China Medical History Museum

China Medical History Museum

The China Medical History Museum was established and opened to the public in 1982. It is located within the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences in Nanxiaojie, Dongcheng District, Beijing. The museum currently houses over 3,000 precious collections and is acclaimed as the world’s most comprehensive and extensive medical history museum in terms of both the number of items and the time span covered. Among its collections are ancient medical instruments such as stone needles, stone axes, and stone sickles, as well as imperial medical manuscripts, rubbings, rare medical books, and traditional Chinese medical surgical tools made of ceramics, bronze, and jade. A significant portion of the collection consists of ancient portraits of renowned physicians and handwritten medical manuscripts, which hold considerable academic research value. The museum systematically and comprehensively showcases the origin, formation, development, and remarkable achievements of Chinese medicine.

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Over the past 20 years since its establishment, the museum has welcomed hundreds of thousands of visitors, including renowned figures such as Dr. Joseph Needham, the eminent British historian of science and technology; Sekino Tadashi, a distinguished Japanese scholar of Chinese medicine and medical history; and Professor Nathan Sivin, a well-known American historian of science. On September 26, 2002, during the inauguration ceremony of the new building of the China Medical History Museum and the 20th anniversary celebration of the Institute of Medical History and Literature at the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, the museum received a donation from Ding Dahai, the descendant of Ding Fubao, a famous late-Qing Dynasty Chinese physician. Ding Fubao was the first person to introduce X-ray equipment to China. Ding Dahai donated 87 cultural relics to the China Medical History Museum, including ancient Chinese medical texts, manuscripts, calligraphy, and paintings that his ancestor had rescued and brought back from Japan.

Source: Beijing Municipal Commission of Tourism Development