GB/T 46940-2025Traditional Chinese medicine - Categories of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) clinical terminological systems (English PDF)

Foreword

This document complies with the provisions of GB/T 1.1-2020 "Standardization Work Guidelines Part 1: Structure and Drafting Rules of Standardization Documents".

Drafting.

This document is modified to adopt ISO 19465:2017 "Systematic Classification Framework for Clinical Terminology of Traditional Chinese Medicine".

This document has undergone the following structural adjustments compared to ISO 19465:2017.

---5.2 corresponds to 5.2.1~5.2.5 in ISO 19465:2017;

---5.3 corresponds to 5.4.1 to 5.4.3 in ISO 19465:2017;

---5.4 corresponds to 5.3 in ISO 19465:2017;

---Removed 5.16 from ISO 19465:2017;

---5.16 and 5.17 correspond to 5.17 and 5.18 in ISO 19465:2017, with the addition of 5.18.

The technical differences between this document and ISO 19465:2017, and the reasons therefor, are as follows.

---Added the terminology and definition of "class" (see 3.5);

---The words "connectives" and 5.16 in section 5.1 of ISO 19465:2017 have been removed as they do not fall under the category of clinical terminology;

---Added "Limit Values" and explanations (see 5.1, 5.18), which are actually needed in system construction;

---The descriptions for "Traditional Chinese Medicine Diseases," "Syndromes," "Staging and Transmission," "Medical Case Structure," "Phrase," and "Traditional Chinese Medicine Units of Measurement and Quantifiers" have been revised (see...).

(5.3, 5.11, 5.15, 5.17) to make it easier for users to understand;

---Change "Principles and Experience" to "Traditional Chinese Medicine Theory and Experience" (see 5.7). The revised name is more explicit.

---The term "body system" has been changed to "body form" and its description has been revised (see 5.10) for greater clarity.

The following editorial changes have been made to this document.

---ISO 1087-1:2000 has been replaced by GB/T 15237-2025, which is cited in this document.

---Examples for versions 5.11, 5.16, and 5.17 have been added;

---The subclasses in the classification framework diagram of the TCM clinical terminology system have been deleted (see Appendix A).

Please note that some content in this document may involve patents. The issuing organization of this document assumes no responsibility for identifying patents.

This document was proposed by the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine.

This document is under the jurisdiction of the National Technical Committee on Standardization of Traditional Chinese Medicine (SAC/TC478).

1 Scope

This document establishes the classification principles for the TCM clinical terminology system and specifies the classification structure of the TCM clinical terminology system.

This document applies to the construction of electronic medical records in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and the informatization of clinical medical records. It mainly includes TCM professional clinical terminology and electronic medical records.

The construction of a knowledge system for non-clinical terms in the record.

This document does not apply to the comprehensive classification structure of Traditional Chinese Medicine, the conceptual definitions of hierarchical categories, or the terminology of individual TCM concepts.

2 Normative references

This document has no normative references.

3 Terms and Definitions

The following terms and definitions apply to this document.

concept

Knowledge units are formed through unique combinations of features.

Note 1.Concepts are not limited by specific natural languages, but are influenced by social or cultural backgrounds.

Note 2.This refers to the concept used and referred to in terminology work, distinguishing it from the concept used in other fields such as industrial automation or marketing.

The concept of "name".

[Source. GB/T 15237-2025, 3.2.7] 3.2 Concept system; of concepts A structured set of concepts established in one or more related fields based on the conceptual relationships between concepts.

[Source. GB/T 15237-2025, 3.2.28] 3.3 term Using language to express the reference of general concepts.

Examples. "laser printer", "planet", "pacemaker", "compound".

Note. Terms may consist in part or in whole of words.

[Source. GB/T 15237-2025, 3.4.2] 3.4 Terminological system A set of terms based on the relationships between them, with each term represented by a symbol.

[Source. ISO 18308:2011, 3.50, modified] 3.5 class A group of objects that share common attributes.