Ping-Chung Leung - 7 Sept

Second Edition

Second Edition

edited by

Ping-Chung Leung

The Chinese University of Hong Kong, China

Published by

World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.
5 Toh Tuck Link, Singapore 596224
USA office: 27 Warren Street, Suite 401-402, Hackensack, NJ 07601
UK office: 57 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London WC2H 9HE

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

A comprehensive guide to Chinese medicine / edited by Ping-Chung Leung. -- Second edition.

p. ; cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-9814667074 (hardcover : alk. paper)

I. Leung, Ping-Chung, 1941 , editor.

[DNLM: 1. Medicine, Chinese Traditional. 2. Drugs, Chinese Herbal. WB 55.C4]
R601
610.951--dc23

2015001995

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Copyright 2016 by World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.

All rights reserved. This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without written permission from the publisher.

For photocopying of material in this volume, please pay a copying fee through the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. In this case permission to photocopy is not required from the publisher.

Typeset by Stallion Press
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Printed in Singapore

Contents

Charlie Changli Xue & Kylie A. OBrien

Kylie A. OBrien & Charlie Changli Xue

Chun Guang Li & Charlie Changli Xue

to Biological Activities
Johnny Chi-Man Koon, Judy Yuet-Wa Chan,
Virginia Kit-Man Lau, Erik Chun-Hay Ko,
Grace Gar-Lee Yue, Clara Bik-San Lau &
Ping-Chung Leung

Ping-Chung Leung, William King-Fai Cheng &
Carmen Yuet-Shim Fong

Baoyu Xin & Zhen Zheng

Ping-Chung Leung

Qunhao Zhang & Ping-Chung Leung

Yung-Chi Cheng & Daniel Man-Yuen Sze

Ping-Chung Leung

Ping-Chung Leung

Ting Hor

Ping-Chung Leung

Judy Yuet Wa Chan

Department of Biochemistry

Faculty of Medicine

The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Hong Kong

King-Fai Cheng

The Institute of Chinese Medicine

The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Hong Kong

Yung-Chi Cheng

Department of Pharmacology

Yale School of Medicine

Yale University

USA

Yuet-Shin Fong

The Institute of Chinese Medicine

The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Hong Kong

Ting Hor

Anthropologist

11, Clos Dsir I

91120 Palaiseau

France

Pak Kwan Hui

Department of Pathology

Kwong Wah Hospital

Hong Kong

Chun-Hay Ko

The Institute of Chinese Medicine

The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Hong Kong

Johnny Chi Man Koon

The Institute of Chinese Medicine

The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Hong Kong

Bik-San Lau

The Institute of Chinese Medicine

The Chinese University of

Hong Kong

Hong Kong

Kit Man Lau

Department of Biochemistry

Faculty of Medicine

The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Hong Kong

Simon Ming Yuen Lee

The Institute of Chinese Medicine

The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Hong Kong

Ping-Chung Leung

The Institute of Chinese Medicine

The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Hong Kong

Chun Guang Li

National Institute of

Complementary Medicine

University of Western Sydney

Locked Bag 1797, Penrith NSW

2751

Australia

Kylie A. OBrien

Department of Medicine

Monash University

Australia

Man-Yuen Sze

School of Medical Sciences

RMIT University

Melbourne, Australia

Baoyu Xin

The Institute of Chinese Medicine

The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Hong Kong

Charlie Changli Xue

School of Health Sciences

RMIT University

Bundoora, Vic 3083

Australia

Gar-Lee Yue

The Institute of Chinese Medicine

The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Hong Kong

Qunhao Zhang

Massachusetts General Hospital

Harvard Medical School

USA

Zhen Zheng

The RMIT Chinese Medicine

Research Group

RMIT University

Australia

This book of essays seeks to assess the place of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in the context of the immense advances in scientific medicine. It meets a growing need, as many Chinese observe with keen interest, the advances in TCM methodologies but wonder how scientific they really are. This is particularly true of people who long for a health and wellness approach towards illness in place of one that puts the emphasis on being curative in more invasive ways. Most Chinese have an ambivalence about TCM that can be traced back to the 19th century when Western hospitals were introduced into China and the European colonies. Some Chinese were quick to see their advantages, while others were gradually persuaded that Western methods work better for some kinds of illness. Increasingly, most Chinese realised that doctors who were professionally trained would make more reliable physicians. So much so that TCM practitioners have themselves sought to make their heritage more scientific in order to gain back their credibility. This volume of essays should go a long way towards detailing the valuable relationship between TCM and modern medicine in recent decades.

I recall, when still in high school, I heard that two out of the first three Chinese Queens scholars from Malaya in the 19th century chose to study medicine in British universities. They were Lim Boon Keng (Lin Wenqing) and Ng Lean Tuck (Wu Liande). I later discovered that this story was similar to the one in Hong Kong where students like Ho Kai (He Qi) not only had a brilliant academic record, but was also one of the founders of the first modern medical college in Hong Kong in 1887. The college produced Sun Yat-sen, one of the first two graduates in Western medicine on Chinese soil, who was to provide a modern world view that changed the course of Chinese history. The college later became the forerunner of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Hong Kong, now one of the most prestigious medical schools in Asia. Elsewhere too, medical colleges seem to be the first European institutions that Asians everywhere wanted for their children.

Another story reflecting an ongoing ambivalence comes to mind. The famous philanthropist, Tan Kah Kee (18741960) wrote in his memoirs how he tried in the 1890s to print copies of the best available TCM prescriptions for distribution among the poor in the villages in China. Decades later, in the 1940s, he remembered with regret how he had failed in his efforts. This was despite his own conversion to the efficacy of Western medicine and his fervent wish for Lim Boon Keng, the graduate of the University of Edinburgh whom he had invited to be the president of Xiamen University, to establish a medical school there during the 1920s. Tan Kah Kees attitude reflects well a similar deepseated ambivalence that survives till the present day.

In 1965, while in Kuala Lumpur, I was invited to sit on the Commission of Traditional Medicine. This led me to read more about the subject, and of particular interest was the work of two modern doctors that brought TCM and scientific medicine together in a book entitled