Traditional Chinese Medicine（TCM) Study Tour
In ancient China, four well-developed areas in the civiliazation were astronomy, arithmetic, agronomy and traditional Chinese medicine. In modern China, TCM is the only surviving subject among those four that hasn't been replaced by Western science, and it still plays a significant role in most Chinese people'e ilfe.
All year round Basic Courses on ABC of TCM covers the most interesting and useful part of TCM together with clinical observation in acupuncture, Tuina(Chinese massage) and pharmacy at Guang'anmen Hospital where a daily outpatient visits number 5,000.
English speaking doctors and educators, with their easy-to-understand presentations, will explain the basic underlying concepts of TCM, its common treatment modalities and integration with western medicine, and modern research in major hospitals of integrative medicine in Beijing. The presentations may involve any of the following (subject to course length).
Yin/Yang theory in relation to the human body and assessment of conditions TCM etiology and diagnostics, prevention of diseases The TCM Internal organ systems, zang-fu organs in relation to the body Channel theory, acupuncture, moxibustion and cupping Chinese herbs, research, possible side effectsThis course provides you with a basic yet comprehensive understanding of how Chinese TCM doctors perceive the body and offers tools for diagnosis and treatment.
| Content: |
| · Half Day Experience TCM ABC |
| · Full Day Experience TCM ABC |
| · TCM ABC + Hutong + Foot Message Day Tour |
| · Help you find a TCM Expert |
| · TCM ABC |
| Half Day Experience TCM ABC | |
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VIP course tailored to your needs Introductory lectures and clinical observation 1.5 hours'TCM learning No prerequisite Flexible course schedule Way of Travel: your hotel - hospital round trip transfer Departure Date: Choose your own departure date Customizable: Yes! Tour Code: TCM-01 Price: Starting from US$72 |
| Full Day Experience TCM ABC | |
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VIP course tailored to your needs Introductory lectures and clinical observation Full Day (8 hours) No prerequisite Flexible course schedule Way of Travel: your hotel - hospital round trip transfer Simple Chinese lunch as listed Departure Date: Choose your own departure date Customizable: Yes! Tour Code: TCM-02 Price: Starting from US$100 |
| TCM ABC + Hutong + Foot Message Day Tour | |
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VIP course tailored to your needs Introductory lectures and clinical observation 1.5 hours Hutong Tour: Visiting a 300-year old courtyard, Rickshaw hutong tour, Walking through Yandaixiejie, Ascending the 69 steep steps to the Drum Tower Foot massage at famous Beijing Tongrentang foot massage Vehicle: Red Flag, Hyundai, Refine, MB100, Coaster Coach Service: TCM Learning + Entrance fee for Drum tower + private tour guide + trishaw + car or van for transfer Tour Code: TCM-04 Price: Starting from US$80 |
| Help you find a TCM Expert | |
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Beside offering TCM study programs, we also offer liaison work for those who are looking for a TCM expert to treat their illness in Beijing. Just fill up the contact and symptoms form, we will do the rest for you. Tour Code: TCM-03 Price: Starting from US$50 |
TCM ABC
Chinese traditional medicine goes back to over 2000 years ago and is one of the most widely used and known systems throughout the world. It is a system that blends herbal remedies, acupuncture and more.
Chinese medicine is largely based on the theory of yin and yang as well as Five Elements (Wu Xing) in which balance and harmony is most important for the healthy body and mind. It is said that when our qi becomes depleted or blocked than our health is severely affected and people will get sick.
A diagnosis is usually made by using means such as looking at patterns and signs and symptoms that reflect an imbalance, the system attaches much emphasis on the lifestyle as a whole in order to diagnose illness and prevent it.
Yin and YangPhilosophers in ancient China believed that the universe was made of yin and yang, and the constant movement of which was responsible for the existence of the world. Yin and yang originally were used to explain the state of beijing opposed to or facing the sunshine. The place that was against the sunshine was yin (shadow) while the place facing the sunshine was yang (sun).
Those static, internal, descending, cold and gray were regarded being yin; while those that were dynamic, external, ascending, warm and bright were regarded as being yang. The classification of yin and yang had nothing to do with their nature as being good and bad.
The alternation of yin and yang was taken as the law of everything. The balance between yin and yang ws thought as the ideal state. In ancient China, the theory of yin and yang was not only used to explain the universe, but also explain social phenomena and the treatment of diseases as well. Yin and yang represented the law of the unniverse, the principle of everything, the cause of changes, the origin of growth and decline, and the source of life activities. So diseases must be treated according to yin and yang.
In his great book "History of Chinese Science and Invention, Joseph Needham (1900 - 1995) said that the theory of yin and yang was the greatest theory established by Chinese people in ancient China.
Yin and Yang symbol for balance. In Traditional Chinese Medicine, good health must be maintained
a good balance between Yin and Yang.
Five Elements (Wu Xing)Beside the theory of yin and yang, TCM also adopts the theory of Five Elements (Wu Xing). Actually both the theory of yin and yang, and Five Elements (Wu Xing) are interrelated.
The five elements are Wood (Chinese: 木), Fire (Chinese: 火), Earth (Chinese: 土), Metal (Chinese: 金）and Water (Chinese: 水). The doctrine of five elements describes two cycles, a generating or creation cycle, and an overcoming or destruction circle as below:
Wood feeds the fire.
The fire then creates ashes which form the earth.
In the earth metal when heated liquefies and produces water vapour.
The water then nourishes the trees or wood.
The five elements of Chinese medicine represent elements that are fundamental to the cycles of nature and as such, they correspond to elements in the human body.
Correspondence between Wu Xing and Nature and Human Body
| Five elements |
Natural World | |||||||
| orientations | seasons | five climatic changer | growth and transformation | five tastes | five odors | five colors | five notes | |
| Wood | east | spring | wind | sprouting | sour | foul smell | blue | jiao |
| Fire | south | summer | summer-heat | growing | bitter | charring | red | zhi |
| Earth | middle | late summer | dampness | transforming | sweet | delicious | yellow | gong |
| Metal | west | autumm | dryness | ripening | acrid | stink | white | shang |
| Water | north | winter | cold | storage | salty | putrid | black | yu |
| Five elements |
Human body | |||||||
| five zang-organs | five fu-organs | physical constituents | opening orifices | manifestations of luster | reflection in fluids | reflection in emotions | ||
| Wood | liver | gallbladder | tendon | eye | nail | tears | anger | |
| Fire | heart | small intestine | vessel | tongue | face | sweat | joy | |
| Earth | spleen | stomach | muscle | mouth | lip | drool | contemplation | |
| Metal | lung | large intestine | skin | nose | body hair | snivel | anxiety | |
| Water | kidney | bladder | bone | ear | hair | saliva | terror | |
Viscera and Their ManifestationsViscera, or zang-organs and fu-organs, is a collective term for internal organs in TCM. They include three separate categories, five ang-organs (heart, liver, spleen, lung and kidney), six fu-organs (stomach, large instestine, small intestine, bladder, gallbladder and san jiao (Triple Energizer) and extraordinary fu-organs ( brain, marrow, bones, vessels, gallbladder and uterus.
Viscera refer to the internal organs while manifestations refer to various signs observed externally. In TCM, the names of the internal organs freguently refer to the external manifestations of these organs, nor just the substantial organs themselves. In other words, different physioloical and pathological phenomena are assigned to different internal organs. So we cannot understand the concept of internal organs in TCM according to modern anatomy.
TCM EtiologyEtiology in TCM is comparatively simple, including three-aspects, internal causes, external causes, and non-external and non-internal causes.
External causes include abnormal changes of weather, such as excessive cold, summer-heat, dampness, dryness and fire. When these abnormal changes of weather attack human body, exogenous diseases will be caused.
The internal causes include emotional changes, improper diet, physical exhaustion and excessive sexual activity.
The so-called non-external and non-internal causes refr to wound, injury due to insect bite and animal attack, poinsonig and hereditary factors.
TCM DiagnosticsWang (Inspection), wen (listening and smelling), wen (inquiry), and qie (taking pulse and palpation) are the four basic diagnostic methods used in TCM.
Wang (inspection) means to collect information about diseases through observing the patient. Inspection mainly refers to observation of the mental state, physical condition, facial expressions and tongue manifestations.
Wen (listening and smelling) and Wen (inquiry) means to listen to the voices and breath as well as to smell the ordors of the patient. This method is used to collect information for diagnosis and use of drugs.
Inquiry is used by doctors both in TCM and western medicine. Through inquiry, doctors can know the subjective feeling, living habit and anamnesis of the patient as well as the duration of the disease.
Taking pulse is used to examine dislocation and fracture of bones,abdominal mass and skin condition. However, it is most commonly used to examine the pulse condition. The development of such a disgnostic method was based on the understanding of the pulsation of vessels in the body. That was why in ancientt times this method was used to examine the pulsating points over several regions of the body.
AcupunctureAcupuncture and moxibustion are the threapeutic methods developed in China thousands of years ago. It is gegerally believed that these methods were originated from bloodletting and hot compress in the primitive society.
Today when people talk about acupuncture and moxibustion, we actually simply refer to acupuncture alone. All the acupoints are located on the Channels. So the stduies of Channels are closely related to acupuncture treatment. Beside, the function of one single acupoint is usually a ssort of independent empirical knowledge.
Massage (Tui Na) Tui na (Massge) is a form of Chinese manipulative therapy which is often used together with acupuncture, and cupping. Tui na is a hands-on body treatment that uses Chinese taoist and martial art principles to bring the body to balance. The principles being balanced are the eight principles of Traditional Chinese Medicine
A practitioner may use the methods of brushing, kneading, rollng, pressing and rubbing the body to balance the body and and get the energy moving in the muscles. Similar to other traditional Chinese medical practices, there are a few different schools with greater or smaller differences in their way to the discipline. It is related also to Chinese massage.
PrescriptionsThe combined use of drugs based on excperience or theory is called prescription. There are different forms of prescription, such as pills, power, paste and bolus etc. The knowledge about how to use certain medicinal herbs together, what principles to follow, what dosage should be decided and how to modiify in clincal application is the theoretical foundation of pescription.
A prescription can be classified into dofferent categories, small prescriptions are characterized by fewer ingredients and small dosage, large prescriptions are characterized by more ingredients and large dosage. Odd prescription means that in the prescription are odd in number and even prescription means that the ingredients contained in the prescription are even in number.
Material MedicaTraditionally, Chinese materia medica contains three kinds of materials, herbs, minerals and animal parts. But the dominant part is herb. That is why herbs are traditionally used to name Chinese materia medica. So the study on herbs in ancient times led to the establishment of Chinese pharmacy.
Such study covers the apects of the name, property, action,indication and production of place of a herb as well as its collection, processing and storage.
Life Cultivation in the Four SeasonsTo cultivate life in the four seasons is an important principle in TCM. If people cultivate their life by following the climatic changes in the four seasons, they can avoid attack by pathogentic factors and live a long life.
The reason that TCM emphasizes the importance to cultivate life in accordance with the four seasons is that it advocates the thoery of maintaining a unity between the heaven and human beings. TCM belives that the natural world is a big universe while the human body is a small universe.
The changes of yin and yang in the four seasons are key to the growth of all things. So cultivation of health or life has to abide by the principle of invigorating yin in spring and summer while nourishing yin in autumn and winter.
Intergration of Food and MedicineSince both foods and medicines come from natural plants, there is no definition difference between them. That is why the so-called dietetic therapy in TCM. For example, among 365 kinds of herbs recorded in Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing, quite a number of them are edible, such as jujube, lotus and honey.
According to TCM, each plant or herb must possess the properties of being cold, heat,warm or cool. Foods cold and cool in nature, such as chrisanthemum and green gram, can clear away heat and fire. Foods hot and warm in nature, such as gingger, garlic and mutton, can strenthen yang and eliminate cold. Some food are mild in nature, such as beans and grains.
Sports and HealthLife is cultivated by sports. This is a popular saying in modern China. In fact this idea was appreciated by doctors in all the previous dynasties. Human beings must do physical work. Necessary physical work promote digestion, smoothes blood flow and prevent diseases.
Another method for health cultivation recognized and adopted into its system by TCM is qigong. According to some researchers, some schools of qigong have been practiced for over one thousand years. Classical literature shows that qigong is closely related to Buddhism and Taoism.
Emotion and DiseasesAmong the three major causes of diseases mentioned above, disorder of seven emotions one of them. The so-called seven emotions include joy, anger, comtemplation, grief, terror and fright. These are the normal emotions of human beings. But when they are suddenly and greatly changed, such as sudden great joy, or terror or prolonged greof, they will cause diseases.
According to TCM, extreme changes of emotions may damage the viscera. Excessive anger damages the liver, excessive joy damages the heart, excessive contemplation damages teh lung and excessive terror dmages the kidney.
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