ABSTRACT
The scientific investigation on the nature of Chinese materia medica(CMM)has stepped into a critical moment.In this paper,the objectivity of the CMM nature and some other relevant existing problems are discussed based on retrospective and prospective analyses.It could be concluded that there is a duality about the objective connotation of the CMM nature.In order to get a significant breakthrough in near future in the scientific investigation on the CMM nature,the goal,strategy,and methodology should be reconsidered and adjusted.Cold and heat,the most radical and important elements of the CMM nature should be treated as the most principal task in the field.The key scientific issues can be refined to establish a set of objective and scientific evaluating system for the CMM nature,and to elucidate its objective conno- tation.In view of restoration to integration as well as thermodynamic expression,a set of new ideas and methods for the investigation on the CMM nature has been put forward in this paper.