At present, there is a subject called "Chinese Medicine", and the content of this subject is no different from that of ancient materia medica. It is a subject that expounds and studies the theory and clinical application of traditional Chinese medicine. The name "traditional Chinese medicine" more accurately summarizes the research object and scope of this subject than the ancient "materialism". In order to distinguish it from western medicine, it is called "Chinese medicine". In fact, it is the inheritance and development of materialism, which can be considered as the modern name of ancient materialism.
The name "pharmacology" is too broad and contains too much content. Pharmacology should be the science of studying drugs. Strictly speaking, it should include Chinese medicine and western medicine. But there is no such subject at present.
"Prescription Science" is a subject that studies the compatibility law of prescriptions and its clinical application. Among the prescriptions of traditional Chinese medicine, although there are also prescriptions composed of single medicine, the number is very small. Prescription science mainly studies the compatibility law and clinical application of various drugs. To study the compatibility law of drugs in combination prescription, rather than the performance, meridian tropism and function of drugs in unit.
Some textbooks say that prescription science is a subject of studying and treating diseases, but I beg to differ. The study of treatment scheme is the content of "basic theory of traditional Chinese medicine", and the specific treatment method is the research content of clinical disciplines. Although "Eight Methods" is mentioned in the book "Prescription Science", it is rarely used in the specific elaboration of each side, because the eight methods can not clearly explain the clinical application of each side.