Huangdi Neijing is the earliest extant classic of traditional Chinese medicine in China, which laid a theoretical foundation for diagnosis, treatment and health preservation of traditional Chinese medicine. His thought of harmony between man and nature, yin and yang and five elements condensed China's ancient philosophy's cognition of the world.
Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has absorbed the essence of Confucianism and Taoism in the development process, and has become one of the most representative essences of China traditional culture. It can be seen that Chinese medicine not only has distinct cultural attributes, but also has the important function of treating diseases and saving lives, which is indisputable. It was only in modern times that western science was introduced into China, and western medicine began to be known and widely spread. However, the theoretical basis of treating diseases and saving lives of TCM is obviously different from that of western medicine, which has triggered a debate on whether TCM is scientific or not. This involves scientific standards and boundary issues.
Sociology of knowledge advocates that science should be interpreted and understood in historical background and cultural context, but in fact, the demarcation standard of science in philosophy of science has been developing and changing with the changes of history. The early scientific view of logical positivism was replaced by falsificationism; Then Kuhn, an American philosopher of science, put forward the "paradigm" theory, which holds that science is the common belief of the scientific community in a certain period, including concepts, theories, methods and discourse systems. It can be seen that no matter whether the scientific attribute of TCM is recognized or not, it cannot be denied that TCM has developed into a self-consistent knowledge system, has its own concept category, and has been recognized by all members of the "TCM Community".
The principle of disease diagnosis and treatment in TCM is to regard the individual as a whole life, and all parts of the human body are interrelated, further to regard man and nature as a whole, to link human health and diseases with climate, season and geographical environment, and to distinguish yin and yang from cold and heat deficiency. Traditional Chinese medicine is basically a natural animal and plant product, so it is called "Chinese herbal medicine". There are different dosage forms of "Pill, Powder, Paste, Dan and Tang", and the prescriptions of "Jun, Chen and Zuo" are compatible, paying attention to balance and coordination. In addition to drugs, Chinese medicine has more non-drug means, such as acupuncture, moxibustion, cupping, scraping, massage, bonesetting and so on. Pressing meridians and acupoints can "cure headaches and prick ears". Traditional Chinese medicine also emphasizes "homology of medicine and food" and "prevention of disease" in prevention and health care.
Since the middle of the 20th century, the development of natural science has increasingly turned to complexity as the main object, and complexity science came into being. The core tool of complexity science is system theory, which emphasizes interconnection, balance and coordination, and "the whole is greater than the sum of its parts". It is not difficult to see that the holistic thinking and systematic thinking of traditional Chinese medicine are completely consistent and highly consistent. Qian Xuesen, a famous scientist in China and a leader in systems science, once pointed out that "the theory of traditional Chinese medicine contains many thoughts of system theory, which is a serious shortcoming of western medicine." Therefore, the modernization of traditional Chinese medicine is the correct way for medical development, which will eventually lead to the change of the scientific and technological system-the scientific revolution. "