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Chinese Food Therapy
Chinese food therapy (, also called nutrition therapy and dietary therapy) is a mode of dieting rooted in Chinese beliefs concerning the effects of food on the human organism, and centered on concepts such as seasonal eating and in moderation. Its basic precepts are a mix of Taoist Wuxing and eight principle theory that are concepts drawn from the modern representation of traditional Chinese medicine. Food that conform to the mode are called ''yaoshan'' (). Food therapy has long been a common approach to health among Chinese people both in China and overseas, and was popularized for western readers in the 1990s with the publication of books like ''The Tao of Healthy Eating'' () and ''The Wisdom of the Chinese Kitchen'' (). Origins A number of ancient Chinese cookbooks and treatises on food (now lost) display an early Chinese interest in food, but no known focus on its medical value. The literature on "nourishing life" () integrated advice on food within broader advice on ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Traditional Chinese Medicine
Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is an alternative medicine, alternative medical practice drawn from traditional medicine in China. A large share of its claims are pseudoscientific, with the majority of treatments having no robust evidence of effectiveness or logical mechanism of action. Some TCM ingredients Traditional Chinese medicine#Safety, are known to be toxic and cause disease, including cancer. Medicine in traditional China encompassed a range of sometimes competing health and healing practices, folk beliefs, Scholar-official, literati theory and Confucianism, Confucian philosophy, Chinese herbology, herbal remedies, Chinese food therapy, food, diet, exercise, medical specializations, and schools of thought. TCM as it exists today has been described as a largely 20th century invention. In the early twentieth century, Chinese cultural and political modernizers worked to eliminate traditional practices as backward and unscientific. Traditional practitioners then selec ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yuan Dynasty
The Yuan dynasty ( ; zh, c=元朝, p=Yuáncháo), officially the Great Yuan (; Mongolian language, Mongolian: , , literally 'Great Yuan State'), was a Mongol-led imperial dynasty of China and a successor state to the Mongol Empire after Division of the Mongol Empire, its division. It was established by Kublai (Emperor Shizu or Setsen Khan), the fifth khagan-emperor of the Mongol Empire from the Borjigin clan, and lasted from 1271 to 1368. In Chinese history, the Yuan dynasty followed the Song dynasty and preceded the Ming dynasty. Although Genghis Khan's enthronement as Khagan in 1206 was described in Chinese language, Chinese as the Han Chinese, Han-style title of Emperor of China, Emperor and the Mongol Empire had ruled territories including modern-day northern China for decades, it was not until 1271 that Kublai Khan officially proclaimed the dynasty in the traditional Han style, and the conquest was not complete until 1279 when the Southern Song dynasty was defeated in t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hu Sihui
Hu Sihui (, 和斯輝, 忽斯慧, also Hu Zheng Qi Huei; active nr. 1314–1330) was a Chinese court therapist and dietitian during Yuan dynasty. He is known for his book '' Yinshan zhengyao'' (''Dietary Principles''), that became a classic in Chinese medicine and Chinese cuisine. He was the first to empirically discover and clearly describe deficiency diseases. Biography The career of Hu Sihui, as he states in preface to his book, was in the reign of Buyantu Khan in Yenyu years (1314—1320). His ethnicity is unclear. He has been credited as of Mongol descent by some East Asian scholars, while Western scholars have pointed out his Turkic descent, his book being "far too comfortable with Turkic and a larger Islamic culture." He was an official in Xuanhui Yuan (the Ministry of Court Supplies and Provisions), around 1315 Hu Sihui initially emerged as the therapist of Empress Dowager, soon also became the therapist of the acting Empress, and later received the rank of the chief ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Song Dynasty
The Song dynasty ( ) was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 960 to 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song, who usurped the throne of the Later Zhou dynasty and went on to conquer the rest of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period#Ten Kingdoms, Ten Kingdoms, ending the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. The Song frequently came into conflict with the contemporaneous Liao dynasty, Liao, Western Xia and Jin dynasty (1115–1234), Jin dynasties in northern China. After retreating to southern China following attacks by the Jin dynasty, the Song was eventually conquered by the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The History of the Song dynasty, dynasty's history is divided into two periods: during the Northern Song (; 960–1127), the capital was in the northern city of Bianjing (now Kaifeng) and the dynasty controlled most of what is now East China. The #Southern Song, 1127–1279, Southern Song (; 1127–1279) comprise the period following ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dunhuang Manuscripts
The Dunhuang manuscripts are a wide variety of religious and secular documents (mostly manuscripts, including Hemp paper, hemp, silk, paper and Woodblock printing, woodblock-printed texts) in Old Tibetan, Tibetan, Chinese, and other languages that were discovered by an itinerant Daoist monk called Wang Yuanlu in 1900 at the Mogao Caves of Sachu in East Turkestan (now Dunhuang, Gansu, China). Wang Yuanlu took control of the Mogao caves, and sold the manuscripts to Paul Pelliot and Aurel Stein for a very low price. Knowing the Philology, philological value of the Dunhuang manuscripts, Stein and Pelliot bought them from Wang and took them from China to Europe. The majority of the surviving texts come from a large cache of documents produced at the Sachu historic printing center between the late 4th and early 11th centuries, which had been sealed in the Mogao Caves#The Library Cave, Library Cave (Cave 17) at some point in the early 11th century. The printing center at Sachu (Dunhu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ishinpō
is the oldest surviving Japanese medical text. It was completed in 984 by Tamba Yasuyori (also referred in some sources as Tanba no Yasuyori) and is 30 volumes in length. The work is partly based on a Chinese medical work called '' Zhubing yuanhou lun'' (諸病源候論 ''General Treatise on Causes and Manifestations of All Diseases''), compiled by Sui dynasty writer Chao Yuanfang. Many of the texts cited in ''Ishinpō'' have been lost in China, and have only survived to the present through their inclusion in the work. It is a national treasure of Japan. The structural organization of the text is as follows: The ''Ishinpō'' preserved more than 200 important medical documents that were all Chinese in origin and no Japanese sources. The medical knowledge in the tome covered clinical treatments that drew from the ancient Chinese traditional medicine and influenced by Indian medical theories found in Buddhist scriptures as well as Taoist references (e.g. Taoist drugs). For ins ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eleocharis Dulcis
''Eleocharis dulcis'', the Chinese water chestnut or water chestnut, is a grass-like Cyperaceae, sedge native to Asia, tropical Africa, and Oceania. It is grown in many countries for its edible corms, but if eaten uncooked, the surface of the plants may transmit fasciolopsiasis. The water caltrop, which also is referred to by the same name, is unrelated and often confused with the water chestnut. Description The water chestnut is not a Nut (fruit), nut but rather an Aquatic plant, aquatic vegetable that grows in marshes, under water, or in mud. It has stem-like, tubular green leaves that grow to about . Distribution The plant is native to Asia, tropical Africa, and Oceania. Ecology In the dry season of the Northern Territory in Australia, Magpie goose, magpie geese eat the bulbs of water chestnuts, allowing them to put on fat for the wet season and ensuring they are ready for breeding. In the wet season, water chestnut leaves are used to build their floating nests. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chinese Calendar
The traditional Chinese calendar, dating back to the Han dynasty, is a lunisolar calendar that blends solar, lunar, and other cycles for social and agricultural purposes. While modern China primarily uses the Gregorian calendar for official purposes, the traditional calendar remains culturally significant. It determines the timing of Chinese New Year with traditions like the twelve animals of the Chinese zodiac, Chinese Zodiac still widely observed. The traditional Chinese calendar uses the Sexagenary cycle, sexagenary cycle, a repeating system of Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches, to mark years, months, and days. This system, along with astronomical observations and mathematical calculations, was developed to align solar and lunar cycles, though some approximations are necessary due to the natural differences between these cycles. Over centuries, the calendar was refined through advancements in astronomy and horology, with dynasties introducing variations to improve accu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Five Phases
( zh, c=五行, p=wǔxíng), usually translated as Five Phases or Five Agents, is a fivefold conceptual scheme used in many traditional Chinese fields of study to explain a wide array of phenomena, including terrestrial and celestial relationships, influences, and cycles, that characterise the interactions and relationships within science, medicine, politics, religion and social relationships and education within Chinese culture. The five agents are traditionally associated with the classical planets Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn as depicted in the etymological section below. In ancient Chinese astronomy and astrology, that spread throughout East Asia, was a reflection of the seven-day planetary order of Fire, Water, Wood, Metal, Earth.), they are Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water. In the order of "mutual overacting" ( zh, c=相克, p=xiāngkè, labels=no), they are Wood, Earth, Water, Fire, and Metal. When in their "heavenly stems" generative cycle as represent ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zang-fu
The ''zangfu'' () organs are functional entities stipulated by traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). These classifications are based on east Asian cosmological observations rather than bio medical definitions that are used in Western evidence based medical models. In TCM theory they represent the energetic representation of the internal organs rather than the anatomical viscera that is referred to in Western medicine. Each ''zang'' is paired with a ''fu'', and each pair is assigned to one of the '' wuxing''. The ''zangfu'' are also connected to the twelve standard meridians – each yang meridian is attached to a ''fu'' organ and each yin meridian is attached to a ''zang''. They are five systems of Heart, Liver, Spleen, Lung, Kidney. To highlight the fact that the ''zangfu'' are not equivalent to the anatomical organs, their names are often capitalized. Anatomical organs To understand the ''zangfu'' it is important to realize that their concept did not primarily develop out of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
