What is "Classical Chinese Medicine?"

SYSTEMS OF CHINESE MEDICINE PART 2 Classical Chinese Medicine (CCM) 

By Liana Russo, L. Ac

CCM is based on a purist interpretation of classical medical texts written and popularized in China during the Han Dynasty (approx. 200 BCE to 200 CE). 

This system of Chinese Medicine has preserved the influence of Daoism and Confucianism that were established even earlier, as far back as the Shang Dynasty beginning in 1600 BCE, when healthcare in China was still a feminine-rooted shamanic tradition.

Because of that previous femininely rooted shamanic model, many of the foundational precepts and frameworks for understanding human physiology and pathology within CCN were mystical in nature.

Accordingly, the practice of Classical Chinese Medicine involves a more spiritual approach to human health, and includes esoteric concepts such as ancestral possession, karmic patterns, and emotional imbalances stemming from a root of trauma. Healing within this context does not happen merely on the physical.

In order to practice CCM with mastery, one is essentially required to have the heart of a poet and the mindset of a spiritually oriented philosopher. This is because the concepts that doctors were using to treat the body at the time of the creation of those classical texts were naturalistic, holographic, and at times what is sometimes understood as “magical.”

Fundamentally, Classical Chinese Medicine imagines the human entity as a multidimensional, holographic body imbued with an intricate spiritual mechanism, one which must be approached in reverence and with holism.