Introduction and Summary
by Anh Nguyen
Introducing the origin of Eastern medicine and how it worked in Vietnam’s history:
Vietnamese medicine is very well known as “Eastern medicine” that can be related to Chinese medicine. For many centuries, herbal medicine has been a long-term treatment for good health and detoxification in the body. It was also a luxury to have high quality herbs for the Emperor and Empress. In ancient times (1st -3rd century AC) due to the tropical seasons in Vietnam, there were illnesses like malaria, and digestive infection. The ancient Viet gained experiences in creating herbal medicine using onions, garlics, chili peppers, gingers, adlay grains, limestones, betel leaves, areca palms, and tea–such as Jasmine and Green tea. Additionally, the ancient Viet knew how to “prevent” tooth decay by dyeing their teeth black.
The overall timeline of ancient medicine in Vietnam to modernization of Western medicine:
The overall timeline of Vietnamese medicine could have evolved through generations, or it might have been “long forgotten” due to the advanced medical research from the Western world.
Summary of the timeline:
Vietnam’s geo-biology:
200 million years ago, in the Middle Age era, Vietnam had an S-shaped spine, which was the Annamite Range or the Annamese Mountains. During the Cenozoic era, which was 50 million years ago, the geographic nature started to form an area that connects with rivers and mountains, now known as Asia. By the end of the Tertiary period, apes evolved around 10-20 million years ago. Many Vietnamese archeologists have proven that Vietnamese people began to appear in the Pleistocene period, which was the “birth” of human and herbal medicine. In South East Asia, there was only huge rainfall during the Ice Age. The rising of sea level, combined with a tropical climate, created beneficial conditions for plants to grow as food sources for animals, including humans. Apes consumed plants and animals to survive, and natural selection of plants and animals. Because of the natural creation of animals and plants, medicine has been passed down through many generations, and still exists to this day. The Vietnamese ancient practice has created many methods of prevention, and treatment with and without medicine (acupuncture, acupressure…). There were also many precious herbal medicines that are still handed down to this day: Chinese honeysuckle, bitter ginger, Japanese sweet flag, adlay grains, true cardamom, nutmeg, nut grass, and more.
Vietnam’s dynasties history:
During the rule of the Hồng Bàng dynasty (2879 BC), they already started using herbs, animals, and minerals to create medicine. People also created poisons to apply on the arrows of spears to fight against invaders from other countries. Unfortunately, Vietnamese people had been fighting for more than a millennium–causing them to follow the Chinese feudal system, and every medical source got “confiscated” to serve the metropolitan.
-Lý Dynasty (1010-1224): started to organize the concept of a hospital in the capital and many other local areas.
-Trần Dynasty (1225-1399): started to develop the agriculture for medical herbs in many areas.
-Hồ Dynasty (1400-1406): started to develop acupuncture. The Ming’s invaders during the Ming Dynasty in China had tried to dominate Vietnam for 20 years; it also caused huge damage to traditional medicine.
-Later Lê Dynasty (1428-1788): The Hồng Đức rules (1460-1479). The King Lê Thánh Tông had started to give out orders on making medicines. In 1665, the King Lê Huyền Tông gave out orders two times to ban the people from smoking Aztec tobacco.
Additionally, Lê Hữu Trác (1720-1791), a Vietnamese physician in the 18th century, had summarized the ancient Eastern medical treatments and recorded achievements in ancient medicine in Vietnam throughout history until the 18th century. Lê Hữu Trác applied his knowledge on ancient medicine with the weather conditions to find out the cause of illness in the country.
French Revolution in Vietnam:
The French Colonists brought Western medicine to Vietnam, which caused the Vietnamese to dismiss their “Health Organization” during Nguyen Dynasty. They started to create their new policy, which caused the people to limit their educations and to discriminate toward traditional medicine. To this day, certain medical groups still discriminate against traditional medicine, and it needs to improve for building up the Socialist medicine.
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