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usnchuld and scholarly criticism

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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

 

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