CHINESE MEDICINE
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competitive examinations. Thus, it appears that the medical services of this period were quite well organized. The Tai I Yuan (太醫院) had special charge of medical education, the Han Lin I Kuan Yuan (翰林醫官院), of general administration and the Yu Yao Yuan (御藥院), of the medical needs of the Imperial Household.
Such is a brief summary of the contributions of Chinese medicine. It will be seen from the above that whilst the Chinese have acquired a lot of experience, accumulated a mass of information, collected a great variety of facts, formulated some fundamental principles, anticipated many discoveries, invented some useful methods, some of which have been brought to a high degree of excellence, yet they have never pursued a single subject in a way calculated to lead them to final success.
It is a bad tradition that the leading medical men in China seldom passed on their knowledge to others, including sometimes even their own sons; and even if they did pass on, they did not impart a full hundred per cent of their knowledge, accumulated experiences and technique. Most of them know what it is, but cannot explain the whys and wherefores. It is due to this that most of the things hinted at have remained barren of results until centuries later, when modern science stepped in and secured the prize.
It is a matter much to be regretted, that in spite of a good start, the native doctors never seem to have pushed their investigations further, but, on the contrary, have lost many of the valuable clues left them by their ancestors.* I am sure that if, in joint co-operation with our foreign medical colleagues, preferably through the medium of the World Health Organization, we put our heads together, forget our prejudices and work persistently on it, we shall succeed in bringing out much more from this old historical art.
*This echoes the words used by S. W. Williams in 1848 in the first edition of his classic, The Middle Kingdom, vol. II, p. 192:-
On the whole it may be said that, in all departments of learning, the Chinese are unscientific, and, that while they have collected a few facts, invented many arts, and brought a few to a high degree of excellence, they have never pursued a single subject in a way calculated to lead them to a right understanding of it, and proper classification of the information they possessed relating to it.
Editor.