Nigel Wiseman on the importance of the Chinese language in TCM

[Guest guest]

Hi All, and Hi Nigel,

 

A great fan of the scholarly works coauthored by Nigel Wiseman,

including " Grasping the Wind " , and the " Practical Dictionary of

" , I was taken aback by his statement that great

teachers [i.e. genuine authorities] of TCM MUST be competent to

read the Classics as well as modern texts in the Chinese

language, AND to have great depth of clinical EXPERIENCE in

TCM.

 

But that was my initial knee-jerk reaction, because it challenged

MY ego. This is because, despite not knowing enough Chinese to

read even simple texts, I have been a teacher (mainly to vets/vet

students) of the more basic aspects of Chinese acupuncture since

1980. I know that many Listers are in the same position. Nigel has

challenged ALL teachers of AP/TCM who cannot read Chinese,

and IMO he is 100% correct!!

 

If we cannot read the SOURCE material, it is a case of the blind

teaching the blinder!, the one-eyed teacher teaching those that see

even less!

 

However, Nigel reckons that PRACTITIONERS who cannot read

Chinese CAN be competent in TCM if they has access to great

teachers and good translations of the best TCM texts. At least,

that gives me some consolation. At least from my perspective as a

novice in this field, there ARE some great texts out there [including

his texts], .

 

Hats off to you Nigel - you have stimulated me to study harder. I do

not think that I will ever master Chinese, but at least I can try to

come to grips with some of its more common medical terms and

ideograms.

 

I have taken the liberty of passing Nigel's comments to several

sister lists on AP/TCM/Herbology. IMO, Nigel's call to study

Chinese will hurt the ego of many IVAS- and TCM- teachers. It will

also scandalise thhose who claim that we can dispense with most

TCM theory as being " unnecessary " and " scientifically unvalidated "

 

But if we forget our egos, and think about Nigel's message, I

believe that many on these Lists will agree with Nigel, and some

[especially the teachers] may bite the bullet and try to learn some

Chinese.

 

Best regards,

Phil

 

 

Best regards,

 

 

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[Guest guest]

Phil,

 

Thanks for your post. I am passing it on to

Nigel, as he doesn't regularly read the

list postings.

 

Ken