What is the development history of traditional diagnostic methods of traditional Chinese medicine?

Tongue diagnosis and syndrome differentiation is a traditional diagnostic method of traditional Chinese medicine and an important basis for syndrome differentiation and treatment, so it has always been valued by doctors.

Looking at the tongue has a long history, as early as Huangdi Neijing. According to textual research, there are as many as 60 articles about "tongue" in Huangdi Neijing. The anatomy, physiology and pathology of the tongue have been described quite accurately, which is of great significance to guide clinical syndrome differentiation and determine treatment. With the efforts of Zhang Zhongjing, Chao, Sun Simiao and others, the content of tongue diagnosis is more abundant and comprehensive. In the Yuan Dynasty. Tongue diagnosis began to become an independent discipline, and the monograph oldham Jin Jing Lu appeared, which not only established the basic rules of tongue diagnosis and medication, but also introduced pathological tongue images by using color atlas, providing intuitive data for future tongue diagnosis research. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, tongue diagnosis made great progress in the syndrome differentiation of exogenous fever. Today, the diagnostic value and scientific nature of tongue diagnosis are increasingly supported and verified by modern medicine.

Traditional Chinese medicine believes that the human body is an organic whole, and viscera, tissues and organs are interrelated in physiology and affect each other in pathology. The changes of internal organs can be reflected on the body surface through meridians, and the signs on the body surface reflect the information of internal organs. The so-called "the inside must be shaped outside." Tongue is directly or indirectly connected with many zang-fu organs through the connection of meridians. Therefore, the essence of zang-fu organs can reach the tongue, and the pathological changes of zang-fu organs can also be reflected from the changes of tongue images. This is the internal basis of Chinese medicine to distinguish diseases by looking at the tongue.