中醫藥普惠
From the Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon to the Nobel Prize — telling the story of Chinese medicine: its history, wisdom and modern evidence.
years of written tradition
From the Inner Canon of the Yellow Emperor, an unbroken scholarly lineage
countries and regions
According to China's National Administration of TCM, Chinese medicine has reached 196 countries and regions
ISO international standards
Published by ISO/TC 249, the technical committee for traditional Chinese medicine
Nobel Prize in Medicine
Tu Youyou awarded the Nobel Prize for the discovery of artemisinin
A History as Old as Civilization
Foundations, pre-Qin to Han
The Inner Canon established the cosmology of yin-yang and the meridians; the Divine Farmer's Materia Medica catalogued 365 herbs; Zhang Zhongjing's Treatise on Cold Damage founded syndrome-based practice.
Hua Tuo, late Han
Hua Tuo created mafeisan for surgical anaesthesia and devised the Five Animal Frolics for exercise — revered as the 'sage of surgery'.
Golden ages, Jin and Tang
Ge Hong's Handbook of Prescriptions for Emergencies recorded qinghao (sweet wormwood) for malaria; Sun Simiao's Invaluable Prescriptions codified medical ethics; monk Jianzhen carried medicine to Japan.
Song-Yuan formularies and schools
Song official pharmacy bureaus issued the Peaceful Benevolence Formulary, setting state standards; the four great masters of the Jin-Yuan era each founded a school of thought.
Imperial heights, Ming and Qing
Li Shizhen's Compendium of Materia Medica described 1,892 drugs and travelled the world in translation; the Qing warm-disease school built a new system for febrile illness.
Modern renaissance
Artemisinin won the Nobel Prize, ICD-11 added a traditional-medicine chapter, and ISO standards now carry Chinese medicine into the world's pharmacies.
One Herb, One Homeland
Ginseng
Tonifies the original qi. Roots from Changbai Mountain in Jilin are prized as the authentic source — the ancient 'king of herbs'.
Angelica
Nourishes and moves the blood. Minxian County in Gansu has grown the finest danggui for centuries.
Astragalus
Raises the qi and secures the exterior. Authentic material comes from Inner Mongolia and Shanxi.
Goji Berry
Nourishes liver and kidney. Zhongning goji from Ningxia ripens like rubies on the vine.
Poria
Drains dampness, strengthens the spleen, calms the mind. Yunnan 'yunling' and Anhui 'anling' are famed nationwide.
Licorice
Tonifies the middle qi, relieves toxicity and harmonises the other herbs — honoured as the 'state elder'.
Classic Formulas, Time-Tested
Cinnamon Twig Decoction
The 'chief of all formulas' from the Treatise on Cold Damage — five herbs in perfect order.
Four Substances Decoction
The foundational blood-tonifying prescription: rehmannia, tangkuei, peony and chuanxiong.
Six-Ingredient Rehmannia Pill
Created in the Song dynasty — three tonics, three drains, eight centuries of use.
Huoxiang Zhengqi
A Song-dynasty classic for summer dampness, still a household staple across Asia.
Minor Bupleurum Decoction
A Treatise on Cold Damage classic that harmonises the shaoyang — among the most widely applied of all classical formulas.
Angong Niuhuang Pill
A Qing-dynasty jewel from Systematic Identification of Warm Diseases for fever and delirium, one of the 'three treasures of warm-disease medicine'.
A Handful of Sweet Wormwood, Millions of Lives Saved
In the fourth century, Ge Hong wrote in his Handbook of Prescriptions for Emergencies: 'Take a handful of qinghao, soak it in two sheng of water, wring out the juice and drink it all' — a remedy for malaria chills and fever. Sixteen centuries later, this line inspired Tu Youyou's team to extract artemisinin at low temperature in 1972. Artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT) became the cornerstone of global malaria treatment, benefiting hundreds of millions of patients. In 2015, Tu Youyou received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine — the first Chinese scientist so honoured.
Read Evidence & Science →A World Map of Chinese Medicine
From Jianzhen's voyage to Japan to Zheng He's fleets, from herb markets along the Silk Road to today's overseas TCM centers, Chinese medicine has never stopped travelling. It has now reached 196 countries and regions, and its cooperation with international institutions keeps deepening — acupuncture on UNESCO's heritage lists, a traditional-medicine chapter in ICD-11, and more than one hundred ISO standards from ISO/TC 249.
See the global map →