The history of Chinese medicine begins with a myth.... So opens this western account of medicine in China from the earliest times to the People's Republic. Drawing on popular mythology and folklore, this book describes how early Chinese philosophy (Daoism) and cosmology (yin and yan, and the five elements) crucially affected the development of Chinese medicine. Surgical techniques, acupuncture, the use of medicinal plants and drugs, smallpox vaccination and gynaecology are some of the wide variety of medical areas developed by the Chinese, to the extent that by the 10th century China was known as the medical centre of Asia. Amongst the book's numerous illustrations is a contemporary comic-strip history of Hua Tuo, a pioneer of anaesthetics in surgery, and a series of drawings depicting the techniques of acupuncture.