For over 2,000 years, China has witnessed more than 300 epidemics, averaging one outbreak every seven years. Considering that the Mayan culture was wiped out by epidemics and the European population was reduced by half by the bubonic plague in the Middle Ages, the resilience of the Chinese civilization that has been continuing for 5,000 years, aided no doubt by its unique medical practices and tradition, must count as remarkable.


On 11 March, the World Health Organization declared the current outbreak of COVID-19 as a pandemic. While Western medicine is still universally adopted for the treatment of COVID-19, the theories and practice of Chinese medicine, developed over thousands of years, should not be overlooked. COVID-19 has filled people’s hearts with fear and anxiety. Chinese medicine, which sees the human body as an organic whole, values the integration of nature and humanity, and tries to achieve a balance between the internal organs through the observation of natural laws, can complement Western medicine.…