Chinese Medicine

Chinese Medicine is the English translation of Paul Unschuld's popular German text "Chinesische Medizin"; Paul is widely recognized for his authoritative intellectual histories and translations. Because he works not only with the actual historic and archeological record of Chinese medicine but also the modern health care system in the People's Republic of China, Paul is uniquely able to provide a broad and objective perspective. That perspective is the most important quality this text provides its readers. The discussion of Chinese medicine's early historical roots is not a year-by-year cataloging of seminal events in China. Rather, it is a historically justified explanation of how the qualities of Chinese medicine evolved. He describes Chinese medicine in terms of the Chinese view of nature and human health and disease that is evident in the ancient texts. Yin-yang, the five phases, the structure of the human system, the flow of qi, sickness and evil, diagnosis and functional disturbance, and qi therapy and acupuncture are each examined in the context of their generative period. While many have described these features of Chinese medicine, none have so comprehensively tied their understanding to the ancient, generative context. The same is true of his chapter-length explanations of the calendric cycles, ophthalmology, drugs and pharmacology. The information on ophthalmology is a look at traditional thought concerning a class of diseases that has not often reached the English clinical literature, although it is preserved in modern Chinese language texts. Here again the information is based on Dr. Unschuld's research of primary texts, in particular the "Yin Hai Jin Wei" (Essential Subtleties on the Silver Sea), his English translation of which is soon to be released. His explanation of drug therapy is equally powerful in that he explores the essential, but usually unasked, question of how theory related to practice in the day-to-day life of traditional doctors and their patients. The largest single section of text is devoted to Chinese medicine and its practice today. This is also the chapter that will be most controversial. Contrary to popular perception, but commonly observed by those who work closely with Chinese scholars and clinicians, is a hostility toward Chinese traditional medicine. Chinese decision-makers, reformists and revolutionaries have all encouraged or demanded the scientization of T.C.M., thus, increasing its abstraction from Chinese life.

"Each new generation in China finds the ancient philosophies increasingly alien. The doctrines of yin and yang and the five phases have lost their rank as the obvious way to understand reality; they are no longer part of school or family education and have to be painstakingly learned.'' Chinese Medicine is a small book, one that is accessible to any reader with an interest in Chinese medicine or traditional thought, but its author has addressed the largest topics. Through his objective analysis of the past, he convincingly and thoroughly opens the challenge of the future to creative debate.