Ancient Chinese Medical Thought of Systems Thinking-Tianren Correspondence

The classic theoretical work of Chinese medicine in the late Warring States period, Huang Di Nei Jing, is an example of the ancient people's use of systems thinking to study the physiological and pathological phenomena of the human body. The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine (HUNDIJING) believes that the human body is an organically linked whole, and that a lesion in one organ may affect other organs or the whole, while a change in the whole will inevitably lead to a localized lesion. Therefore, it advocates the study of pathology and etiology from the perspective of the whole, and applies the doctrines of internal organs, meridians and collaterals, and yin and yang and the five elements to illustrate the physiological functions of the human body, pathological changes and their interrelationships. The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine also views the human body system as a part of the natural world, and believes that the laws of human health are closely related to those of the natural world. It puts forward the medical principle of "Heavenly-Human Correspondence", advocating the combination of natural phenomena, physiological changes, social life, thoughts and emotions, etc., to study the physiological and pathological phenomena of the human body from a larger overall scope. This holistic concept was later developed into the basic principle of traditional Chinese medicine to guide clinical diagnosis and treatment.