There is an old saying: "Traditional Chinese medicine and food share a common origin." In other words, medicine and food have the same origin, but different usages. In remote prehistoric times, there must have been a Period when medicine and food we/'e both eaten indiscriminately without any distinct demarcation. This is simply due to the fact that primitive people could not yet tell medicine from food. When they were badly in need of food, and they, extremely hungry, might eat anything, which could result in a marked reaction to the body such as vomiting, diarrhoea or vertigo. It was not until a long time later that people began to differentiate a few substances which contained clear therapeutic action from common foods.
Legend has it that around the 11th century B.C., King Tang of the Shang Dynasty had an excellent chef named Yi Yin, who also cooked soups for his king when he was ill. Having eaten a few bowls of soup, the king would then recover. Hence Yi Yin is reputed to be the inventor of decoctions. Whatever the real story, this legend suggests that soups and decoctions share a common origin. This common origin of food and medicine is also reflected in the case of wine. Wine has been very popular since ancient times. However, it also became of great importance in medicine, so much that both the Chinese characters for "medicine" and "wine" share the same component " " as their radicals.
