Chinese Medicine

Chinese medicine books are the absolutely necessary tools for anyone who wants to study this ancient healing art-Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). Therefore, the question follows immediately: which Chinese medicine books should be in my must-have list? It is not surprising that this question would be raised so frequently by Chinese medicine green hands if you know the basic truth that how many volumes of Chinese medicine books are on the shelf out there.

Facts about Chinese medicine books

According to statistics, each year there are more than 1,300 Chinese medicine books being published. More than 60,000 Chinese medicine books are published in recent 30 years. Before that only 10,000 Chinese medicine books were written by ancient writers. That is to say the volumes of published Chinese medicine books in recent 30 years is much more than the total amount of all ancient Chinese medicine books.

The worse thing is that views vary from Chinese medicine book to Chinese medicine book. Therefore, initial learners are found very often at loose ends. Since we know that most Chinese medicine books are extremes huge, it is very difficult to finish them all due to our limited time and energy. That is also the reason why Chinese medicine is so difficult to master and there is so few famous doctors in ancient history.

In my point of view, we should focus our limited time and energy on those proven Chinese medicine books, which had outlived its relevance. So for any serious Chinese medicine learners, the four classical Chinese medicine books would be the first choice.

Classical Chinese medicine books one: “Huang Di Nei Jing”

Huang Di Nei Jing, also known as yellow Emperor’s Canon of Medicine in English, is one of the oldest classic of Chinese medicine books. What does Jing mean? In ancient China, people called those very important and compulsory books with certain laws as “Jing”.

Huang Di Nei Jing introduces the concepts of blood, meridians, bone marrow, yin and yang, exterior and interior etc. Based on these concepts, Huang Di Nei Jing elucidates the root causes of sickness and the boundaries between life and death. Meanwhile Huang Di Nei Jing offers acupuncture and other herbal treatment methods.

As the oldest classic of Chinese medicine books, Huang Di Nei Jing is notoriously difficult to understand. However, in the history of Chinese medicine, almost all famous doctors claimed that Huang Di Nei Jing was their most important guide in their careers. There was a lot of evidence that it would be an instant cure if you could have a thorough grasp of just one snippet in Huang Di Nei Jing.

Classical Chinese medicine books two: “Nan Jing”

Nan Jing, also known as Classic of questioning in English, is one of classical theoretical Chinese medicine books. Nan means questioning and Jing means Huang Di Nei Jing, namely Nan Jing means questioning Huang Di Nei Jing. The author proposed his difficulties and doubts about Huang Di Nei Jing and then offered the answers one by one. Furthermore, Nan Jing provided his innovative illustration in some solutions.

There are 81 questions in Nan Jing. And it expounded them ranging from human entrails functional morphology, pulse diagnosis, acupuncture to meridians. Nan Jing is mainly about the theoretical basis of Chinese medicine and combined with part of clinical medicine, especially focusing on pulse diagnosis, Zang-Fu viscera, meridians and Shu-acupoint.

Due to its precision analysis and innovative point views, this classical Chinese medicine book has often been compared with Huang Di Nei Jing and is considered as one of the most important classical Chinese medicine books.

Classical Chinese medicine books three: “Shang Han Lun”

Shang Han Lun, also known as Treatise on Cold Pathogenic Diseases in English, is the first medical masterpiece in the world. This classical Chinese medicine book, written in AD 204, was the life-time painstaking efforts by Zhang Zhongjing.

Shang Han Lun is the world’s first experience-summary clinical work. This Chinese medicine book analyzed systematically the exogenous typhoid’s causes, symptoms, stages of development and treating methods. It creatively put forward the based rules on different treatments should be used according to different conditions and stages. Moreover, this Chinese medicine book inferred six different broad categories from the entire regular syndrome, also known as the theory of Six Channels.

There are 113 representative formulas and 397 laws in this classical Chinese medicine book, which are considered as the irreplaceable classic by later scholars. Therefore, these formulas were called as Classic Formulas (Jing Fang) and Zhang Zhongjing was renowned as the Ancestor of Formulas.

Classical Chinese medicine books four: “Shen Nong’s Herbal Classic”

Shen Nong’s Herbal Classic marks the birth of Chinese medicine. This Chinese medicine book systematically summarized the pharmacological knowledge before Qin and Han dynasties in China. Shen Nong’s Herbal Classic laid the foundation for the development of the science of pharmacy and prescriptions. Till now it is still one of the most important classics for any groups studying Chinese medicine.

There are 365 kinds of drugs introduced in Shen Nong’s Herbal Classic. These drugs have been used for thousands years and proved repeatedly. Moreover, Shen Nong’s Herbal Classic created the theories of Four Properties and Five Flavors for drugs and classified drugs as three different categories, top grade, middle grade and low grade. Thousands years later, all these drugs and methods documented in Shen Nong’s Herbal Classic can be seen in our daily lives. It is a miracle.

There are so many Chinese medicine books available out there. If you have a very tight budget and limited time, you don’t have to buy them all and read them all. Actually, the four classics of Chinese medicine books can be the very good choice. However, it is a daunting task to read these four classics of Chinese medicine books for a lot of green hands. Anyway, I think it is all about how determined you are to learn Chinese medicine. Thing can be funny if you have reached some kind of higher levels. This is a painful step we have to go through before seeing the beautiful scene.