Laws in Vietnam

Traditional Vietnamese medicine has a  long history  starting from the Hung Vuong dynasty near 2000 years B.C  ago. Vietnam culture – What is the unique characteristic of Traditional Vietnamese medicine? Traditional Vietnamese medicine or oriental medicine was formed and based on interactions and influences between the two schools of chinese and vietnamese medicine for thousands of years ago. The two outstanding figures of Vietnamese traditional medicine are  Tuệ Tĩnh (fourteenth century?) and Lãn Ông Lê Hữu Trác (eighteenth century). Although trained in the ways of Chinese medicine, they saw in indigenous medicine an important resources. Far from being a mere copy of Chinese medicine,  Vietnamese traditional medicine has its own structure and practices. It derives from two basic sources:  Southern (indigenous) Medicine, and Northern (Sino-Vietnamese) Medicine. Like all traditional medicines, it does not separate man from nature and see human...

According to ancient Chinese philosophy (which includes Sino Vietnamese medicine), two  primary principles  – yang and yin – influence man and nature. What is the philosophical principle underlying Sino Vietnamese medicine? The interaction of these  two principles  generates the five cosmic elements  – metal, wood, water, fire, and earth – that from the common substance of all living beings and also lifeless matter. Ancient  Chinese philosophy  held that the cosmos exercises its influence on the various parts and organs of the human body; thus, human structures have their cosmic correspondents, and human anatomy and physiology are related to cosmogony. According to this thinking, the entire cosmos influences a person’s organs. Sino Vietnamese medicine denies the existence of disease as a primary category,  whereas Western medicine sees disease as having its own existence and attacking the body from outside. Traditional Chinese and Vietnames...

When Canadian Annie Graham's friend suggested she go to Việt Nam Institute of Traditional Medicine in Hà Nội for treatment of chronic sinus problems, she nearly dismissed the idea. "I'm a member of the medical profession", Graham said. "I'm trained as a laboratory technician in Western medical practices. I was sceptical about the treatments offered at the Institute". The friend did manage to convince her to tag along one day on a trip to the Institute. Still doubtful of the efficacy of traditional Vietnamese medicine, Graham went, she says, out of curiosity. Arriving at the Việt Nam Institute of Traditional Medicine, Annie Graham was impressed at first with its size. Once inside, she was impressed with the professionalism of the staff. But she still wasn't quite convinced acupuncture could cure her sinus problems. Still, a treatment, Graham asked Dr. Hương if she could have a massage for her back pain caused by a chronic thoracic spine. ...

On the eve of the August Revolution in 1945, Hồ Chí Minh fell seriously ill at Tân Trào in the Resistance Zone. A traditional healer of the Tày ethnic minority cured him with a special root.  The memoir, From Pác Bó to Tân Trào. There was much to do, but Uncle Hồ was ill. He'd had a high fever for some days. He tried to work anyway. Whenever I asked him about his health, he simply said, "You go and do your work. I'am all right". I noticed, though, that he was getting weaker and thinner. We had to special medicne for him, just some anti-cold and quinine tablets. He had taken them, but his condition did not improve. Normally he would never lie down during working hours, but now he was bedridden and had first of delirium. I was the only 1 of his close associates worried. "I don't have much to do", I said one day. "Can I stay with you tonight?" He opened his eyes and nodded waekly. That night, I stayed with Uncle Hồ in his hut in the middle...

Mr. Nguyễn Huy Cương He is a man with a mission. His family has practised traditional medicine for 5 generations; despite his old age, he travels regularly between the north and the south to treat patients and to poromte traditional medicine. For several months, he wrote 10 hours each day, summarising his professional experiences in a book, The Vạn Xuân đường (Ten Thousand Springs). He has presented the hand-written draft to the Medical council of Hải Dương Province. Mr. Cương looks the part of a man of traditional medicine. He has a silvery beard, healthy skin, a calm attitude, and an air of self-confidence. He exercises everyday. Mr. Cương says he wants to stay healthy and continue to work and share his knowledge with other traditional physicians. He especially hopes his book will be useful for both doctors and patients. Mr. Cương learned traditional medicine from hos father. He first treated other family members and then patients outside his home. During his long career, he h...

Pharmacist Đỗ Tất Lợi Following Việt Nam's Declaration of Independence in 1945, the public talked about a newspaper article suggesting the overhaul of Vietnamese medicine as part of Việt Nam's reconstruction. The writer, who advocated training medical doctors and pharmacists in both Western and Vietnamese medicine, was pharmacist Đỗ Tất Lợi, then only 27 years old. Even though ordinary people had been treating themselves with plants from gardens and forests for thousands of years, the ruling class before August 1945 did not promote traditional Vietnamese medicine. Chinese medicine had been the standard during the thousand years of Chinese rule between the first and 10th centuries and the subsequent reign of Vietnamese dynasties up through the 19th century. Knowledge of traditional Vietnamese medicine was in danger of disappearing. The situation grew worse during French domination from the late 19th century until the August Revolution of 1945. The French promoted only West...

Until very recently, leprosy (Hansen's Disease) was considered incurable and highly infectious. However, in the late 1870s, royal physician Nguyễn Văn Toán, head of the Royal Health Department, submitted a petition to set up a centre to treat the disease. The king knew that Chinese doctors, then thought to be the most medically advanced, were powerless against the disease. He summoned the best physicians for seminar. Participants listened to Nguyễn Văn Toán's description of the disease and the proposed treatment centre and discussed its pros and cons. King Tự Đức approved the plan. Mr. Toán assigned his deputy to the daily work at the Health Department, while he plunged into researching the Vietnemese and Chinese medical literature on Hansen's Disease. He also brought patients to his centre for treatment. Many of his friends were concerned for his reputation if he failed. Some colleagues at the Centre dropped out after initial failures; his opponents saw the chance to att...

Cultural researcher Hữu Ngọc was moved to receive a gift copy of Monsieur le paresseux (Mr. Lazybones, published in April 2000) from Yveline Feray, the novel's author. The Vietnamese poet Huy Cận had brought the gift all the way from Paris. Yveline Feray had spent seven years writing Dix Mille Printemps (Then Thousand Springs, published in 1989), an 800-page novel about the Vietnamese man of culture, Nguyễn Trãi. Now, she'd spent another ten years writing this novel about "Mr Lazybones", the Vietnamese physician Hải Thượng Lãn Ông or Lễ Hữu Trác. The heroes of her two novels are both personalities from turning points in Vietnamese history: Humanist Nguyễn Trãi is associated with Việt Nam's victory over the Ming invaders and the beginning of the prosperous Lê Dynasty in the 15th century; physician Lãn Ông shone brightly in the late 18th century amid the turmoil that brought an end to the struggle between the Trịnh and Nguyễn Lords. It is probably easier to writ...

Medical science in Việt Nam progressed through contributions by Lê Hữu Trác (1702 - 1791), better known by his pseudonym Hải Thượng Lãn Ông. A learned scholar, he shunned a mandarin's career, retiring to his village, where he devoted his life to the study of medicine. Following decades of observation and study, he wrote a medical treatise in 28 volumes, whose parts include: a theoretical section; a section on pathology, with special studies on smallpox, measles, infantile diseases, women's diseases; a section on drugs; a section on pharmacology; a collections of clinical observations; a section on hygiene. Lãn Ông laid the foundation of medical practice based on observation of clinical facts, climatic conditions, and the properties of local plants and products. his observations and formulas remain of great value. Lãn Ông understood classical Chinese medical theories, but relied mostly on observation. He collected his medical data with great care so he could compare ...

The Medical Books of Master Hồng Nghĩa. In 1717, the Liễu Chàng Bookstore in Hà Nội presented a set of medical books by Tuệ Tĩnh to Lord Trịnh Cương, who read the books and and found them valuable. He asked the mandarins in the Health Department to review them and then gave the series the name The Medical Books of Master Hồng Nghĩa. He had copies printed and distributed them throughout the country. The Medical Books of Master Hồng Nghĩa contain Tuệ Tĩnh's work on medical and pharmaceutical principles and demonstrate a profound and creative analysis of medical problems. They include pulse-examining diagnoses, analysis of disease mechanisms, and preparation and use of medicines. Principle of Asian medicine are adapted to the Vietnamese people and climate. Tuệ Tĩnh wrote many of the books in popular verse, making the remedies easy to remember. The Medical Books of Master Hồng Nghĩa has been a companion to many generations of Vietnamese physicians. With the motto of "Vietnam...

The Miraculous Medicine of the Southern Country. It is a practical guide to traditional medicines and contains effective remedies. In previous centuries, Vietnamese families would copy the individual volumes of this work and then hand the copy down form generation to generation. This practice helped the books survive the turmoil of war an destruction so that modern readers and researchers can benefit from the traditional lore. Tuệ Tĩnh's massive compendium consists of  11 volumes. The first one gives a summary of 581 remedies of plant, animal, and mineral origin and includes 499 specifically Vietnamese medicines. The remaining ten volumes present 3.873 ways of treating 184 different diseases. The text is written in a simple, clear language and concentrates on practical medical knowledge. The Miraculous Medicine of the Southern Country treats each disease in turn, describing its causes, symptoms, and effects on organs. It suggests treatment on the basis of individual cases. Ev...

It's Tuệ Tĩnh. He may have been born in Nghĩa Phú Village, Hải Dương Province. Researchers have not determined the exact dates of his birth and death. Some say that Tuệ Tĩnh lived in the 14th century A.D. Analysis of his works and a stele at Giám Pagoda suggest that he was probably born in the 17th century and died in the early 18th century. According to legends from Nghĩa Phú Village, his real name was Nguyễn Bá Tĩnh, but he adopted the Buddhism. Since his home village was Nghĩa Phú, Thượng Hồng District, he also used the name Hồng Nghĩa. Tuệ Tĩnh studied medicinal plants and cured many people. He combined information he collected from others with his own medical experiences into two major works, The Medical Books of Master Hồng Nghĩa and The Miraculous of the Southern Country. Tuệ Tĩnh was not only a knowledgeable researcher but also an excellent organiser and practitioner. he initiated a health system for common people based at pagodas. Buddhist monks and nuns not only pra...

Many doctors who practise modern medicine doubt the effectiveness of traditional medicine. Similarly, some Vietnamese feel uncomfortable in a Western hospital with its smell of alcohol and other chemicals. Moderately Westernised Vietnamese favour a combination of traditional and modern medicine; they believe modern medicine is better in the treatment of microbial diseases and in surgery, while traditional medicine works best for non-microbial diseases, functional disorders, and general exhaustion.

According to ancient Chinese philosophy (which includes medicine), two primary principles - the male or yang and the female or yin - influence man and nature. The interaction of these two principles generates the five cosmic elements - metal, wood, water, fire, and earth - that from the common substance of all living beings and also lifeless matter. Ancient Chinese philosophy held that the cosmos exercises its influence on the various parts and organs of the human body; thus, human structures have their cosmic correspondents, and human anatomy and physiology are related to cosmogony. According to this thinking, the entire cosmos influences a person's organs. Sino-Vietnamese medicine denies the existence of disease as a primary category, whereas Western medicine sees disease as having its own existence and attacking the body from outside. Traditional Chinese and Vietnamese medicine sees disease as an imbalance between yang and yin in particular organs. The imbalance directly affec...

Northern Medicine or thuốc bắc - "bắc" means "north" - is synonymous with Chinese medicine. Elements of this rather scholarly medicine were no doubt introduced into Việt Nam during the period of Chinese domination (second century B.C. to the tenth century A.D.). There is no strict dividing line between Southern and Northern medicines. Practitioners often blend them together and commonly make parallel use of the two traditions. Traditional Vietnamese medicine may in fact be seen as a system in which both the indigenous southern folk medicine and the more scholarly northern practice combine in a symbiotic relationship. The practice of Chinese medicine traces back to the Shang Dynasty (1800 B.C.); its basic work is the Nei Jing (Internal Classic), written 200 years earlier and attributed to Huangdi. In Vietnamese, it is known as Nội Kinh. The basic Chinese works on pharmacology include Shen Nong's Herbal Classic; New Medicinal Materials written by Su Jing and Li ...

Southern Medicine - "thuốc" means "medicine" and "nam" means "south" or "southern" - is synonymous with indigenous Vietnamese medicine. In Vietnamese history and culture, the word "nam" evokes what pertains to Việt Nam and the Vietnamese, while "bắc" (which means "north) is associated with China. Southern Medicine is comprised chiefly of folk recipes that use local, tropical flora and fauna. Over the centuries, many of these ingredients have proved effective in treating certain diseases. For instance, the hòe flower (sophora japonica) is a good source if vitamin B. The flowers of frangipani (đại), which grow on the grounds of temples and pagodas, have anti-hypertensive properties. Lotus seeds are thought to have a sedative effect. Moxibustion, a method of stimulating acupoints on the human body with burnt moxas (a kind of medicinal plant), was probably used in Việt Nam for the first time in the third century B...

The two outstanding figures of Vietnamese traditional medicine are Tuệ Tĩnh (fourteenth century?) and Lãn Ông Lê Hữu Trác (eighteenth century). Although trained in the ways of Chinese medicine, they saw in indigenous medicine an important resources. Far from being a mere copy of Chinese medicine, Vietnamese traditional medicine has its own structure and practices. It derives from two basic sources: Southern (indigenous) Medicine, and Northern (Sino-Vietnamese) Medicine. Like all traditional medicines, it does not separate man from nature and see human existence as an indissoluble union between body and soul, combining physical, mental, social, moral, and spiritual factors. During the twentieth century, traditional medicine has continued to develop and play an important role in Vietnamese life. Vietnamese schools of modern medicine have taught traditional medicine since the end of French colonialism in Việt Nam, which banned the teaching of traditional medical practice. During the Ame...