10 Facts About Zhang Xichun

Zhang Xichun, courtesy name Shoufu, was a Chinese physician and medical scholar who pioneered the integration of Western and Eastern medicines.

The founder of a medical college in Tianjin, Zhang penned many articles on various medical topics.

Zhang Xichun was born in 1860, in Yanshan County, Hebei, China.

Zhang Xichun was not linguistically inclined, unlike his father, and failed his imperial examinations in Chinese literature twice.

Zhang Xichun became Dean of the Li Da Chinese Medicine Hospital in 1918.

Zhang Xichun began publishing a series of essays on a wide range of medical issues titled, The Assimilation of Western Medicine to Chinese in Medicine.

Zhang Xichun's publications are now regarded as "an important modern classic of Chinese medicine".

Zhang Xichun saw philosophy as complementary and beneficial to medicine, contrary to the belief held by many of his time that the former inhibits the latter's development.

Zhang Xichun believed that modern and traditional medicine shared a common set of principles and thought that Western medical knowledge could be proof for ancient Chinese beliefs, such as in the case of determining that the heart cannot function without the brain.

Zhang Xichun is considered as one of the "four masters of medicine" of China, the other three being Liu Weichu, Yang Ruhou, and Lu Jinsheng.