Diagnosis in Traditional Chinese Medicine

Abstract

Diagnostic categories crystallized out very early in the development of Chinese medicine, on the basis of the philosophical system of the Yin-Yang polarity. The natural philosophical ideas of Taoism and the equivalence system of the five phases also played a part in the refinement of diagnostic technique in traditional Chinese medicine. The development of this system of diagnosis went hand in hand with that of the range of therapies that Chinese medicine embraced. At first only the therapy with needles became known in the west; it is only in recent years that more attention has also been paid to the system of diagnosis in Chinese medicine, although the systems of diagnosis and therapy are intimately interlinked.