Roots of traditional medicine may be older than thought

The therapeutic system of traditional Chinese medicine might have taken shape hundreds of years earlier than previously thought, according to researchers from Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Sichuan province.

Their assumption is based on a study of ancient medical books made of 920 bamboo slips unearthed from an ancient tomb in Sichuan from 2012 to 2013.

The bamboo slips found in the ancient tomb in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan, have more than 200 names of diseases. They are named after the pathogenesis, etiology and changes of diseases, according to Li Jiming, dean of the School of Chinese Classics at Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine.