title: The teacher-disciple tradition and secret teaching in Chinese medicine.
abstract: The ancient teacher-disciple tradition is regarded as one of the most celebrated practices within the Chinese medicine world. Such traditions of secrecy, private wisdom and honor are deeply rooted in the theories of Confucianism. This paper only explores the surface of this ancient culture, by investigating relevant popular ancient texts and common Chinese proverbs, as well as utilizing personal experiences, in order to reflect on how the ancient Chinese perceived such practices within their own society and how secret teaching was passed on from teacher to student, including the revelation of secret formulas and their importance and how that tradition differs from our modern-day perspectives. Various rare manuscripts from the author's personal library are employed in order to provide relative examples of the importance of secret knowledge, and how these secrets applied in the traditional healing.
authors.affiliation: Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing, 100029, China.
authors.forename: Ioannis
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Solos
authors.forename: Yuan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liang
authors.forename: Guang-xin
authors.initials: GX
authors.lastname: Yue
mesh_terms: D003469:Culture; D011307:Drug Prescriptions; D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal / Q000494:pharmacology; D006801:Humans; D019359:Knowledge; D008373:Manuscripts as Topic; D008516:Medicine, Chinese Traditional; D013334:Students; D013663:Teaching
chemical_list: D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal