David Hartmann How Confucianism and Daoism helped shape Classical Chinese Medicine

When you look back at the origins of Chinese medicine literature (1) you find a connection, or link, to certain philosophical ideas. Confucianism was front and centre to the new medical material. After all, it was the philosophy of choice for the Hàn dynasty (206BCE-220CE), which is when the first texts were released. But what a lot of people don’t realise is that Daoist philosophical thinking and practice was also ingrained in classical Chinese medicine. This short presentation will look at the impact Confucianism and Daoism had on classical Chinese medicine, specifically within the areas of mental and emotional health, plus the concept of the Spirit/Soul. When we do this, we should not neglect the philosophical musings of ancient Greek and Roman history, as they also had a lot of interesting thoughts on these concepts. The hope with this workshop is that you don’t have to be a Chinese medicine practitioner to still appreciate this brief jaunt into the philosophical histories of China, Greece, and Rome. (1) The Yellow Emperors Classic (Huáng Dì Nèi Jīng/黃帝內經) was written somewhere between 300BCE and 100BCE. It is considered to be the first text released on Chinese medicine.