The Constitution of People's Republic of China (PRC) stipulates: "The state develops medical and health services and modern medicine and traditional Chinese medicine." According to my understanding, the traditional medicine referred to here should include traditional Chinese medicine, ethnic medicine and folk medicine.
Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is the mainstream medicine in ancient China, with the cultural background of China. Up to now, it has indisputable academic and social status, and it is the natural representative of traditional medicine in China.
Ethnic medicine is the traditional medicine of ethnic minorities in China. These include Tibetan medicine, Mongolian medicine, Uygur medicine, Dai medicine, Zhuang medicine, Miao medicine, Yao medicine, Yi medicine, Dong medicine, Tujia medicine, Hui medicine, Korean medicine and so on. Medicine is the innate demand of human beings, and every nation has its own medical creation and accumulation in history. Among the 55 ethnic minorities, more than 30 ethnic groups have compiled traditional medical materials. Due to different historical conditions and cultural backgrounds, the development of traditional medicine of various ethnic groups is unbalanced, and the subsequent inheritance and development are also different. Some have established a relatively complete medical system. Some are summarizing, sorting out and refining system theory. Others have only sporadic unilateral and medical experience. But in general, all ethnic medicine is not a branch of Chinese medicine, but a sister of Chinese medicine. As for the concept of ethnic medicine itself, it is not a newly established unified medical system, but an academic general name and working definition of various ethnic medicine components. As far as their nationality, history and inheritance are concerned, they have similar philosophical thinking, medical characteristics, medication experience and historical destiny with traditional Chinese medicine in China.
Folk medicine is a specialty of folk health customs, prescriptions, herbs and medical treatment. They are not necessarily guided by the theory of traditional Chinese medicine, and it is difficult to belong to a certain national medicine. People generally call it "folk herbs", "experts in medicine" or "people really have expertise"
The concept of "ethnic medicine" appeared at least in the 1950s. "Ethnic medicine" and "ethnic medicine" can be seen everywhere in the official documents of the 1980s. In fact, the concept of ethnic medicine has broad and narrow meanings. The broad concept refers to the traditional Chinese medicine, just like the words used in national industry, national enterprises and national economy. The nation here refers to the big family of the Chinese nation, which has national, local and non-foreign significance. The narrow concept refers to the traditional medicine of China ethnic minorities. Because the word "ethnic" is the abbreviation of "ethnic minority" in our country at present, the concept of "ethnic medicine" mentioned above will not be vague, and it is impossible to include Chinese medicine.
To sum up, Chinese medicine, ethnic medicine and folk medicine are all important components of traditional medicine in China. The Regulations of People's Republic of China (PRC) on Traditional Chinese Medicine stipulates in the annex that "the management of ethnic medicine shall be implemented with reference to these regulations". This shows that ethnic medicine has its own independent academic status and enjoys the same policy as traditional Chinese medicine. Under the premise of not violating the laws and regulations of traditional Chinese medicine, ethnic medicine can have special treatment. Especially in ethnic minority areas, within the scope of national autonomy laws and regulations, it is allowed to formulate some specific measures for protection, inheritance and development according to local conditions.
At the same time, China's traditional medicine, including ethnic medicine and folk medicine, is also a part of the world's traditional medicine. The World Health Organization put traditional medicine on its agenda in 1976. In the World Health Organization's Traditional Medicine Strategy for 2002-2005, which was adopted in 2002, a precise definition of traditional medicine was given, pointing out that "traditional medicine is the general name of China traditional medicine, Indian medicine, Arabic medicine and other traditional medical systems and various forms of folk therapy. Traditional medical therapy includes drug therapy (such as using herbs, animal organs and/or minerals) and non-drug therapy (such as acupuncture therapy, manual therapy and psychotherapy). In countries where the main health care system is based on allopathic therapy or traditional medicine has not been incorporated into the national health care system, traditional medicine is usually called "complementary", "alternative" or "unconventional" medicine. Obviously, China ethnic medicine is not only an important part of China traditional medicine, but also an important part of the world traditional medicine in terms of the integrity of its academic system, the perfection of inheritance and protection and the universality of modern application. (transferred from the website of ethnic medicine)