I. Encyclopedia's Views on "Taoist Medicine" Among several definitions of "Taoist Medicine" that are popular in academic circles at present, the most authoritative and influential one is the definition in "Encyclopedia of China Religious Volume": "Taoism inherits and absorbs the achievements of traditional Chinese medicine and accumulates medical knowledge and technology in the process of pursuing immortality. Including taking food, external elixir, oral elixir guidance, elixir with witch doctor color and spells. It has both connections and differences with traditional medicine in China, and its essence of medicine and pharmacology is an integral part of China medicine. " The Encyclopedia of China Religious Volume published by Encyclopedia Publishing House included Taoist medicine as an official entry for the first time, which is of great significance, and played an important and positive role in establishing Taoist medicine as an independent branch of discipline and promoting academic research in this field.

Second, the views of foreign sinologists on "Taoist medicine" Among foreign sinologists, there are also some scholars engaged in the research of Taoist medicine. Among them, the book Taoism and Longevity Medicine written by Japanese scholar Yoshihara has a great influence. The book also gives the definition of Taoist medicine, saying: "The so-called Taoist medicine can be said to be China medicine based on Taoism. These are regarded as the main contents of Taoist classics. But now, just as Taoism is submerged in folk beliefs (folk religions), Taoist medicine can be seen in folk medicine and belief therapy can be seen in folk beliefs. " Obviously, Yoshihara's view on Taoist medicine is too pessimistic.

Three. Gai Jianmin's viewpoint on "Taoist medicine" Gai Jianmin said in his book "Taoist medicine": "Taoist medicine is a kind of religious medicine. As a product of the interaction between religion and science, it is a special medical system that Taoism has gradually developed around its religious beliefs, teachings and purposes in order to solve the basic religious problems of life and death. It is also a traditional medical school in China with distinctive Taoist colors. " Influenced by western culture, Gai Jianmin defined Taoist medicine as a kind of "religious medicine" and a "special medicine" exclusively for Taoists, which limited the in-depth exploration of Taoist medicine.

Hu's viewpoint on "Taoist medicine" Hu defined "Taoist medicine" in his China Taoist Dictionary: "Taoist medicine is a kind of social medicine and religious medicine, which pays attention to regulating people's social environment and psychological factors, arouses patients' religious feelings to resist diseases, and has the characteristics of psychotherapy and witchcraft tendency of communication between people and God." Here, Hu has a good understanding of the basic attributes of Taoist medicine "Shen" treatment, but he has not mentioned the rich content of Chinese medicine "Xing" treatment. Hu said in the later published book "General Theory of Taoism": "Taoist medicine is divided into three levels, and the internal core level is decoction, health care drugs, acupuncture and so on. , equivalent to the category of modern Chinese medicine; The intermediate level is qigong, induction and other fitness and treatment methods, which are equivalent to fitness; The peripheral levels are runes, spells, medicine lists, wishes, sacrifices, exorcism, vows and other spells. " Here, Hu added Chinese medicine to the category of Taoist medicine, but the essence of Huang's "body metaphor" and "body rule" was completely absent here, and Hu's orientation of "body rule" returned to primitive witchcraft.