A Relationship between Western Medicine and Traditional Chinese ...

thought to be a scientific experiment, verifying and testing a hypothesis; there is a systematic
approach. On the other hand, Traditional Chinese Medicine depends more on feeling and
experience and its goal is “not to explore the unknown world but to confirm our ancestors’
conclusions” (Tao, 2011). This idea of Traditional Chinese Medicine is supported by its history
with little new discovery over the course of 4500 years. Hence, these two types of medicine do
not appear to have the ability to be integrated as their fundamental ideas on which the entire
system is based is so drastically different.
Yet, there are small similarities between West and East. Since there are many branches
to medicine, each with unique differences, the similarities between Western and Eastern
herbalism will be used to illustrate how similar these two types of medicine can be. Herbalism
was developed very early in both histories of medicine and thus, should be the least similar due
to an inability for cultures to influence each other through contact. There are three main
principles of Western herbal medicine, energetics, organ systems and the government of
circulation(Wood, 2010). Energetics in Western Medicine was initially developed by Galen from
Hippocrates doctrine, associating four temperaments
to the four humours (Figure 1). This is similar to the
“Six Doors and Three Methods” that Zhang Congzheng
added to Traditional Chinese Medicine in 1200 (Hoizey
& Hoizey, 1993). These six doors were wind, heat,
dampness, fire, dryness and cold which could be
derived from the three methods, the heavens, the
earth and man’s behaviour (Hoizey & Hoizey, 1993).
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Figure 4: Location of pathogenic
effects of the “Six Doors”.