recommended reading
Note - Please purchase texts as close to the source as possible, from the publisher or author themselves, such as University of California Press for Unschuld's texts. For Chinese medical texts, purchase directly from the author or use Redwing Books or other Chinese medical publishers such as Happy Goat Productions or Chinese Medicine Database. If none of the above is possible, please use Alibris. Your money is your voice, energy, intent. Use and direct it mindfully, towards those things you wish to see flourish. Chinese medicine is a small field. In order to support the existence of quality materials, we must support those producing those materials.
Chinese medicine
Foundations
Wiseman, N. and Ye, F. A Practical Dictionary of Chinese Medicine
- The single most comprehensive, scholarly collection of Chinese
medical terms and concepts, including clinically useful information
such as point prescriptions. Available as an add-on dictionary on
Wiseman, N. and Ellis, A. Fundamentals of Chinese Medicine
Ellis, A. and Wiseman, N. Fundamentals of Chinese Acupuncture
Post-graduate ("Advanced")
Note - A key part of rising above introductory materials in Chinese medicine, i.e., those
myriad TCM pattern cookbooks - e.g. the four patterns of back pain, six patterns for
diabetes, listings of points, herbs, or formulas "good for" X disease, etc. - is to
understand the underlying pathomechanisms of symptoms and disease, to enrich
your understanding of the base paradigm and core theoretical and clinical theories to
the point where you can understand the health-disease dynamic in its entirety
allowing you to asses it comprehensively and approach it therapeutically from
multiple angles with modalities. The best way to do this is direct study of the source
of the medicine, the Han dynasty medical classics, such as the Nèijīng. As this
approach is dealt with in other areas of this website, below are listed intermediary
texts, those which will likely carry the reader beyond entry-level understanding.
Han Dynasty Classics
Huángdì Nèijīng, 黃帝内經 Yellow Emperor's Inner Classic
Shānghán Lùn/Jīngguì Yàoluè, 傷寒論/金貴要略 Treatise on Cold Damage/Essential
Prescriptions from the Golden Cabinet
Shénnóng Běncǎo Jīng, 神農本草經 Divine Farmer's Classic of Materia Medica
Translation by Sabine Wilms, PhD
Chinese Language Study
Dictionaries Kroll, P. A Student's Dictionary of Classical and Medieval Chinese
Available as a softcover text or Pleco app
Wiseman and Feng. A Practical Dictionary of Chinese Medicine
Available in hardcover or as Pleco app
Chinese Medicine History
Hinrichs, T and Barnes, L. Chinese Medicine and Healing: An Illustrated History
Review by Nathan Sivins, PhD
Unschuld, P. Medicine in China: A History of ideas
Review by Nathan Sivins, PhD
Scheid, V.Chinese Medicine in Contemporary China: Plurality and Synthesis
Taylor, K. Chinese Medicine in Early Communist China
Practitioner, Bastyr Center for Natural Health, Seattle, WA
Adjunct Faculty/Lecturer, Northwestern Health Sciences University,
Arizona School of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine,
Eastern School of Acupuncture and Traditional Medicine,
Clinic Supervisor, Bastyr University
Graduate student, Asian Languages and Literature, Univ of WA