It is said that 5,000 to 6,000 years ago, people believed that diseases were "punishments from the gods" and "the work of demons", so they used "worshipping deities" and "incantations to exorcise demons" to treat diseases. Priests in ancient Egypt were doctors, and in ancient China, such people were called "shamans". Although these so-called doctors couldn't truly cure people's diseases, people still discovered some effective methods of treatment through thousands of years of practice. For example, the legendary "Fuxi invented nine needles" refers to the fact that about 5,000 years ago, Chinese ancestors used stone or bone needles and knives to relieve pain, and acupuncture in traditional Chinese medicine evolved from this. "Shennong tasted hundreds of herbs" refers to the fact that ancient people, while searching for food, discovered that some plants were toxic, some were not, and some had special effects on the human body. These experiences and discoveries gradually accumulated, leading to the origin of medicine. The "Shennong's Classic of Herbal Medicine" recorded 365 kinds of medicines. More than 2,000 years ago, the first medical book in China, the "Huangdi Neijing", was also a summary of thousands of years of experience. There were many famous doctors in ancient China, such as Bian Que, a physician in the Warring States period, who advocated using different treatment methods according to different patients and situations; Zhang Zhongjing, who is still known to us from the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms"; and Hua Tuo, who lived in the Eastern Han Dynasty. Unfortunately, the "closed-door policy" of the Qing Dynasty created a barrier between traditional Chinese medicine and Western medicine.
Modern medicine originated in the West. Therefore, when talking about modern medicine, we should mention Hippocrates, the ancestor of ancient Western medicine. He believed that doctors should not only "treat diseases", but also "treat people", the latter of which is often overlooked by modern doctors. There was a Roman physician named Galen, who believed that treating diseases should first understand the human body and emphasized the importance of anatomy and physiology. In the 16th century, the European Renaissance broke through the shackles of feudal religious thought for thousands of years, and the Belgian physician Vesalius wrote "The Structure of the Human Body". In the 17th century, the English physiologist Harvey discovered the circulation of blood. In the 19th century, the "cell" was discovered, and medical research entered the "cellular level". Later, anesthetics were discovered, and the importance of disinfection was recognized, which solved the big problem of surgery. In the 20th century, antibiotics were discovered to treat infectious diseases, and chemotherapy was discovered to treat cancer. In 1953, it was discovered that the "double helix structure" of DNA, which enables humans to pass on their genes, is like a pretzel. Medical research entered the "molecular level". The "Human Genome Project" arising from the discovery of DNA has enabled people to understand and treat diseases at the genetic level, and the development of medicine has entered a new stage.