A Relationship between Western Medicine and Traditional Chinese ...

To understand the principles and ideas that are unique to each type of medicine, its
history must first be taken into consideration. Western Medicine, with its roots in the
Mycenaean civilization has evolved significantly over the centuries and its history was very
eloquently summarized by Lois Magner in 1992. In the Mycenaean period, 1500 to 1100BC,
there was a shift away from the belief that Gods were the cause of disease and plagues to
Empedocles’ idea that “all things were composed of various mixtures of four primary and
eternal elements: air, earth, water, and fire” (Magner, pg66). The idea that disease and illness
were not supernatural and could be explained through reason and logic sparked the field of
Western Medicine as we know it today. 700
years later, Hippocratic medicine developed
and was the foundation of Western
Medicine. It emphasized the idea of “at least
do no harm” in addition to “the patient
instead of the disease, observation rather
than theory, [and] respect for facts and
experience rather than philosophical systems”,
2
Figure 1: Four Humours and Four temperaments.
and http://intraspec.ca/images/4humors2.png
(Magner, pg68) Hippocrates also thought that health was the result of a balance of the four
humours which corresponded to the four elements (Figure 1). Around 50AD, during the Roman
Empire, Dioscorides discovered and compiled medicinal herbs and was the first Western