English translations of traditional Chinese medical texts rarely have conformed to the standards required of a contribution to sinology. One exception has been the first edition of Fundamentals of Chinese Medicine, a ground-breaking translation of the Zhong Yi Ji Chu Xue which demonstrated that not only was it possible to meet scholarly expectations for the translations of T.C.M, but that the cooperation of living Chinese speaking clinicians could reveal nuances of practice. Beyond beginner's manuals, it gives English-speaking students of TCM a chance to appreciate the qualitative details available to their Chinese-speaking colleagues. It offers readers the rare opportunity to understand Chinese medicine, not as it is perceived by a Western writer, but as it is perceived and taught in China, because Chinese descriptions of TCM that confound Western expectations have not been expunged from the textual translation.
The newly revised edition incorporates experience from utilization of the work as a coursebook for teaching, not only in the West but in China. Based on the suggestion and aid of Western teachers and translators, this new, popularly priced edition features a simplified but precise English terminology, thousands of source Chinese characters, and hundreds of clinical definitions never before available in English. Contents include yin and yang and the five phases; qi, blood, essence, and fluids; the channels; the organs; diseases and their causes. Pattern identification and treatment of eight-parameter, organ, qi-blood, pathogens, and exogenous heat conditions are discussed in detail, as are the principles and methods of treatment. Illustrative acumoxa therapy has been added for Western acupuncturists.
The revised edition includes explanations of terms and an entire materia medica and formulary sufficient to practice the treatments described by the text. As such it is not only a unique, absolutely-defined and referenced text, but a self-contained and inexpensive course of study. As a basic text produced to a multi-author, multi-publisher voluntary standard, the revised Fundamentals of Chinese Medicine is a bridge between scholars and clinicians in both East and West. |
