Huang Di
Huang Di – the Yellow Emperor – is regarded as the founder of Chinese culture. According to legend, he would have been born 2704 BC and started his reign in 2697 BC. Huang Di is credited with the introduction of wooden houses, carts, and boats as well as writing. In Chinese culture, his reign is seen as a golden period where people were living in perfect harmony with nature. In the Zhuang Zi Huang Di is portrayed as a Daoist immortal. The Yellow Emperor’s Canon (Huang Di Nei Jing Su Wen) is the most famous classic in Traditional Chinese Medicine and features dialogues between Huang Di and his advisor Qi Bo. In the first sentences in the Huang Di Nei Jing Su Wen it is said: “In former times there was Huang Di. When he came to life, he had magic power like a spirit. When he was born, he was quickly able to speaky. While he was still young, he was quick of apprehension. After he had grown up, he was sincere and skilful. After he had matured, he ascended to heaven.”

Shen Nong
Shen Nong – the ‘Divine Farmer’ – introduced agriculture in China. He is credited with several inventions related to agriculture, but especially for herbal medicine. The book named after him is the Shennong Ben Cao Jing (3rd century AD) and gives an overview of 365 plants and minerals that is still used today in the study of Chinese herbal medicine. According to legend he tasted all the plants and substances himself. The Huainanzi states in the chapter ‘Xiuwu Xun’: “Shennong tasted the flavors of hundreds of herbs and the sweetness and bitterness of springs, so that the people would know what to avoid and what to seek. At that time, he encountered seventy poisons in one day.”
It is said that Shennong died from poison after he tasted a poisonous flower – probably duan chang cao ‘heartbreak grass’ -during his herbal research.

Bian Que
The story of how Bian Que (5th century BC) became a doctor is quite special. He was running an inn where an older resident and medical doctor, Chang Sangjun, saw his talent. He promised him to hand him his medical secrets and some herbal medicine if he would take good care of it. Bian Que used the herbs for a month, and after that, he was able to see through his patients like an X-ray. Famous is the story of how he warned the Marquis of Qi that he had a latent disease. The marquis didn’t believe him and regarded him as someone who was after his money. Later, he warned him that the disease was getting deeper in his body and was at the blood level. Again, the marquis laughed his advice away. Then Bian Que decided not to treat him anymore. The marquis asked why and according the writings of the historian Si Ma Qian he said: “When a disease was only skin deep it may be reached by concoctions and applications; when in the blood system by puncturing; when in the stomach and intestines by alcoholic extracts. But when it had penetrated the bone marrow, what could a doctor do? Now that the disease has lodged in His Excellency’s bone marrow, it is useless for me to make further comments.” A few days later, the marquis indeed died.
In one of the stories of the Daoist philosopher Lie Zi Bian Que is mentioned who manages to complete (!) a heart transplantation. Two men, Gong Hu and Qi Ying, both fall ill and are being succesfully treated. Bian Que says: “You suffered from diseases where influences from outside caused disharmony in your organs. This is something that can be cured with herbal medicines and minerals. But now you still suffer from hereditary diseases.” Bian Que then offers them to change their hearts. He says to Gong Hu: “Your ambition is strong, but your qi is weak. You are able to make plans, but you lack deciseveness. Qi Ying’s ambition is weak, but his qi is strong. That’s why he acts mostly too quick. If I would change your hearts, your good characteristiscs would be evenly distributed.” And so he changes their hearts which lead in the end that their wives don’t recognize their husbands anymore. But after Bian Que explains the situation the quarrel is over and the families return to their daily lifes.
The way Chinese Medicine practitioners still diagnose their patients via the four steps of looking, listening, asking and taking the pulse goes back to Bian Que. One of his most quoted aphorisms was: “A case is incurable if one believes in sorcerers instead of in doctors.”

Zhang Zhongjing
The influence of the writings of Zhang Zhongjing (150 – 219) Shang Han Lun (‘On Cold Disease’) and Jin Gui Yao Lue (‘Miscellaneous Diseases’) cannot be underestimated. His simple and elegant formulas have proven up to this day their worth and are applicable to modern diseases like arthritis, fatigue, insomnia, stress, hypertension, and auto-immune diseases. After two thirds of his family of more than 200 members died due to cold damage, he decided to study the medical classics and help people. Zhang Zhongjing starts is his preface of the Shang Han Lun with a deep bow to Bian Que. “Each time I read about Yue-Ren [..] to examine the complexion of Marquis of Qi I always sigh with great emotion about his superb talents.”
In his own time, he saw a general decline in society. Medical doctors were just common physicians who treated ‘recklessly’. And most people were ‘only pursuing the ways of the world, neglecting the body in pursuit of material possessions, and not being able to love and know others, and unable to love and know themselves.’
The formulas in Shang Han Lun focus on the treatment of diseases caused by Wind or Cold. First, the attack is on the outside, and if not treated correctly, other layers can be affected as well. Going from Tai Yang as the outer layer to Jue Yin as the deepest layer of the body. Where Shang Han Lun follows the pattern of the disease, Jin Gui Yao Lue is more a clinical guide for different diseases.

Sun Simiao
Also called ‘The King of Medicine’ Sun Simiao (580 – 681) had a great contribution to Chinese Medicine. He wrote many books, was repeatedly asked by the emperor to work for him, but always declined and favored to live as a hermit. He is famous for his heartfelt wishes to help others. He wrote in one of his books ‘On the Absolute Sincerity of Great Physicians,”

often called ‘the Chinese Hippocratic Oath’. “A Great Physician should not pay attention to status, wealth or age; neither should he question whether the particular person is attractive or unattractive, whether he is an enemy or friend, whether he is a Chinese or a foreigner, or finally, whether he is uneducated or educated. He should meet everyone on equal grounds. He should always act as if he were thinking of his close relative.”

Tao Hongjing
Tao Hongjing (456 – 536) lived during the Northern and Southern Dynasties, a relative calm period in Chinese history when the influence of buddhism spread rapidly over the country. Tao Hongjing had an enormous intellectual appetite and was scholar, philosopher, calligrapher, musician,pharmacologist, astronomer and had a huge influence on Traditional Chinese Medicine as he was herbologist as well. According to some, Tao Hongjing can be regarded as the Chinese counterpart of Leonardo da Vinci.
He wrote the Mingyi Bielu, in which he described 365 plants, flowers and minerals as commentary of the Shennong Ben Cao Jing. Although this book got lost during the Tang dynasty, the text of the Mingyi Biely was incorporated in another book of him, the Bencao jing jizhu. According to Tao Hongjing the Shennong Ben Cao Jing text had become corrupted and practitioners did’t have the knowledge to use herbal medicine in a good and professional way. His book was the first pharmacopeia that used a classification that is still used today: minerals, trees and plants, insects and animals, fruits, cultivated vegetables, and grains. He also described the availability, medicinal use and effectiveness of the herbs.