? From the earliest Pharmacopoeia Shennong's Classic of Materia Medica to Li Shizhen's Compendium of Materia Medica in Ming Dynasty. From Han dynasty to modern times, there are about 5000 kinds of Chinese herbal medicines. With the help of modern science and technology, the development of Chinese herbal medicine plays a unique role in promoting the development of traditional Chinese medicine and modern medicine. Why did ancient Chinese herbal medicines show strong vitality and endure for a long time?
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? The holistic view of the integration of man and nature in TCM is the corresponding expression of man and nature. Heaven, earth and human beings come from one, and the natural objects in the universe are different from each other. Living and inanimate objects all follow the five-element law. Therefore, heaven and man are one, six qi and five elements; The four qi and five flavors of heaven and earth correspond to the internal organs of the human body.
? Sexual taste refers to the sexual taste of traditional Chinese medicine. The medicinal properties of traditional Chinese medicine are summarized after repeated verification according to the actual curative effect, and are highly summarized from the various medical functions of drugs in nature. The determination of the taste of traditional Chinese medicine is based on the taste, so as to find some regular relationship between the different tastes of various drugs and medical functions. Therefore, the concept of taste transcends the real taste of taste perception and reflects the actual performance of drugs.
Shennong's Classic of Materia Medica points out: "Medicine has five flavors: sour, salty, sweet, bitter and pungent, and four gases: cold, hot and cold." Four qi refers to four different properties of drugs: cold, hot, warm and cool, also known as four properties; Five flavors mean that drugs have five different flavors: sour, bitter, sweet, pungent and salty. Each traditional Chinese medicine has different four qi and five flavors, so its curative effect is also different.
The theory of four qi and five flavors is one of the basic contents of the theory of traditional Chinese medicine. It laid a foundation for the clinical application of traditional Chinese medicine. Four characteristics of drugs: cold, hot, warm and cool. Cold and warm are two opposite medicinal properties, cold and cold, heat and warm are only different in degree. There is also ping, that is, the drug is mild.
The coldness, heat, warmth and coolness of drugs are summarized from the reaction of drugs acting on the body. It is related to the cold and heat properties of the diseases treated. Drugs that can relieve or eliminate heat syndrome are generally cold. Cold-cooling drugs have the functions of clearing away heat and toxic materials, purging fire, cooling blood and nourishing yin, and are mainly used to treat various fevers. For example, Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi and Radix Isatidis have the effects of clearing away heat and toxic materials for fever, thirst and sore throat, indicating that these two herbs are cold in nature. On the contrary, drugs that can relieve or eliminate cold syndrome are generally hot or warm. Warming drugs have the functions of warming the middle warmer, dispelling cold, supporting yang and tonifying fire, and are mainly used to treat various cold diseases. For example, Radix Aconiti Lateralis Preparata and Rhizoma Zingiberis Recens have the effects of warming the middle warmer and dispelling the cold in cold syndromes such as epigastric pain and weak pulse, indicating that these two herbs are somewhat hot. In the principle of treatment, the theory of essence and truth points out: "cold is hot, and hot is cold." This is the basic law of medication.
Five flavors are summarized by doctors in long-term practice according to the theory of viscera and meridians and the theory of five elements. The five flavors of drugs are determined by the curative effect obtained from long-term medication practice. It is not only a true reflection of drug taste, but also a high generalization of drug function. Neijing holds that pungent powder, sour harvest, sweet and slow, bitter and firm, and salty and soft are the earliest summaries and generalizations of the drug functions represented by the five flavors. With the continuous supplement and development of later physicians, the drug functions and indications represented by five flavors are becoming more and more perfect.
1 pungent taste. It has the functions of dispersing stagnation, relieving exterior syndrome, promoting qi circulation and promoting blood circulation. Drugs for relieving exterior syndrome, activating qi and activating blood generally have pungent taste, so pungent drugs are often used to treat exogenous exterior syndrome, qi stagnation and blood stasis.
2 sweetness. It can tonify and slow down, and has the functions of nourishing, harmonizing and combining medicinal properties and relieving pain. Generally, many drugs that nourish and tonify deficiency, harmonize medicinal properties and relieve pain are sweet, so sweet drugs are often used to treat qi weakness, body pain, harmonize medicinal properties, rescue poisoning and so on.
3 sour taste. Can converge, and has the effects of convergence and astringency. Generally, drugs for consolidating exterior surface, arresting sweating, astringing lung, relieving cough, astringing intestine, stopping diarrhea, arresting seminal emission and stopping leucorrhea all have sour taste, so acidic drugs are often used to treat diseases such as excessive sweating due to physical weakness, chronic cough due to lung deficiency, dysentery due to chronic diarrhea, nocturnal emission, frequent enuresis and urination, menorrhagia and leucorrhea.
4 bitterness. It can relieve qi, dry and strengthen the body, and has the effects of clearing heat, eliminating pathogenic factors, dredging stool, drying dampness and strengthening yin (purging fire and retaining yin). Generally, drugs for clearing away heat and purging fire, reducing qi and relieving asthma, stopping vomiting and relieving cough, dredging stool, clearing heat and drying dampness, purging fire and strengthening yin all have bitter taste, so bitter drugs are often used to treat heat syndrome, fire syndrome, asthma due to qi reversal and vomiting and hiccups.
5 salty. Has the effects of relaxing bowels, softening hard mass and resolving hard mass. Generally, the drugs for diarrhea, moistening intestine and softening hard mass are salty, so salty drugs are often used to treat diseases such as dry stool, scrofula and abscess. Salty drugs often enter the kidney meridian, which has a strong tonifying effect and is used to treat kidney deficiency syndrome. There are also some salty drugs that can remove blood and have the effect of clearing heat and cooling blood, which are mainly used to treat the disease of heat entering the blood.
? In addition to the five flavors, there are light and astringent flavors. Light taste can make you diuretic, and some diuretics have light taste. The astringency is similar to that of acid medicine, and it also has the function of convergence, so sour taste is often used to express astringency in herbal literature.
Based on the experience of five kinds of drugs, their functions are as follows: astringent, bitter and dry, diuresis-promoting, sweet and urgent, pungent and scattered, salty and soft. There is a saying in Su Wenxuan's Wu Mingqi Lun that "acid enters the liver, bitter enters the heart, sweet enters the spleen, pungent enters the lung and salty enters the kidney". Its function is to stimulate lung qi, nourish spleen-qi deficiency, relieve heart fire, astringe liver yin with acid, and nourish kidney deficiency with salt.
? Different tastes have different functions, and drugs with the same taste are similar or * * * similar in function. The judgment of five flavors is mainly based on the taste and function of drugs.
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? Because each medicine has sex and taste, therefore, the two must be seen together. For example, these two medicines are cool, but they taste different. One is bitter cold, the other is bitter cold, so the effect is different. Conversely, if both drugs are sweet, but their properties are different, one is sweet and cold, and the other is sweet and warm, and their functions are different. Therefore, sex and taste cannot be viewed in isolation. Sex and taste show some properties of drugs, and also show the * * * nature of some drugs. Only by understanding and mastering all the properties of each drug and the similarities and differences between drugs with the same taste can we fully and accurately understand and use drugs. Sex and taste explain the function of drugs from different angles. Only by combining the two can we fully understand the function and performance of drugs.
Different tastes and gases have similarities and differences in functions. For example, perilla and mint are pungent, which can dispel evil spirits, but perilla is pungent and warm, which can dispel cold; Mint is pungent and cool, which can dispel wind and heat. Different flavors of qi have similarities and differences in function. For example, Rhizoma Coptidis and Radix Rehmanniae are cold, which can clear away heat and treat heat syndrome. Coptis chinensis is bitter and cold, clearing heat and drying dampness, and is mainly used for damp-heat syndrome. Rehmannia glutinosa is sweet and cold, can clear away heat and nourish yin, and can be used to treat deficiency-heat syndrome.
Because sexual taste belongs to the category of performance, it only reflects the * * * nature and basic characteristics of drug action, so we should not only combine sexual taste, but also combine them with the specific efficacy of drugs in order to get a more comprehensive and accurate understanding. Therefore, it is particularly important to combine sex, taste and efficacy.
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? Nature provides essential material conditions for human survival and health, and the integrity of the integration of man and nature is manifested in medicine: people have birth and death, food and medicine, and things have four flavors. Therefore, there is a "homology of medicine and food". Whether it is a medicine for survival diet or treatment, it achieves the purpose of "keeping Yin and Yang secret and treating God" by adjusting the balance of human qi.
? "Five flavors enter: acid enters the liver, pungent enters the lung, bitter enters the heart, sweet enters the spleen, salty enters the kidney, and light enters the stomach, which is called five flavors" (On Lingshu Jiuzhen); And "sour tendons, stinging gas, bitter blood, salty bones, sweet meat" (on nine treasures of Ling Shu) and so on. There is an internal relationship between the five flavors and the theory of meridian tropism, which shows that the "flavor" of Chinese herbal medicine has a corresponding relationship with the six meridians and affects the changes of human qi. In addition, the five flavors also follow the law of five elements. For example, "acid hurts tendons, spicy and sour; Bitterness hurts qi, and salty wins bitterness; Hurt the meat, acid wins the sweetness; What hurts is fur, and what wins hard is people's hearts; Salty blood, sweet is better than salt "("Su Wen Yin and Yang should be like a big theory ").
? Materia Medica is the essence of heaven and earth, and different species have their own strengths. The qi of heaven corresponds to both the qi of man and the qi of materia medica, so the qi of materia medica also corresponds to the qi of man, and the qi of heaven and man is interlinked. People's health should not only conform to the weather, but also treat diseases with herbal medicine.
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? The traditional pharmacological effects of Chinese herbal medicines are manifested from the nature and taste of drugs. In the development of modern Chinese medicine, it is customary to explain the medicinal efficacy of Chinese herbal medicine from the viewpoint of chemical composition of modern science. We should note that Chinese herbal medicine uses a mixture of its various components to treat human diseases, not just one of them. Traditional Chinese medicine pays attention to prescriptions, which are composed of many drugs, so it is difficult to analyze and understand the ingredients of treatment. The knowledge of modern chemical science tells us that the nature of (1) pure substance is clear, but the nature of mixture is not clear. (2) The factors affecting the properties of substances are not only temperature and pressure, but also the concentration and composition of the mixture. (3) In human physiological activities, organic components are dominant, among which there are many kinds of protein. The biological activity factors affecting protein are more complicated. (4) The nature of the mixture is not determined by a certain substance. The composition of some mixed substances will form a certain change pattern under changing conditions. Such as a buffer solution. Despite the continuous development of modern medical pathology theory, its understanding is not perfect, which determines the lack of description of actual phenomena in the theory. Therefore, we can discuss medical treatment from the macro overall direction, which is the direction of Chinese medicine.
Traditional Chinese medicine has developed for thousands of years, and it still has good clinical effect. The above characteristics of traditional Chinese medicine are one of the important reasons why it has been passed down for thousands of years.