"Refusal to treat under six conditions", the earliest medical and ethical code in ancient China

In the paper the principle of physician's "Refusal to treat under six cases" was reviewed. It was the first ethical code for physician in ancient China. The emergence of ethical code for physician was the result of medical professionalism and the formation of the professional groups. The principle proposed by the famous physician Bian-Que in ancient China, like Hippocratic Oath, was an ethics of outer achievement rather than one of inner intention. It provided a framework of medical behavior, and emerges as a powerful tool seeking to safeguard the reputation of the profession for its own sake rather than, in main, seeking to promote the patients' good.