Recent Advances in the Study of Ancient Books on Traditional Chinese Medicine

The ancient books on traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) are the source of knowledge for TCM physicians. Therapeutic principles and therapeutic methods for healing many diseases are recorded in these ancient TCM books, providing a huge number of references for modern TCM physicians on conducting diagnosis and administering treatment for different diseases. The ancient TCM books can be dated back thousands of years, and this vast knowledge is recorded in different medical books in the form of text. However, it is difficult to systematically assimilate much information in ancient TCM books. At present, many researchers are applying advanced analytical techniques to analyze the text data in the ancient TCM books. Advanced techniques that have been applied include database construction, cognitive linguistic analysis, fuzzy logic, data mining, and artificial intelligence(AI) technology. There are different characteristics in these advanced analytical techniques. In this study, we comprehensively review recent advances in these techniques applied to the study of ancient TCM books. Furthermore, as AI technology is increasingly utilized in the medical field as well as in the study of ancient TCM books, we also review the application of AI technology to the study of ancient TCM books.