FUNDAMENTALS OF CHINESE MEDICINE

By Nigel Wiseman and Andrew Ellis

ISBN: 0-912111-44-5

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 Cu Xue which demonstrated that not only was it possible to meet scholarly expectations for the translations of TCM, but that the cooperation of living Chinese speaking clinicians could reveal nuances of practice. Beyond beginners 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, not as it is perceived and taught in China, because Chinese description of TCM that confound Western expectations have not been expunged from the textual translation. The revised edition incorporates experience from utilization of the work as a course-book for teaching, not only in the West but also 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, pathogen, and exogenous heat conditions are discussed in detail, as are the principles and method 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 in the text. As such, it is not only a unique, absolutely defined and referenced text, but also 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.