The Shang Dynasty Bu Ci tortoise shell that records the content related to the disease, the mannequin of the jing cave more than 2,000 years ago, the Tang Dynasty ink book silver medicine box stored in the cellar of HeJia Village in Shaanxi Province... At the scene of "Discovering the Beauty of Traditional Chinese Medicine - Special Exhibition of Cultural Relics of Traditional Chinese Medicine" at the Chengdu Museum, more than 300 pieces (sets) of cultural relics from 15 provinces and cities across the country and more than 30 units told the long history and rich connotation of Traditional Chinese medicine, which was eye-opening.
"Chinese medicine is the crystallization of the wisdom of the Chinese nation. Rooted in the soil of Chinese civilization, it has gradually formed and continuously developed in the practice of production and life for thousands of years, making great contributions to the reproduction of the Chinese nation and having a positive impact on the progress of world civilization. Ren Ge, director of Chengdu Museum, said that the exhibition was launched by the Chengdu Museum under the guidance and support of the competent departments at the national, provincial and municipal levels, and by dozens of relevant units in the United Nations, through the professional interpretation of cultural relics, systematically presenting a broad and profound chinese medicine culture.
The prologue of the exhibition outlines the origin and development of Traditional Chinese medicine. China is a multi-ethnic country with a long history, and each ethnic group has its own medical creation and accumulation. In addition to Han traditional medicine, "traditional Chinese medicine" in a broad sense also includes Tibetan medicine, Mongolian medicine, Uyghur medicine, Manchu medicine, Yi medicine, Dai medicine and many other ethnic medicines.
In the prologue hall, you can see the lacquered figures of the jingxiao lacquer excavated from the tomb of Laoguan shan Han in Chengdu. This is the earliest and most complete mannequin of meridian points seen in China, reflecting the level of development of Chinese medicine about 2200 years ago. A piece of Western Xia Chinese medicinal prescription paper with black characters on a red background, unearthed in Wuwei, Gansu Province, is one of the only two Pieces of Western Xia Chinese Medicine Literature in China. There are 3 prescriptions for the treatment of typhoid fever and cold on the paper, each separated by "〇", which are soup medicine, pill medicine and one-sided medicine.
The exhibition is divided into five units: "The Unity of Heaven and Man: Cognition of Life and Disease", "Benevolence: Diagnosis and Treatment of Diseases", "Prescription for Symptomatic Medicine: Materia Medica and Prescription", "Hand to Disease Removal: Non-drug Therapies such as Acupuncture and Moxibustion", and "Prevention before They Occur: Prevention and Treatment of Epidemics". There are many types of cultural relics on display, including oracle bones, bamboo janes, books, scrolls, thread-bound books, etc., and physical objects include gold, silver, copper, iron, pottery, porcelain, jade, textiles, etc.
The "Five Elements of Yin and Yang" exhibited in the first unit was excavated from the Mawangdui Han Tomb in Changsha, Hunan. This book is a mathematical document based on the theory of the five elements of yin and yang, which is a manuscript of the Western Han Dynasty (187-180 BC) of the Later Lü Dynasty, with a total length of about 100 cm and a width of about 50 cm after restoration. Du Kang, curator of the exhibition and head of the Folk Relics Department of Chengdu Museum, introduced that the five elements of yin and yang are the simple dialectical materialist thoughts of the ancient Chinese people, and Chinese medicine borrows the concept of five elements of yin and yang to explain human life phenomena, physiological functions, pathological changes and disease diagnosis and treatment, forming an overall outlook on life with Tibetan images, meridians and spirit as the core.
Tianhui medicine Bamboo Jane was an important medical document in the early Western Han Dynasty. In 2012, a large number of medical janes were found in the north and south bottom chambers of the No. 3 Han Tomb of Laoguanshan in Tianhui Town, Chengdu, which is the largest archaeological discovery of medical bamboo janes unearthed at one time so far. Researchers believe that this batch of medical janes and the same cave lacquer people in the tomb reflect the "meridian medicine" system of Bian Que and Canggong.
The theory of Chinese medicine is applied to clinical practice, that is, the diagnosis and treatment of diseases by doctors. According to the object or part of treatment, Chinese medicine has long appeared internal, external, gynecological, pediatric, facial features, bone injuries and other medical sub-disciplines, and gradually formed their own distinctive medical schools. There are many medical instruments in the exhibition, reflecting the clinical diagnosis and treatment process of traditional Chinese medicine.
The pulse pillow is an instrument that is placed under the patient's wrist to act as a padding during the diagnosis of the pulse of the Chinese medicine doctor. From the Ningbo Museum, the blue-glazed stranded tire fubea porcelain vein pillow has an oval face, embedded in the middle with a strangulation tire, which is a brown ganoderma lucidum pattern, and the lower part is seated with a fubea. This pillow has a unique shape and a sparkling glaze, which is a treasure in the Yue kiln porcelain of the Tang Dynasty.
In front of a set of TCM surgical instruments, many visitors carefully examined and took pictures. This set of utensils was excavated from the tomb of Xia Hao in Jiangyin, Jiangsu Province, including more than 10 pieces of flat-bladed iron knives, willow-leaf iron knives, bone rod needles, iron scissors, copper tweezers and porcelain smoke pots. The owner of the tomb, Xia Hao, was a famous Confucian physician in the early Ming Dynasty, and later generations praised him for "learning and doing good, giving medicine to benefit the poor, and helping people with needles". This set of medical instruments reflects the level of development of TCM surgery and external treatment at that time.
From ancient times to the present, Chinese medicine has always played an important role in the cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries. The "Treatise on The Epidemic of Wen", written by Wu Yousheng in the Ming Dynasty and corrected by Ogi Motokai of Japan, is the physical evidence of the spread of Chinese medicine culture to the outside world. The Treatise on the Epidemic of Wen was written in the fifteenth year of Ming Chongzhen (1642) and was disseminated to Japan during the Kangxi Dynasty of the Qing Dynasty (1662-1722). The "Treatise on the Epidemic of Wen" exhibited this time is an engraving of Shoshu hall and Shangtokudo of the Imperial Capital Bookstore of Akiwa Akira (1769).
The Jingyi of the Chinese and Western Huitong Medical Classics is the earliest work in China on the huitong of Chinese and Western medicine, compiled by Tang Zonghai in the Qing Dynasty. In the book, he pointed out that Western medicine is better than "traces", Chinese medicine is longer than "gasification", and Chinese and Western medicine have their own shortcomings and strengths, advocating "profit and loss are ancient and modern" and "referring to China and foreign countries", and trying to use Western medical anatomy, physiology and other knowledge to confirm the theory of Chinese medicine. The "Five Kinds of Medical Books of Zhongxi Huitong" in the exhibition is a lithographic copy of the Shanghai Qianqingtang Book Company in the thirty-third year of the Qing Dynasty (1907), and the series of letters consists of 12 volumes, including 5 kinds of medical books.
In order to cooperate with this exhibition, Chengdu Museum also carried out interactive Q&A activities on the online platform, and held lectures on the themes of Qing Palace Medicine, Archaeological Excavation Medical Jane, Health Culture, etc., to popularize the knowledge of Traditional Chinese medicine in a simple and simple way.
Liu Yuguo
Source: People's Daily Overseas Edition