Traditional Chinese Medicine

Traditional Chinese medicine generally refers to natural resources that can be used as medicine such as plants, animals, and minerals. There are several thousand types, most which have a long history of use. For the past thousands of years, they have been used to prevent and cure diseases and are an important part of Chinese culture.

Traditional Chinese medicinal products are known by a great number of complicated names. Generally, the naming of traditional medicines accord with their place of origin, performance, growth characteristics, shape, smell, the part used as medicine, or the name of the discoverer.

The processing of traditional Chinese medicine can generally be divided into four categories, ordinary processing, water processing, fire processing, and water and fire processing.

Various traditional Chinese medicines have different characteristics as defined by:

Four states of the body: cold, hot, warm and cool, the four different natures of TCM observed and generalized in the long-term practice of medical treatment.

Five flavors: sour, bitter, sweet, spicy, and salty. Different flavors of medicines mean different functions.

Ascending, descending, floating, and sinking: the tendency of a medication in its therapeutic effect.