China Re-invents Its Unique Institutions of Traditional Chinese Medicine

China Re-invents Its Unique Institutions

of Traditional Chinese Medicine

Changzhen Gong, Ph.D.

The comprehensive medical system that is traditional Chinese medicine was developed and refined over several thousand years in dynastic China. Historically, academic instruction and clinical training in Chinese medicine involved apprenticeships with established practitioners who taught family traditions in proprietary schools of Chinese medicine. In the twentieth century, China institutionalized its medical training in colleges and universities, and established many medical schools and hospitals which taught modern Western medicine. However, China also respected its indigenous medicine, and established parallel medical schools and hospitals of traditional Chinese medicine in every province. As China modernized, it followed world standards in providing medical education and services through medical schools, medical research institutes, hospitals, and medical clinics.                                                                                        

In the last twenty years, the medical community in China has fully recognized that its long history of traditional medical theory and practice is a vast storehouse to be treasured, supported, and tapped into. Just as other countries have begun to designate their outstanding artists, scholars and scientists as “national treasures,” so China has established several programs which bring their “grand masters” of traditional Chinese medicine into the forefront of medical training once again. Two programs which emphasize traditional education methods and honor individual practitioners are the “Chinese Medicine Apprenticeship Program (中医药师带徒)” and the “National Chinese Medicine Grand Masters (国医大师 )” honors.

The first Chinese Medicine Apprenticeship Program, launched on April 1, 1991, endorsed approximately 500 leading doctors of traditional Chinese medicine, and assigned one to two trainees to each doctor for a 3-year apprenticeship. Successive Apprenticeship Programs in 1997 and 2002 followed this pattern of choosing gifted doctors and apprenticing one to two trainees to each doctor for a 3-year period (556 doctors and 845 trainees in the 1997 program and 586 doctors and 942 trainees in the 2002 program.)

By 2008, the Apprenticeship Programs had become so popular that thousands of medical students were vying to be accepted. The fourth and fifth Apprenticeship Programs in 2008 (530 doctors and 1052 trainees) and 2012 (734 doctors and 1465 trainees) selected two trainees for each of the master doctors in the Programs. These innovative programs can almost be seen as an alternative medical education system.    

In 2009, China’s Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, Ministry of Public Health, and State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine combined to recognize and reward 30 top doctors in the nation as “National Chinese Medicine Grand Masters.” This is the highest honor which has ever been awarded to Chinese medicine doctors in China’s long history. The medical community and the general public are so intrigued by this re-invigorated tradition that written accounts of the experiences of these grand masters have become a thriving aspect of China’s publishing industry. China awards “National Chinese Medicine Grand Masters” once every five years. Anybody who receives the honor must work in the field for over fifty years.

The exceptional men who have been designated as “National Chinese Medicine Grand Masters” can be rightfully proud of their distinction. Beyond this recognition of talented individuals, however, is a greater recognition: China is turning to its cultural roots and finding an enduring legacy of traditions and techniques that can be confidently handed down to succeeding generations of practitioners and patients.

The 30 doctors who were awarded “National Chinese Medicine Grand Masters” are:

Wang Yuchuan (王玉川)

Wang Mianzhi (王绵之)

Fang Heqian (方和谦)

Deng Tietao (邓铁涛)

Re Jixue (任继学)

Zhu Liangchun (朱良春)

Su Rong Zha Bu (苏荣扎布)

Li Yuqi (李玉奇)

Li Jiren (李济仁)

Li Zhenhua (李振华)

Li Furen (李辅仁)

Wu Xianzhong (吴咸中)

He Ren (何 任)

Zhang Qi (张琪)

Zhang Canjia (张灿玾)

Zhang Xuewen (张学文)

Zhang Jingren (张镜人)

Lu Guangxin (陆广莘)

Zhou Zhongying (周仲瑛)

He Puren (贺普仁)

Ban Xiuwen (班秀文)

Xu Jingfan (徐景藩)

Guo Ziguang (郭子光)

Tang Youzhi (唐由之)

Qiang Ba Chi Lie (强巴赤列)

Qiu Peiran (裘沛然)

Lu Zhizheng (路志正)

Yan Zhenghua (颜正华)

Yan Dexin (颜德馨)

Cheng Xinnong (程莘农)