sponsored by the imperial.Zhen Jiu Feng Yuan (The Source of Acupuncture and Moxibustion) by Li XuechuanWen Zhen Lun Dz by Ye TianShiWen Bing Tiao Bian(Systematized Identification of Warm Disease) written by Wu Jutong, a Qing dynasty physician, in 1798 C.E.
Uses
In the West, traditional Chinese medicine is often considered alternative medicine; however, in mainland China and Taiwan, TCM is widely considered to be an integral part of the health care system. The term "TCM" is sometimes used specifically within the field of modern Chinese medicine to refer to the standardized set of theories and practices introduced in the mid-20th century under the government of Mao, as distinguished from related traditional theories and practices preserved by people in Taiwan, Hong Kong and by the overseas Chinese. The more general sense is meant in this article.
TCM developed as a form of noninvasive therapeutic intervention (also described as folk medicine or traditional medicine) rooted in ancient belief systems, including traditional religious concepts. Chinese medical practitioners before the 19th century relied on observation, trial and error, which incorporated certain mystical concepts. Like their Western counterparts, doctors of TCM had a limited understanding of infection, which predated the discovery of bacteria, viruses (germ theory of disease) and an understanding of cellular structures and organic chemistry. Instead they relied mainly on observation and description on the nature of infections for creating remedies. Based on theories formulated through three millennia of observation and practical experience, a system of procedure was formed as to guide a TCM practitioner in courses of treatment and diagnosis.
Unlike other forms of traditional medicine which have largely become extinct, traditional Chinese medicine continues as a distinct branch of modern medical practice, and within China, it is an important part of the public health care system. In recent decades there has been an effort to integrate Traditional Chinese Medicine with scientific medicine. One important component of this work is to use the instrumentation and the methodological tools available via Western medicine to investigate observations and hypotheses made by the Chinese tradition.
TCM is used by some to treat the side effects of chemotherapy, treating the cravings and withdrawal symptoms of drug addicts and treating a variety of chronic conditions, such as pains, that conventional medicine has not been able to treat. It has also been used to treat antibiotic-resistant infection.
A report issued by the Victorian state government in Australia describes TCM education in China:
Graduates from TCM university courses are able to diagnose in Western medical terms, prescribe Western pharmaceuticals, and undertake minor surgical procedures. In effect, they practise TCM as a specialty within the broader organisation of Chinese health care.
In other countries it is not necessarily the case that traditional Chinese and Western medicine are practiced concurrently by the same practitioner. TCM education in Australia, for example, does not qualify a practitioner to prescribe scheduled pharmaceuticals, nor to undertake surgical procedures or diagnose in Western medical terms. While that jurisdiction notes that TCM education does not qualify practitioners to prescribe Western drugs, a separate legislative framework is being constructed to allow prescribing Chinese herbs that would otherwise be classified as poisons by registered practitioners.
TCM theory
The foundation principles of Chinese medicine are not necessarily uniform, and are based on several schools of thought. Received TCM can be shown to be most influenced by Taoism, Buddhism, and Neo-Confucianism.
Since 1200 BC, Chinese academics of various schools have focused on the observable natural laws of the universe and their implications for the practical characterisation of humanity's place in the universe. In the I Ching and other Chinese literary and philosophical classics, they have described some general principles and their applications to health and healing:
There are observable principles of constant change by which the Universe is maintained. Humans are part of the universe and cannot be separated from the universal process of change.As a result of these apparently inescapable primordial principles, the Universe (and every process therein) tends to eventually balance itself. Optimum health results from living harmoniously, allowing the spontaneous process of change to bring one closer to balance. If there is no change (stagnation), or too much change (catastrophism), balance is lost and illnesses can result.Everything is ultimately interconnected. Always use a holistic ("systemic" or "system-wide") approach when addressing imbalances.
Model of the body
Traditional Chinese medicine is largely based on the philosophical concept that the human body is a small universe with a set of complete and sophisticated interconnected systems, and that those systems usually work in balance to maintain the healthy function of the human body. The balance of yin and yang is considered with respect to qi ("breath", "life force", or "spiritual energy"), blood, jing ("kidney essence" or "semen"), other bodily fluids, the Five elements, emotions, and the soul or spirit (shen). TCM has a unique model of the body, notably concerned with the meridian system. Unlike the Western anatomical model which divides the physical body into parts, the Chinese model is more concerned with function. Thus, the TCM Spleen is not a specific piece of flesh, but an aspect of function related to transformation and transportation within the body, and of the mental functions of thinking and studying.
There are significant regional and philosophical differences between practitioners and schools which in turn can lead to differences in practice and theory.
Models of the body include:
Yin or YangFive elementsZang Fu theoryMeridian (Chinese medicine)Three jiaos
The Yin/Yang and five element theories may be applied to a variety of systems other than the human body, whereas Zang Fu theory, meridian theory and three-jiao theories are more specific.
There are also separate models that apply to specific pathological influences, such as the Four stages theory of the progression of warm diseases, the Six levels theory of the penetration of cold diseases, and the Eight principles system of disease classification.
Macro approach to disease
Traditional Chinese medicine has a "macro" or holistic view of disease. For example, one modern interpretation is that well-balanced human bodies can resist most everyday bacteria and viruses, which are ubiquitous and quickly changing. Infection, while having a proximal cause of a microorganism, would have an underlying cause of an imbalance of some kind. The traditional treatment would target the imbalance, not the infectious organism. There is a popular saying in China as follows: Chinese medicine treats humans while western medicine treats diseases.
A practitioner might give very different herbal prescriptions to patients affected by the same type of infection, because the different symptoms reported by the patients would indicate a different type of imbalance, in a traditional diagnostic system.
Western medicine treats infections by targeting the microorganisms directly, whether preventively (through sterilization of instruments, handwashing, and covering bandages), with antibiotics, or making use of the immune system through vaccines. While conventional medicine recognizes the importance of nutrition, exercise and reducing stress in maintaining a healthy immune system (and thus preventing infection), it also faces problems with antibiotic resistance caused by overuse of chemical agents and the high mutation rate of microorganisms. Pharmaceutical treatments also sometimes have side effects, the most severe of which are seen in regimens used to treat otherwise fatal illnesses, such as chemotherapy and radiotherapy for cancer, and antiretroviral drugs for HIV/AIDS.
The holistic approach of traditional Chinese medicine makes all practitioners generalists. Western medicine has general practitioners who dispense primary care, but increasing reliance is placed on specialists who have expertise in treating only certain types of diseases. Primary care physicians often refer patients to specialists. Emergency departments are located in large hospitals where many specialists are available.
Diagnostics
Following the macro philosophy of disease, traditional Chinese diagnostics are based on overall observation of human symptoms rather than "micro" level laboratory tests. There are four types of TCM diagnostic methods: observe (望 wàng), hear and smell (聞 wén), ask about background (問 wèn) and touching (切 qiè). The pulse-reading component of the touching examination is so important that Chinese patients may refer to going to the doctor as "Going to have my pulse felt"
Modern practitioners in China often use a traditional system in combination with Western methods.
Traditional Chinese medicine is considered to require considerable diagnostic skill. This often depends on the ability to observe what are described as subtle differences. This may be contrasted with a straightforward laboratory test which indicates an unambiguous cause. A training period of years or decades is said to be necessary for TCM practitioners to understand the full complexity of symptoms and dynamic balances. According to one Chinese saying, A good (TCM) doctor is also qualified to be a good prime minister in a country.Diagnostic techniques
Palpation of the patient's radial artery pulse (Pulse diagnosis) in six positionsObservation of the appearance of the patient's tongueObservation of the patient's facePalpation of the patient's body (especially the abdomen) for tendernessObservation of the sound of the patient's voiceObservation of the surface of the earObservation of the vein on the index finger on small childrenComparisons of the relative warmth or coolness of different parts of the bodyObservation of the patient's various odorsAsking the patient about the effects of his problemAnything else that can be observed without instruments and without harming the patient
Treatment techniques
Historically, eight branches comprised Chinese medicine treatment:
Tui na (推拿) - massage therapy
Acupuncture and Moxibustion (針灸)
Chinese herbal medicine(中药)
Chinese food therapy (食 疗)
Qigong (氣功) and related breathing and meditation exercise
T'ai Chi Ch'uan (太極拳) and other Chinese martial arts
Feng shui (风水)
Chinese astrology
Today, all of the above except Feng shui and Chinese astrology are routinely used as part of TCM treatments.
Specific treatment methods are grouped into these branches. Cupping and Gua Sha (刮痧) are part of Tui Na. Auriculotherapy (耳燭療法) comes under the heading of Acupuncture and Moxibustion. Die-da or Tieh Ta (跌打) are practitioners who specialize in healing trauma injury such as bone fractures, sprains, and bruises. Some of these specialists may also use or recommend other disciplines of Chinese medical therapies (or Western medicine in modern times) if serious injury is involved. Such practice of bone-setting is not common in the West.
Modern TCM treatments consist of herbal medicine or acupuncture as the primary method, with other methods such as massage, qi gong, or food therapy playing a secondary role. Illness in TCM is seen as a lack of harmony, and the goal of all traditional treatment is to assist the body to regain balance and achieve homeostasis.
The modern practice of traditional Chinese medicine is increasingly incorporating techniques and theories of Western medicine in its praxis.
Branches of TCM
Traditional Chinese medicine has many branches, the most prominent of which are the Jingfang (经方学派) and Wenbing(温病学派) schools. The Jingfang school relies on the principles contained in the Chinese medicine classics of the Han and Tang dynasty, such as Huangdi Neijing and Shenlong Bencaojing. The more recent Wenbing school's practise is largely based on more recent books including Compendium of Materia Medica from Ming and Qing Dynasty, although in theory the school follows the teachings of the earlier classics as well. Intense debates between these two schools lasted until the Cultural Revolution in mainland China, when Wenbing school used political power to suppress the opposing school.
TCM and science
The question of efficacy
Much scientific research about TCM has focused on acupuncture. There is no scientific consensus as to whether acupuncture is effective or only has value as a placebo. Reviews of existing clinical trials have been conducted by the Cochrane Collaboration and Bandolier according to the protocols of evidence-based medicine; some reviews have found efficacy for headache and nausea , but for most conditions have concluded a lack of effectiveness or lack of well-conducted clinical trials. The World Health Organisation (WHO), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the American Medical Association (AMA) have also commented on acupuncture These groups disagree on what is acceptable evidence and on how to interpret it, but generally agree that acupuncture is relatively safe (even if not effective) and that further investigation is warranted. The 1997 NIH Consensus Statement on Acupuncture summarized research and made a prediction as follows:
...promising results have emerged, for example, efficacy of acupuncture in adult post-operative and chemotherapy nausea and vomiting and in postoperative dental pain. There are other situations such as addiction, stroke rehabilitation, headache, menstrual cramps, tennis elbow, fibromyalgia, myofascial pain, osteoarthritis, low back pain, carpal tunnel syndrome, and asthma for which acupuncture may be useful as an adjunct treatment or an acceptable alternative or be included in a comprehensive management program. Further research is likely to uncover additional areas where acupuncture interventions will be useful.
Much less work in the West has been done on Chinese herbal medicines, which comprise much of TCM. Traditional practitioners usually have no philosophical objections to scientific studies on the effectiveness of treatments.
Some herbs have known active ingredients which are also used in Western pharmaceuticals. For example, ma huang, or ephedra, contains ephedrine and pseudoephedrine. (Due to the risk of adverse impact on the cardiovascular system and some deaths due to consumption of extracts in high doses, the use of ephedra is restricted in the United States.) Chinese wormwood (qinghao) was the source for the discovery of artemisinin, which is now used worldwide to treat multi-drug resistant strains of falciparum malaria. It is also under investigation as an anti-cancer agent.
In the West, many Chinese herbal medicines have been marketed as dietary supplements and there has been considerable controversy over the effectiveness, safety, and regulatory status of these substances. One barrier to scientific research on traditional remedies is the large amount of money and expertise requied to conduct a double-blind clinical trial, and the lack of financial incentive from the ability to obtain patents.
There are a priori doubts about the efficacy of many TCM treatments that appear to have their basis in magical thinking — for example that plants with heart-shaped leaves will help the heart, or that ground bones of the tiger can function as a stimulant because tigers are energetic animals. Such doubts, however, do not invalidate the efficacy of the medicines themselves. While the doctrine of signatures does underlie the selection of many of the ingredients of herbal medicines, this does not mean the substances do not (perhaps by coincidence) possess the attributed properties. Given the thousand-year evolution of Chinese materia medica, it is possible that while herbs were originally selected on erroneous grounds, only those that actually proven effective have remained in use. In any case, clinical trials of Chinese herbal medicines will need to be conducted before the question can be considered resolved.
Mechanism of action
The basic mechanism of TCM is akin to treating the body as a black box, recording and classifying changes and observations of the patient using a traditional philosophy. In contrast to many alternative and complementary medicines such as homeopathy, practically all techniques of TCM have explanations for why they may be more effective than a placebo, which Western medicine can find plausible. Most doctors of Western medicine would not find implausible claims that qigong preserves health by encouraging relaxation and movement, that acupuncture relieves pain by stimulating the production of neurotransmitters, or that Chinese herbal medicines may contain powerful biochemical agents. However, the largest barriers to describing the mechanisms of TCM in scientific terms are the difference of language and lack of research. TCM concepts such as qi and yin and yang are used to describe specific biological processes but are difficult to translate into scientific terms. Some research is now beginning to emerge explaining possible scientific mechanisms behind these TCM concepts.
Safety of Chinese medicines
Acupressure and acupuncture are largely accepted to be safe from results gained through medical studies. Several cases of pneumothorax, nerve damage and infection have been reported as resulting from acupuncture treatments. These adverse events are extremely rare especially when compared to other medical interventions, and were found to be due to practitioner negligence. Dizziness and bruising will sometimes result from acupuncture treatment.
Some governments have decided that Chinese acupuncture and herbal treatments should only be administered by persons who have been educated to apply them safely. "A key finding is that the risk of adverse events is linked to the length of education of the practitioner, with practitioners graduating from extended Traditional Chinese Medicine education programs experiencing about half the adverse event rate of those practitioners who have graduated from short training programs."
Certain Chinese herbal medicines involve a risk of allergic reaction and in rare cases involve a risk of poisoning. Cases of acute and chronic poisoning due to treatment through ingested Chinese medicines are found in China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, with a few deaths occurring each year. Many of these deaths do occur however, when patients self prescribe herbs or take unprocessed versions of toxic herbs. The raw and unprocessed form of aconite, or fuzi is the most common cause of poisoning. The use of aconite in Chinese herbal medicine is usually limited to processed aconite, in which the toxicity is denatured by heat treatment.
Furthermore, potentially toxic and carcinogenic compounds such as arsenic and cinnabar are sometimes prescribed as part of a medicinal mixture or used on the basis of "using poison to cure poison". Unprocessed herbals are sometimes adulterated with chemicals that may alter the intended effect of a herbal preparation or prescription. Much of these are being prevented with more empirical studies of Chinese herbals and tighter regulation regarding the growing, processing, and prescription of various herbals.
In the United States, the Chinese herb má huáng (麻黄; lit. "flax yellow") — known commonly in the West by its Latin name Ephedra — was banned in 2004 by the FDA, although, the FDA's final ruling exempted traditional Asian preparations of Ephedra from the ban. The Ephedra ban was meant to combat the use of this herb in Western weight loss products, a usage that directly conflicts with traditional Asian uses of the herb. There were no cases of Ephedra based fatalities with patients using traditional Asian preparations of the herb for its traditionally intended uses. This ban was ordered lifted in April 2005 by a Utah federal court judge.
Many Chinese medicines have different names for the same ingredient depending on location and time, but worse yet, ingredients with vastly different medical properties have shared similar or even same names. For example, there was a report that mirabilite/sodium sulphate decahydrate (芒硝) was misrecognized as sodium nitrite (牙硝) , resulting a poisoned victim In some Chinese medical texts, both names are interchangeable Chinese herbal medicine authorities are working towards improved standards in this area.
TCM and Western medicine
Within China, there has been a great deal of cooperation between TCM practitioners and Western medicine, especially in the field of ethnomedicine. Chinese herbal medicine includes many compounds which are unused by Western medicine, and there is great interest in those compounds as well as the theories which TCM practitioners use to determine which compound to prescribe. For their part, advanced TCM practitioners in China are interested in statistical and experimental techniques which can better distinguish medicines that work from those that do not. One result of this collaboration has been the creation of peer reviewed scientific journals and medical databases on traditional Chinese medicine.
The relationship between TCM and Western medicine is more contentious. While more and more medical schools are including classes on alternative medicine in their curricula, older Western doctors and scientists are far more likely than their Chinese counterparts to skeptically view TCM as archaic pseudoscience and superstition. This skepticism can come from a number of sources. For one, TCM in the West tends to be advocated either by Chinese immigrants or by those that have lost faith in conventional medicine. Many people in the West have a stereotype of the East as mystical and unscientific, which attracts those in the West who have lost hope in science and repels those who believe in scientific explanations. There have also been experiences in the West with unscrupulous or well-meaning but improperly-trained "TCM practitioners" who have done people more harm than good in many instances.
As an example of the different roles of TCM in China and the West, a person with a broken bone in the West (i.e. a routine, "straightforward" condition would almost never see a Chinese medicine practitioner or visit a martial arts school to get the bone set, whereas this is routine in China. As another example, most TCM hospitals in China have electron microscopes and many TCM practitioners know how to use one.
This is not to say that TCM techniques are considered worthless in the West. In fact, Western pharmaceutical companies have recognized the value of traditional medicines and are employing teams of scientists in many parts of the world to gather knowledge from traditional mouth healers and medical practitioners. After all, the active ingredients of most modern medicines were discovered in plants or animals. The particular contribution of Western medicine is that it strictly applies the scientific method to promising traditional treatments, separating those that work from those that do not. As another example, most Western hospitals and increasing numbers of other clinics now offer T'ai Chi Ch'uan or qigong classes as part of their inpatient and community health programs.
Most Chinese in China do not see traditional Chinese medicine and Western medicine as being in conflict. In cases of emergency and crisis situations, there is generally no reluctance in using conventional Western medicine. At the same time, belief in Chinese medicine remains strong in the area of maintaining health. To put it simply, you see a Western doctor if you have acute appendicitis, but you do exercises or take Chinese herbs to keep your body healthy enough to prevent appendicitis, or to recover more quickly from the surgery. Very few practitioners of Western medicine in China reject traditional Chinese medicine, and most doctors in China will use some elements of Chinese medicine in their own practice.
A degree of integration between Chinese and Western medicine also exists in China. For instance, at the Shanghai cancer hospital, a patient may be seen by a multidisciplinary team and be treated concurrently with radiation surgery, Western drugs and a traditional herbal formula.
It is worth noting that the practice of Western medicine in China is somewhat different from that in the West. In contrast to the West, there are relatively few allied health professionals to perform routine medical procedures or to undertake procedures such as massage or physical therapy.
In addition, Chinese practitioners of Western medicine have been less impacted by trends in the West that encourage patient empowerment, to see the patient as an individual rather than a collection of parts, and to do nothing when medically appropriate. Chinese practitioners of Western medicine have been widely criticized for over-prescribing drugs such as corticosteroids or antibiotics for common viral infections. It is likely that these medicines, which are generally known to be useless against viral infections, would provide less relief to the patient than traditional Chinese herbal remedies.
Traditional Chinese diagnostics and treatments are often much cheaper than Western methods which require high-tech equipment or extensive chemical manipulation.
TCM doctors often criticize Western doctors for paying too much attention to laboratory tests and showing insufficient concern for the overall feelings of patients.
Modern TCM practitioners will refer patients to Western medical facilities if a medical condition is deemed to have put the body too far out of "balance" for traditional methods to remedy.
TCM and animals
Animal products are used in certain Chinese formulas, which may present a problem for vegans and vegetarians. If informed of such restrictions, practitioners can often use alternative substances.
The use of endangered species is controversial within TCM. In particular, is the belief that tiger penis and rhinoceros horn are aphrodisiacs. (Actually the traditional use of rhinoceros horn is to reduce fever.) [ Some believe that this is depleting these species in the wild. Medicinal use is also having a major impact on the populations of sea horses.
Shark fin soup is traditionally regarded as benefitial for health in East Asia. According to Compendium of Materia Medica, it's good at strengthening the waist, supplementing vital energy, nourishing blood, invigorating kidney and lung and improving digestion. However, such claim is not supported by scientific evidence. Furthermore, they have been found to contain high levels of mercury, which are known for its ill effects.
The animal rights movement notes that a few traditional Chinese medicinal solutions use bear bile. To extract maximum amounts of the bile, the bears are often fitted with a sort of permanent catheter. The treatment itself and especially the extraction of the bile is very painful, causes damage to the intestines of the bear, and often even kills the bears. However, due to international attention on the issues surrounding its harvesting, bile is now rarely used by practitioners outside of China, gallbladders from butchered cattle are recommended as a substitute for this ingredient Bensky, Clavey and Stoger's comprehensive Chinese herbal text deals with substances derived from endangered species in an appendix, with an emphasis on recommending alternatives.
Attempts to phase out TCM in China and Japan
Starting from late 19th century, politicians and Chinese scholars with background in Western medicine, have being trying to phase out TCM totally in China. Some of the prominent advocates of the elimination of TCM include:
Lu Xun, who argues that TCM doctors are intentionally or unintentionally deceiving their patientsWang Jingwei, who asserts that TCM has no basis in human anatomy nor any scientific foundationLi Ao, who argues that TCM is a kind of superstition.Fang Shimin, who argues that TCM is pseudo-science and may be unsafe due to a lack of Double blind tests.
The attempts to curtail TCM in China always provoke large scale debates but have never completely succeeded. Still, many researchers and practitioners of TCM in China and the United States argue the need to document TCM's efficacy with controlled, double blind experiments. These efforts remain hampered by the difficulty of creating effective placebos for acupuncture studies.
The attempt to phase out TCM in Japan partially succeeded after Meiji Restoration. However, in the 1920's a movement emerged that attempted to restore traditional medical practice, especially acupuncture. This movement, known as the Meridian Therapy movement (Keiraku Chiryo in Japanese) persists to this day. Furthermore, many Japanese physicians continue to practice Kampo, a form of traditional medicine based on the Shang Han Lun tradition of Chinese herbal medicine.