Guest guest Posted June 20, 2003 Report Share Posted June 20, 2003 Hi Matt, and all: First, I'd like to thank Todd for the great conference. I had lots of fun. Anyway, regarding Matt's post on Sivin/Unschuld: Matt says that " as clinicians, i think it is easy for us to catch any kind of scholarly bait on the subjects,..hook line and sinker, with out much of an ability to scrutinize what we read... " Well, in terms of clinical application of things, we certainly can and do scrutinize what we read (which I think ties in with Todd's comment). But I don't think that's the main thing. Recently, in my own attempts to translate my research into coherent English, I have come to terms with the fact that any translation of Chinese, and for that matter any examination of the vast and complex history of Chinese medicine, must be and can only be an interpretation that is filtered through the culture, language, and worldview of the person translating and researching. It relates to what Ken was saying about " truth, " and that there really is no one truth in terms of " right " and " wrong " in Chinese medicine. And even more so for translations. Each one is a view into an ancient way of thinking about and speaking about the world. Whether something is true in a rigid black/white sense or not has little to do, in CM, with its reliability in a clinical situation. As for Sivin supposedly saying that there are no reliable translations or histories or whatever, that seems to me to be a scientific searching for the " truth " of history, which is admirable, but likely impossible in terms of the complexity of Chinese history. And narrow-minded. I have my own deep respect for Sivin's work, and have and do use it quite a bit, but even so, his is one view of many, and Unschuld is also a major contributor to the quest for beginners like myself to find a pathway into the smoky spirals of Chinese medicine. I think that, if students want to be less vulnerable, it would help to step away from the idea that there's one right way of seeing Chinese medicine and CM history. Sonya _______________ Protect your PC - get McAfee.com VirusScan Online http://clinic.mcafee.com/clinic/ibuy/campaign.asp?cid=3963 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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