The texts of Chinese medicine are extremely voluminous. They have a continuous history of more than 2,000 years, of which little is known in the West. Standard works up to AD 1900 number around 190, and if popular writings are included this rises to at least 1,500. There has been great activity since the 1949 establishment of the New China, and a modern dictionary of traditional Chinese medicine written in Shanghai in 1988 refers to over 4,000 individuals and 8,000 works. And yet there are barely a dozen translations of these texts. The whole corpus also includes works on massage, diet therapy, and therapeutic exercise similar to the contemporary popular Taiji Quan (Supreme Ultimate Boxing) and Qi Gong (Breathing Therapy). These have been largely omitted from the following entry, which describes, in chronological order, the most important texts on medical theory, acupuncture and moxibustion, and herbal medicine.
The earliest extant systematic writings, which formed the cornerstone for...
References
Bensoussan, A. Essentials of Chinese Acupuncture. Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 1980.
Google Scholar
‐‐‐. Concise Chinese–English Dictionary of Medicine. Beijing: People's Medical Publishing House, 1982.
Google Scholar
‐‐‐. The Vital Meridian. Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone, 1992.
Google Scholar
Fu, Weikang. The Story of Chinese Acupuncture and Moxibustion. Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 1975.
Google Scholar
‐‐‐. Traditional Chinese Medicine and Pharmacology. Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 1985.
Google Scholar
Kaptchuk, Ted J. Chinese Medicine, The Web That Has No Weaver. London: Rider, 1983.
Google Scholar
Lu, Gweidjen and Joseph Needham. Celestial Lancets. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1980.
Google Scholar
O'Conner, John and Dan Bensky, trans. Acupuncture: A Comprehensive Text. Chicago: Eastland Press, 1981.
Google Scholar
Qiu, Mao‐liang. Chinese Acupuncture and Moxibustion. Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone, 1993.
Google Scholar
Unschuld, Paul U. Medicine in China. California: University of California Press, 1985.
Google Scholar
Ware, James R., trans. Alchemy. Medicine and Religion in the China of AD 320 (The Bao Pu Zi). New York: Dover, 1981.
Google Scholar
‐‐‐. Zhongyi Renwu Cidian (A Dictionary of Personages in Traditional Chinese Medicine). Shanghai: Shanghai Book Publishing Company, 1988.
Google Scholar
Download references
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Editor,
Hampshire College, 893 West Street, 01002, Amherst, MA, USA
Helaine Selin
Copyright information
© 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg New York