In addition, the earliest existing book on Chinese herbal medicine, Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing (Ben means root and Cao means shoot), was written in the same period based on the work of medical experts who collected lots of materials before theQin Dynasty(221-206BC). The book recorded 365 types of medicine, some of which is still used in contemporary clinics, and also set up a beginning of the establishment of Eastern medicine.
Another book, Febrile and Other Diseases, written byZhang Zhongjingin the third century, gave a detailed account on how to diagnose and treat various diseases caused by internal organs. This book is meaningful in that it helped the development of clinical medicine many centuries later.
By the time of the Han period, surgery had reached a comparatively high level. The book, San Gou Zhi (Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms) described a doctor namedHua Tuowho was able to use general anesthesia to carry out operations.
From 220 to 960 China experienced the periods of the Wei (220-265, and part of the larger Three Kinggdom Period from 220 to 280) and Jin (265-420) dynasties, theNorthern and Southern Dynasties(386-589), the Sui (581-618) and Tang (618-907) dynasties, and theFive Dynasties(907-960). During these times, the method of diagnosing by feeling the pulse made further progress.
During the Jin Dynasty, a doctor named Wang Shu wrote the book, Mai Jing (Pulse Classic), in which he summed up 24 ways to monitor a pulse. The book had great influence in China and beyond.
In the same period, Chinese medicine was categorized and new books were written for those specific categories. In acupuncture, for example, there was the book Zhen Jiu Jia Yi Jing (Acupuncture &Moxibustion); the books Bao Bu Zi and Zhou Hou Fang showed how to make pills for immortality; and in pharmacy, there was Lei Gong Pao Zhi Lun (Lei's Treatise on Preparing Drugs). A well-known surgery book at the time was called Liu Juan Zi Gui Yi Fang (Liu Juanzi's Remedies Bequeathed by Ghosts).
In theTang Dynasty, the economy prospered, which boosted the eastern medicine. The Tang government wrote the book, Tang Ben Cao, which is the earliest existing pharmacopoeia book (an official book listing a catalog og medicine and their use) in the world. This book included 850 types of medical herbs and their pictures, which further improved the scale of eastern medicine.
Then, in the period of the Song Dynasty, (960-1279) a person named Wang Wei Yi adopted new methods in teaching acupuncture. He illustrated his techniques with maps and models of human figures.
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