Chinese Medicine has been handed down from ancient time to now. In China there were basically two main ways of passing down the knowledge to the students. On one hand there was a kind of heredity education in which knowledge was passed from father to children or a succession of teaching from master to his disciples. On the other hand there was a kind of apprenticeship education, where Chinese Medicine was taught in medical schools8. This kind of Chinese Medicine education always played an important role in Chinese Medicine history. Many famous Medical Doctors were cultivated by being taught by their fathers or masters. Until now this kind of education is still common in some Asiatic countries but it plays a less important role than in ancient time. In Taiwan the last special exam of Chinese Medicine for people who did not study CM at a university will be hold in 20119. After 2011 only people with a regular university Chinese Medicine degree are allowed to take the National CM Licensing exam.
Already in the Tang Dynasty (618-906) the government set up an official Chinese Medicine school called the “Tai Yi Shu”〈「太醫署」〉. The foundation of this school was made before the Sui Dynasty (581-618) but at this time it was still incomplete and not fully developed yet10. “Tai Yi Shu” 〈 「 太 醫 署 」 〉 officially set up in 624 can be regarded as the first official medical school in China.
It consisted of four different parts: Administration, Education, Medical Treatment
and Pharmacy. “Tai Yi Shu”〈「太醫署」〉had about four different medical departments. There was a medical department consisting of five different disciplines, an acupuncture department, a department of massage which also included treatment of fracture and wounds and a department of incantation. All of the students had to study classical texts e.g. “Huangdi`s Internal Classic”〈《黃 帝內經》〉, “Shennong`s Classic of Materia Medica”〈《神農本草經》〉, “Pulse Classic”〈《脈經》〉 and “A-B Classic of Acupuncture and Moxibustion”〈《針 灸甲乙經》〉to build up a theoretical foundation11.
In the Song Dynasty (960-1179) the Chinese government set up “Tai Yi Ju”
〈「太醫局」〉which was a further development of “Tai Yi Shu” 〈「太醫署」〉
of the Tang dynasty11. The education was more structured, new medical equipment like the bronze human acupuncture figure were used for training and new books were added in the curriculum. During the Song Dynasty medical schools were set up in different parts of China.
In the following dynasties there were further developments in the education of Chinese Medicine. During the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) there was a big effort in the development of acupuncture, while in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) acupuncture was even abolished from the medical curriculum in 182210. In 1908 during the end of Qing Dynasty officials developed new curricula to cultivate a new type of Chinese Western Medicine doctors. There was a five year curriculum in which primary traditional Chinese Medicine subjects were taught including some basic subjects of Western Medicine. The second curriculum was an eight year curriculum in which primary Western Medicine subjects were taught including some Chinese Medicine theory and practise11.
In 1911 the imperial China collapsed and the Republic of China was established. The move towards Western Medicine led to struggle between Chinese and Western Medicine. The new government was not interested in Chinese Medicine and in 1914 as well 1929 tries were made to abolish CM, which led to massive protest. As a result, the Chinese government decided to establish the Central Chinese Medicine Institute “Zhong Yang Guo Yi Guan”
〈「中央國醫館」〉in 1930, with the aim to reorder and research CM with new scientific methods and further develop CM education41.
After the takeover of mainland China in 1949 the communist government started setting up new Chinese Medicine schools around the country. In 1956 four Colleges of Chinese Medicine were created in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chengdu followed by Nanjing in 195810. From this period the schools of Chinese Medicine started using simplified and unified teaching materials. Chinese Medicine was reformed and a new kind of modern practise of Chinese Medicine was created. The term TCM, which is often used in the West, refers to a post-1949 official, state-sanctioned practise of Chinese Medicine in China12. In R.O.C. Taiwan in 1958 the China Medical College was established as the first College of Chinese Medicine in Taiwan13.
There has always been a strong exchange of Chinese Medicinal knowledge with other countries particularly with neighbouring countries like Japan or Korea14. Already in the sixth century, Korea and Japan assimilated Chinese acupuncture and herbs into their medical systems. There were even physicians practising Chinese Medicine in Europe. There are publications of Rhyne (1683) and Kaempfer (1712) who reported on acupuncture techniques and physicians like Floyer (1707) who wrote on Chinese pulse diagnostics. However, in the beginning of the 19th century Chinese Medicine disappeared from clinical practise in Europe4. In the last century Chinese Medicine started expanding worldwide.
After the Second World War there was a spread of acupuncture to the West.
Influenced by the forth International Acupuncture Congress in Paris, many acupuncture organisations were established. The visit of US President Nixon to China in 1971 was another great impulse for the expansion of Chinese Medicine to Western countries15.
After the reunification of Hong Kong with mainland China the new government started regulating the Chinese Medicine profession in Hong Kong and established three Schools of Chinese Medicine16.
In 1999 the World Health Organisation established a guideline on basic training and safety in acupuncture. The guideline points out that acupuncturist without a medical background should at least undergo 2500 hours of training including 500 hours of Western Medicine. A full course training for qualified physicians should take about 1500 hours of acupuncture theory and practise and a limited training for qualified physicians should at least take 200 hours of acupuncture17 (see table1).
However, the guideline developed by the WHO is only a special guideline for the training of acupuncture. Until now the WHO did not establish a guideline for the basic education of Chinese Medicine.
At the end of 2008 a conference of TCM was held at Tianjin University with the aim to create a guideline for basic requirements of an undergraduate program for global TCM education. Chinese Media reported that the conference was successful and basic guidelines for global TCM education were created18. The results of the conference could not be found until now. However the draft of the guideline for global TCM education was obtained (see appendix). China only used its own system of TCM education to develop a guideline without evaluating and analyzing the current worldwide situation of CM education.
Table 1: WHO Guidelines on Basic Training in Acupuncture*
1
State examination in acupuncture and modern Western medicine (at appropriate level).
* table was taken from WHO Guidelines on Basic Training and Safety in Acupuncture (1999)