Analyze The Application Of The Celestial Stem And Terrestrial Branch In Basic Theory Of Traditional Chinese Medicine

ObjectiveBy means of excavating and organizing the contents of the celestial stem and terrestrial branch in the related ancient monographs of basic theory and diagnosis in traditional Chinese medicine(TCM), analyze the application range and mode, explore the mental models in the the basic theory of TCM, seek for the law and promote the endogenous development of TCM.Methods1. Literature retrieval:Firstly, the literature which takes celestial stem and terrestrial branch as its key words was selected from the Encyclopaedia of Traditional Chinese Medicine and met the inclusion and exclusion criteria, then find out the original version and check the accepting literature respectively.2. Establish databases:Microsoft Excel table will be used to set up "medical classics-celestial stem","medical classics-terrestrial branch"," diagnostic method-celestial stem " and " diagnostic method-terrestrial branch" respectively, which included booklist, dynasty-author, chapter headings and literature content. Then, databases including booklist-analysis, chapter-headings-analysis and content-analysis were established to furtherly analyze the characteristics and content.3. Content analysis:The content contains application range and mode of celestial stem and terrestrial branch. The range could refer to the Fundamentals of Traditional Chinese Medicine, the12th five-year plan textbook. The detail literature will be classified and discussed according to original text, quotations and development of Neijing and Nanjing as well as other doctors’works. The application mode of celestial stem and terrestrial branch will be conbined with "+" as the components of the application mode according to the content.4. Theoretical discussion:The application law, theoretical basis and significance of celestial stem and terrestrial branch in Fundamentals of TCM will be discussed by the method of classified analysis, induction, traditional interpretation and correlation comparisonsResultsThe main charateristic of the reaseach data is as follows:The Encyclopaedia of Traditional Chinese contains totally92monographs including49monographs about medical classics and43monographs about diagnostic methods. According to the relevant contents in the booklists, celestial stem is contained in74works, accounting for80.43%of the total bibliography;and terrestrial branch is Contained in76works, accounting for82.61%of the total bibliography;the both of them appears in69works, accounting for75%of the total bibliography;either the celestial stem or terrestrial branch apears in80works, accounting for86.96%of the total bibliography. There were1142records relating to celestial stem and terrestrial branch with797records being analysized and excluding doctrine on yunqi.The results shows that celestial stem and terrestrial branch was contained in ancient works with a wide field, including cosmology of TCM, human physiology, pathogenesis, diagnosis, and dialectical analysis, prevention and treatment. The main components of application mode of celestial stem and terrestrial branch consist of celestial stems, terrestrial branches and stems-branches, marking orders, marking locations, marking time, combining Yin-Yang, combining WuXing, combining Taiji, combining Hetu, combining LuoShu, etc.According to the result, more title headings appear as celestial stem or terrestrial branch,517titles and333titles.which accounts for65.69%and42.31%of the total bibliography respectively. The both seldomly appears at the same time probably because of the excluding part of doctrine on yunqi. The application mode of celestial stem and terrestrial branch mostly appears with WuXing attributes,618titles is included and account for78.53%of the total, and folllwed with combining Yin-Yang, attanching entrails, marking locations, attanching meridian, successively, and rarely combined with Taiji, HeTu, LuoShu and orders. These show that the application mode of celestial stem and terrestrial branch appears more combining with Yin-Yang and WuXing. The application mode of the celestial stem and terrestrial branch have some characteristics, such as taking includes marking orders, locations, time as its elementary mode, taking combining with Yin-Yang and WuXing as its extendary mode, taking attanching entrails and meridian as its special mode, taking combining with Taiji, Hetu, Luoshu as its complex mode. It is the representative achievement of ancient science and technology. The ancient astronomy establish its scientific connotation, and ancient phenology shows its relevant law. The heavenly stem or earthly branch indicates the monism of qi, which reflects theideology of correspondence between man and natureThe heavenly stem or earthly branch is the combination mode of the theory of Yin-Yang and WuXin, which embody the integral view and unity of time and space for the original qi of the universe. It also makes sense to discuss the significance from the background of ancient astronomy which contains taiji ang and universal phenomenons as well as understanding the theory of Yin-Yang and WuXing with positive attitude.ConelusionThe celestial stem and terrestrial branch combined with the yin-yang and five phases theory, which has been widely used in basic theory and diagnosis monographs of TCM.The heavenly stem or earthly branch should be decomposed and composed expertly to be understood for its flexiblation. As the crucial combination of TCM and traditional culture, the heavenly stem or earthly branch is an unity of Symbolization-Numerology-inference and space-time mode. It should be considered as important referance content to related textbook for its widely application.InnovationsThe innovation of this thesis is to analyze and summarize the law and characteristic of the heavenly stem and the earthly branchin applying in TCM and excavate the literature which could provide research foundation and literatural material for learners. Meanwhile, the idea of the research is instructive and enlightening.