The original "Manual for Human Body" - The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine

Appromixmately 3000 years ago, a mysterious medical scripture appeared in China. The scripture was titled “The Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine.” (皇帝內經) The scripture explains the relationship between the human body and nature, and teaches people how to live healthily during different seasons. For instance, people should sleep late and wake up early during spring and summer, whereas people should sleep early and wake up late during fall and winter. Basically, a person’s biological clock should be based on the time of dawn and dusk. The scripture then talks about the various causes of illness that can be avoided during daily life and various ways to deal with illness once it occurs. Through reasoning and analysis, the scripture explains how each illness symptoms relate to different body organs as well as how different moods have an effect on the body.

There has been no confirmation as to who the author of the scripture is, as well as the exact day that the scripture was published. But for the past 3000 years, almost all of the practitioners of Chinese medicine acknowledge the scripture as the bible for Chinese medicine. It has been said that if a doctor can master 1/10 of the scripture, he would have the ability to treat patients. If a doctor is able to master 1/3 of the scripture, he would become one of the more famous doctors of that era. Throughout history, only several doctors have ever mastered the entire scripture.

In the past 3000 years, there has not been any significant advance in terms of Chinese medicine theories that has not already been covered by the Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine. In the past 50 years, many Chinese scientists attempted to prove some of the theories that were stated in the scripture through scientific experiments. There has been more and more evidence to show that these theories are indeed accurate. For instance, the scripture stated that the body fluids can be classified into 2 groups, “Ron-Qi” and “Wei-Qi”. Chinese scientists have recently proven that “Ron-Qi” is another term to describe the blood inside the blood vessel and “Wei-Qi” is another term to describe the body fluid that flows along the meridian. With the current speed of progress, perhaps it will take many more decades until we can prove the majority of theories from the scripture.