Medicine is a scientific system to study human life process and prevent and treat diseases, and bears the responsibility of protecting and promoting human health. Conceptually, it is divided into Chinese medicine and western medicine. Traditional Chinese medicine directly uses philosophical methods, that is, systematic research methods, taking the theory of yin-yang and five elements as methodology, taking etiology and pathogenesis as the core, and treating diseases mainly with prescriptions. Western medicine, on the other hand, adopts the reductive research methods of physics and chemistry.
The medical specialty pays attention to the basic theory and experimental skills of natural science, life science and medicine, and requires students to master the basic theory and knowledge of medicine and master the analysis and design operation of medical experiments. Graduates can engage in teaching, research and experiment of basic medicine in medical colleges and medical research institutions, and also work in clinical hospitals of major hospitals. Medical undergraduate education system is generally five years. Some medical schools have seven-year clinical medicine majors, while others have eight-year programs.