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Filter by category and discipline, then by continent, country and century of birth. Countries not yet represented can be drafted at the research desk.

Clinical medicine and public health alongside the functional, integrative, Chinese and Ayurvedic traditions.

11 figures

Zhang Xichun

1860 – 1933

First great synthesiser of Chinese and Western medicine; his case records still teach clinicians.

China·Traditional Chinese Medicine · Medicine

Georges Soulié de Morant

1878 – 1955

French consul in China whose L'Acuponcture Chinoise opened the practice to Europe.

France·Traditional Chinese Medicine

Cheng Dan'an

1899 – 1957

Rescued acupuncture from abolition and rebuilt it on anatomical terms with filiform needles.

China·Traditional Chinese Medicine

Keisetsu Otsuka

1900 – 1980

Revived Kampo in Japan and secured its place inside the national health insurance system.

Japan·Traditional Chinese Medicine · Medicine

Zhu Lian

1909 – 1978

Wrote New Acupuncture (1951) and led the state institute that standardised the practice.

China·Traditional Chinese Medicine · Public Health

Yoshio Manaka

1911 – 1989

Surgeon-acupuncturist who built a biophysical model of meridian therapy.

Japan·Traditional Chinese Medicine · Medicine

Deng Tietao

1916 – 2019

Master physician of Guangzhou whose spleen-stomach theory shaped modern TCM curricula.

China·Traditional Chinese Medicine · Education

J. R. Worsley

1923 – 2003

Founded Five Element acupuncture and the colleges that carried it across the English-speaking world.

United Kingdom·Traditional Chinese Medicine · Education

Miriam Lee

1926 – 2009

Her arrest and trial in California led directly to acupuncture's legalisation in the state.

United States·Traditional Chinese Medicine

Giovanni Maciocia

1945 – 2018

The Foundations of Chinese Medicine became the standard Western textbook of the field.

Italy·Traditional Chinese Medicine · Education

Ted Kaptchuk

b. 1947

Wrote The Web That Has No Weaver, then founded Harvard's programme in placebo studies.

United States·Traditional Chinese Medicine · Medicine