1. History of Vietnamese Traditional Medicine

   1. ANCIENT PERIOD (FROM THE EARLY 1ST CENTURY TO THE 3RD CENTURY AD)

   This period was recorded mainly in the form of practical experience. It is likely that, because they lived in a tropical monsoon region and were prone to malaria, seasonal illnesses, and intestinal infectious diseases, ancient Vietnamese people gained extensive experience in using medicinal substances in daily food, drink, and living habits, such as betel, areca nut, ginger, onion, garlic, chili, galangal, coix seed, lime, green tea, che vang tea, and they also knew how to prevent tooth decay through the custom of blackening the teeth.

   2. MEDIEVAL PERIOD (FROM THE 3RD CENTURY TO THE 17TH CENTURY AD)

   The Vietnamese nation entered the medieval period under the domination of the Han, Wei, Jin, Song, Qi, Liang, Sui, and Tang dynasties (179 BC – 938 AD). Under this rule, it is likely that upper-class Vietnamese were introduced to classical medicine through physicians from China such as Dong Feng (187–226) and Lam Thang (479–501).

   During this period, a number of Vietnamese medicinal materials were recorded in Chinese pharmacopeias, such as:

2. Coix seed, kudzu root (Danh Y Biệt Lục)

3. Cardamom (Hải Nam Bản Thảo – Tang dynasty)

4. Rangoon creeper (Bản Thảo Khai Bảo – Song dynasty)

5. Lemongrass (Bản Thảo Thập Di)

6. Betel and areca nut (Tô Cung Bản Thảo)

7. Vetiver, bitter melon, pumpkin, and malva nut (Bản Thảo Cương Mục)

Based on Party Congress resolutions, the Prime Minister also issued many directives guiding the health sector in implementing these resolutions. In particular, the 1980 Constitution of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam defined the combination of modern medicine and traditional medicine as a fundamental principle for building Vietnamese healthcare. The Ministry of Health also issued many circulars guiding the implementation of Party Congress resolutions and Government Council resolutions.

After more than 50 years of persistently implementing the Party and State’s policy, the health sector has achieved many accomplishments in building a Vietnamese medicine that combines modern medicine with the nation’s traditional medicine in many aspects: sectoral development perspectives, personnel training, medical research on treatment and drugs, and the compilation of both popular and specialized materials on traditional medicine.

Since the liberation of Southern Vietnam, all five medical universities in the country and the Military Medical Academy have had departments of traditional medicine, including the Department of Traditional Medicine – Hanoi Medical University (1961) and the Department of Traditional Medicine – Ho Chi Minh City University of Medicine and Pharmacy (1976).

During the flourishing development of traditional medicine, in order to serve training according to the policy:

“To develop and perfect the people’s healthcare system on the basis of combining modern medicine and pharmacy with traditional medicine and pharmacy.”

These works contributed to the dissemination and preservation of traditional medicine among the people.

4. FROM THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF VIETNAM TO THE PRESENT (1945–PRESENT)

With the outbreak of the Revolution and the prolonged resistance war, research boards for traditional medicine were established within ministries and provincial health departments in the inter-zones, contributing to the treatment of war injuries among soldiers and diseases among the people.

After the success of the resistance war, under the government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, on April 12, 1956, the Ministry of Health issued a decision to establish the Traditional Medicine Division within the Department of Treatment to specialize in traditional medicine research. On June 3, 1957, the Vietnam Traditional Medicine Association was established to unite practitioners and researchers in traditional medicine and pharmacy. On June 17, 1957, the Institute of Traditional Medicine Research was founded.

More than anyone else, President Hồ Chí Minh paid close attention to the combination of modern medicine and traditional medicine in building Vietnamese medicine. In his letter to the National Health Conference dated February 27, 1955, he wrote:

“During the years of enslavement, our medicine, like other sectors, was suppressed. Now that we have independence and freedom, health workers must help the people and help the Government build a healthcare system suited to the people’s needs. Medicine must also be based on the principles of science, nationality, and mass orientation.”

In the same letter, he also pointed out:

“Our forefathers had many valuable experiences in curing diseases with our own herbal medicine and Chinese medicine. To broaden the scope of medicine, you should also pay attention to researching the combination of Eastern and Western medicine.”

The Resolutions of the 3rd Party Congress in 1960, the 4th in 1976, and the 5th in 1982 all emphasized:

Combining modern medicine and traditional medicine to build Vietnamese medicine.

there were also medical materials written in the national script (chữ Quốc ngữ), such as:

Việt Nam Dược học by Phó Đức Thành

Nam Dược bộ by Nguyễn An Cư

Y học tùng thư by Nguyễn An Nhân

3.2. The French Colonial Period (1884–1945)

Vietnamese traditional medicine entered the 20th century after the Nguyễn court signed the Harmand Treaty on August 25, 1883, turning Vietnam into a colony.

From 1894 to 1906, the traditional medicine offices (Ty lương y) were gradually dissolved and replaced by hospitals or infirmaries under the authority of the Indochinese medical inspectorate.

In 1920, the French colonial government limited the number of traditional medicine practitioners in Southern Vietnam to no more than 500. In 1943, it issued an additional decree further restricting traditional medicine practice by prohibiting the use of strongly active medicinal substances such as processed aconite and croton seed.

Under these difficult circumstances, the Central Vietnam Medical Association (established on September 14, 1936) opened training classes for traditional physicians. Together with the Vietnam Medical and Pharmaceutical Association in the North and the Medical Association in the South, it helped unite Vietnamese medical professionals to revive the nation’s traditional medicine and oppose French colonial repression of traditional medicine.

During this period, in addition to medical works written in classical Chinese and Nôm script such as:

Vệ sinh yếu chỉ (1901) by Bùi Văn Trung in Nam Định

Bí truyền tập yếu (1906) by Lê Tư Thúy in Hà Nam

Y thư lược sao (1906) by Vũ Đình Phu

Tứ duy tập (1910) by Đỗ Thế Hồ

Trung Việt Dược tính hợp biên, listing 1,500 medicinal ingredients, by Đinh Nho Chấn

During this period, Vietnam, particularly Đàng Trong, also had economic exchanges with countries in Southeast Asia. Through this, Vietnamese people traded local ginseng, achyranthes, poria, pangolin scales, turtle shell, and cicada slough in exchange for agarwood, aloeswood, and rhinoceros horn.

3. MODERN PERIOD (FROM THE 17TH TO THE 20TH CENTURY)

3.1. The Nguyen Dynasty (1802–1884)

State management of healthcare was not much different from that of the Le period. In terms of scholarship, Vietnamese physicians continued compiling and writing medical works, while also learning to some extent from Chinese medical experience, including:

Xuân Đinh y án kinh trị chủ chứng by Lê Kinh Hạp, specializing in epidemic and seasonal diseases.

Thạch nha kính by Dương Khải, discussing tongue diagnosis.

Particularly during the Tran dynasty, while the royal court and aristocracy favored Northern medicine, a physician named Tuệ Tĩnh, with a spirit of independence and self-reliance, advocated the principle “Southern medicine for Southern people” through his work Nam dược thần hiệu (supplemented and reprinted in 1761).

However, it was not until the Later Le period that the theories and scholarship of both China and Vietnam were synthesized at the deepest level in Hải Thượng Y Tông Tâm Lĩnh by Lê Hữu Trác (1720–1791).

In earlier dynasties, the ruling authorities were concerned mainly with serving the health of the king, officials, and army, while the health care of the common people was left to private individuals or religious organizations. Only in the Ho dynasty (1400–1406) did Hồ Hán Thương establish Quảng Tế Thự to provide medical treatment for the people and appoint physician Nguyễn Đại Năng to manage it.

Notably, under the Le dynasty (1261), in addition to establishing Y học huấn khoa to train physicians, the government also promulgated the Hồng Đức Code, which included provisions on medical ethics (Article 541), food hygiene management (Article 420), and forensic medicine in the text Nhân thần kiểm tra nghiệm pháp.

2.3. The Le-Mac and Tay Son Periods (1428–1802)

In addition to the great classical work of Hải Thượng Lãn Ông Lê Hữu Trác, there were also:

Nam Dược by Nguyễn Hoành (Tay Son period), introducing 500 herbal medicines and 130 medicinal substances from minerals and animals.

Liệu dịch phương pháp toàn tập on infectious diseases, Hô Nhi phương pháp tổng lục on pediatrics, and Lý Am phương pháp thông lục on gynecology by Nguyễn Gia Phan (1784–1817).

2.1. The Ngo – Dinh – Le – Ly Dynasties (938–1224)

Vietnamese medicine, in addition to its empirical nature, also took on a religious character because Taoism and Buddhism developed strongly during these dynasties. A notable example is in 1136, when the physician Nguyễn Minh Không treated King Lý Thần Tông’s mental illness using incantations and rituals.

2.2. The Tran – Ho – Later Le Dynasties (1225–1788)

From the Tran dynasty onward, Confucianism developed strongly. Chu Văn An and Trương Hán Siêu were among those who initiated a movement against superstition throughout the country, and only then did Vietnamese medicine begin to have the conditions to advance.

However, because of its close cultural and ideological ties with China, Vietnamese medicine developed mainly on the theoretical foundation of traditional Chinese medicine. Therefore, throughout this period, Vietnamese medical scholars left to posterity works such as:

Châm cứu tiệp hiệu diễn ca by Nguyễn Đại Năng (Ho dynasty), which added acupuncture points such as Nhũ ảnh, Bôi lam for malaria, Trực cốt for chronic debility, and Quân dần, Phục nguyên for epilepsy.

Bảo anh lương phương by Nguyễn Trực (1455), recording experience in treating measles and smallpox.

Y học yếu giải tập chú di biên by Chu Doãn Văn (1466), discussing water-fire theory and exogenous diseases.

Nhãn khoa yếu lược by Lê Đức Vọng (Le dynasty), discussing treatments for eye diseases, especially trachoma and ingrown eyelashes.

Bảo sinh diên thọ toản yếu by Đào Công Chính (1676), discussing methods of physical and mental hygiene.

Tạ Thị chuẩn đích y ước by Tạ Chất Phác (Le dynasty), discussing the use of remedies for internal medicine, pediatrics, and obstetrics.