In clinical practice, some patients with poor physical condition or chronic diseases often ask their doctors a common question in the process of taking Chinese medicine for slow treatment – it is a medicine with three points of toxicity. What these patients worry about is that if they take Chinese medicine for a long time to regulate their bodies and cure their diseases, will it be harmful to their bodies or organs such as the heart, liver and kidneys? If you want to get pregnant and have a child, will it affect conception while taking the medicine? If you are pregnant, will taking Chinese medicine harm the fetus? Is it true that Chinese medicine is “three kinds of poison”? Is “poison” in Chinese medicine the modern understanding of “toxic ingredients”? The questions are many and varied. For this ancient question and clinical problem that has been handed down from generation to generation, we need to conduct a brief theoretical search on the concept and connotation of “poison” and “poisonous medicine” in Chinese medicine, and combine it with clinical practice to answer and clarify the questions. It is necessary to conduct a brief theoretical search on the concept and connotation of “poison” and “poisonous medicine” in Chinese medicine, and to combine it with clinical practice in order to answer and clarify the above-mentioned clinical questions. I. Chinese medicine’s understanding of “poison” The elaboration and reference of “poison” in traditional Chinese medicine is not “poison” in the modern sense. In fact, the meaning and reference of the so-called “poison” in ancient Chinese medicine is more complex, if briefly summarized, the elaboration and reference of “poison” in traditional Chinese medicine is roughly reflected in the following three aspects: First, it refers to the cause of disease: Chinese medicine will be the human body’s disease-causing factors. There are generally “external” and “internal” causes. The so-called “external causes” are the six types of climate change, namely wind, cold, heat, humidity, dryness and fire, which originate from the yin and yang of nature, the change of cold and heat, and the coming of spring and autumn, and are referred to as “six qi” in Chinese medicine. When these six kinds of climate changes are too much or too little, or have their own qi at the wrong time, or when the climate changes drastically from one moment to another, exceeding the body’s ability to adapt, the “six qi” becomes the causative factor of external diseases such as cold and flu, and Chinese medicine refers to the “six qi This abnormal change in the “six qi” and the harm to the human body, known as the “six kinky” evil qi, the human body feel this kind of evil qi and illness is called “six kinky external sensation”, or called “external sensation Evil Qi”. For certain diseases and pathological changes caused by “damp-heat”, “warm-heat” or “summer-heat” of the “six evil spirits” on the human body, Chinese medicine is concerned with and pathological changes caused by “damp-heat”, “warm-heat”, “summer-heat” or “wind and fire”, Chinese medicine often refers to them as “damp-heat poisonous evil”, “warm-heat poisonous evil”, “summer-heat poisonous evil” or “wind and fire poisonous evil “etc. For some external evils that are stronger than the six evils, they are called “epidemic poison”, “miasma poison”, etc. In short, all external abnormal climate factors that cause people to get sick, is the “external causes”, because it is in the human body is insufficient to harm the situation and cause disease, so, Chinese medicine and often call them “evil” or “poison “. It can be seen that in Chinese medicine etiology, “evil” and “poison” are often used interchangeably or jointly as “evil poison” or “poisonous evil”. However, in Chinese characters, “evil” and “poison” are often used interchangeably or in conjunction as “evil poison” or “poisonous evil. However, in Chinese characters, “poison” and “harm” have close meanings and are often used in conjunction as “poisonous harm”, which can be understood as “harm” to the human body. “. Therefore, Chinese medicine calls the “six evil spirits” attacking people as diseases, also called “typhoid”, “typhoid cold”, “typhoid dampness “, “heatstroke”, or “heat”, “warm evil on the subject” and so on. People feel these kinds of evil and get sick, and often called “harmful disease” and so on. It can be seen that the so-called “poison” in Chinese medicine, in etiology, is relative to “external evil”, but also implies the meaning of “injury” and get sick. This understanding of disease caused by external evil in Chinese medicine is like people complaining about certain social ills as “crooked wind and evil spirits harming one side”, and they are basically the same. Secondly, it refers to diseases: after the human body gets a certain disease due to “external sensation” or “internal injury”, certain symptoms, signs or physiopathological changes often appear in the clinic. According to the evidence, Chinese medicine often classifies some acute, serious, critical or chronic diseases that are difficult to cure as “poison”, or calls them by “poison”. For example, if the skin and muscles have sores, boils, furuncles, carbuncles and other symptoms such as redness, swelling, heat and pain, TCM often calls these skin diseases “wind and fire heat toxins”, etc.; when the body is hot, headache or body pain, skin rash or petechiae, irritability or coma, TCM calls them “heat toxins with fervor”, etc.; when the body is hot, headache or body pain, skin rash or petechiae, irritability or coma, TCM calls them “heat toxins with fervor”, etc. Chinese medicine refers to “internal closure of epidemic toxin”; Chinese medicine also refers to “internal closure of epidemic toxin” for sores and eczema on the skin, femur, limbs and toes, as well as for ulcers, water and itching and pain that are difficult to be cured. “dampness and toxicity” and so on. Chinese medicine to this kind of disease to give the name “poison”, is only to say that the disease to the “poison” stage, the “damage” to the human body also has a fast onset, heavy condition, or delayed difficult to heal and so on. The clinical characteristics. This is like what people call “heat poison”, which is the heat rash or heat dermatitis that gets hot overnight in summer; like what people call “fire poison”, which is red, swollen, hot and painful boils on the body; like what people call “fire poison”. “The same as the chronic itchy skin or “burning crotch” is called “wet poison”. These common diseases and names often come out of people’s mouths, which is the authentic and simple language of traditional Chinese medicine and ethnic medical cognition. The treatment of the above-mentioned “poisonous diseases” in Chinese medicine is based on the etiology and pathogenesis of the “poison”, the identification and treatment of the disease, and the legislative selection of prescriptions and medicines: either to clear heat and detoxify, or to cool the blood and detoxify, or to relieve dampness and detoxify, or to remove fire and detoxify, or a combination of all methods to treat. This dialectical treatment of “human body with poison” in Chinese medicine is just like the words of “purging the poison”, and the semantics between them are similar. Thirdly, it refers to Chinese medicine: this goes back to the topic of “medicine is three kinds of poison” in this article. To clarify this issue, let’s talk about the relationship between “poison” and “medicine”. In fact, in ancient China, Chinese medicine was called “poison”, that is, the “Chinese medicine” to cure diseases called “poison”. For example, in the earliest document about the medical system in China, the Zhou Dynasty, there is “the physician in charge of the medical policy and order, gathering poison for medical services” (Zhou Li – Tian Guan Zha Zai). This means that the “physician”, the highest administrative officer, was in charge of the “medicine” for medical use; the “poison” mentioned here refers to plant-based “medicine”. The term “poison” here refers to plant-based “drugs”. In the Chinese medical classic “Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine – Different Methods and Prescriptions”, it is also recorded that “the disease is born inside, its treatment should be poison. Therefore, the poisonous medicine also comes from the West.” The meaning is that the disease has been deep in the inside (not acupuncture and moxibustion by the method of guidance can be cured), we must use the “drug” internal treatment; here the “poison”, also refers to the treatment of plant “drugs “. Ming dynasty doctor Zhang Jiebin clearly pointed out: “Poisonous medicine, including bait. Anyone who can get rid of disease, can be called poison.” (“Class Jing・Treatment Class”). In addition, there is also the familiar saying “Shennong tasted the taste of a hundred herbs and encountered seventy poisons in one day”. In fact, the “poison” mentioned here also refers to “medicine”. This ancient legend is that: in ancient times, the ancestors in order to survive, Shennong clan with his clan, drinking dew, eating fruit, tasting a hundred herbs to feed the hungry, but also tasted in a day to get rid of disease “seventy kinds of drugs”. The words “one day” and “seventy” here should be understood as an approximate number, or as “long-term”, which means that during the long and hard primitive life of the Chinese ancestors, Chinese herbal medicines The meaning of this is that during the long and hard primitive life of the Chinese ancestors, the herbs were “tasted” for a long time in the process of foraging for food, and were “eaten” by their own mouths from nature. Therefore, there is a historical saying that “Shennong tasted all kinds of herbs, and medicine began to exist”. From this, it can be seen that the earliest term “poison” in Chinese medicine actually refers to all the “drugs” for healing. However, one cannot help but ask: why did the ancient Chinese not just call it “medicine” but “poison”? If we take the above into account, one of the reasons is probably because: since the cause of disease has an external “evil poison”, and the symptoms and pathological changes of disease have an internal “poison evil”, the name of the drug is “poison”. The name “poison” may mean “suppressing poison with poison” or “attacking poison with poison”. However, the ultimate reason why “poison” and “medicine” are mentioned together, the most convincing answer should be “medicine and food have the same origin” as follows: Chinese ancestors in “Later, after accumulating experience and being able to distinguish between their different functions and efficacy, they decided to use “food” and “medicine” to satisfy hunger, to sustain life, and to be nutritious and delicious. Later, after experience has been accumulated, when we can distinguish their different functions and effects, we call plants that can feed the hungry, extend life, nutritious and delicious “food”, and plants that can prevent and cure diseases or have some kind of reaction to the human body but do not taste good “poison”. This distinction between “food” and “poison” is to make “those who are not poisonous can take, and those who are poisonous should avoid” (‘can take ‘ is to eat; ‘when to avoid’ is not to eat or caution eating). And “poison” and “food” for human diseases, is “poison to attack evil, grains for nourishment” (Suwen Zang Qi Fa Shi Lun) of the relationship between the cooperation of eliminating evil and supporting the righteous. We also call those plants that can be used as both “poison” and “food” “medicine and food”. As for the difference and connection between “food” and “medicine”, Yang Shang-shan of the Sui Dynasty wrote the following interesting statement in “Huang Di Nei Jing Tai Su”: “Eat as food on an empty stomach, eat as medicine for patients. ” In short, the “poisonous” and “non-poisonous”, “poison” and “food” in Chinese plants speak of During the long history of the Chinese people, the “food” and the “medicine” have been interpreted as a combination of division and combination, reflecting the cultural characteristic of “medicine and food of the same origin” in Chinese medicine. From this, we know that the so-called “poison” in traditional medicine is the “medicine” to cure diseases. “poison”, the second is mainly “medicine and food of the same origin” and the history of the inevitable result of the combination of points. This shows that the “poisons” of plants that Chinese medicine has been talking about for thousands of years are not the same as the “poisons” in the modern sense. This is obviously a misinterpretation and misleading of traditional Chinese medicine.