Western-Chinese materia medica

[Guest guest]

It has been interesting for me to see the contrasting posts from Bob

Flaws last friday taken from the Zhong Yao Da Ci Dian, and the posts

from 's work-in-progress. Very East and West, in a sense.

 

I agree with your sentiments, as expressed below about an Western

herbal work rooted in the Chinese literature. I am hoping such a work

will be published in the nearer future.

 

In the meantime, there are two published texts. One, the Holmes text,

as was already pointed out, is too confusing to use clinically, and has

no Chinese references. A newer text, " Combining Chinese Herbs and

" has just been released by Jeremy Ross. It is a great

improvement on the Holmes text, in my opinion, although it doesn't

reference the Chinese medical literature in any great detail (it does

mention when specific Western herbs are listed in Zhong Yao Da Ci

Dian). It has, however, great descriptions of Western herbs, and very

well-done opening chapters on tastes, temperature and herb combinations

that go past anything I've seen in English.

 

Basically Jeremy is proposing a new system for combining medicinals and

determining their properties based on an interpretation of Chinese

medicine.

 

So I'd recommend this book as an interesting research and reference

text, especially for medicinals used in China that also have a history

of use in the West. But the ideal Zhong Yao Da Ci Dian-based text has

yet to be written.

 

Thomas, I wish you success with your endeavor, I know you've put a lot

into this, and I've enjoyed what I've seen so far. I share your

passion for wild-crafted medicinals, and hope your work will help

increase the awareness that we need to begin to be concerned with

wild-crafting and growing our own medicines here in the States.

 

 

On Saturday, September 6, 2003, at 07:31 AM, wrote:

 

> With all due respect to others who taken on this endeavor in the past,

> I do not

> believe their books have ultimately had much impact on TCM itself and I

> believe it is because what I consider such a fundamental issue has been

> overlooked. So there is nothing wrong or bad about your approach. I

> just

> believe all new information in TCM is always deeply grounded in what

> came

> before. I would like to see your book written with editorial

> footnotes about

> herbs for which you differ from TCM. For example, noting how and why

> you

> differed from the zhong yao da ci dian, etc. That would be truly a

> work of

> some import. Presenting new ideas in the appropiate historical and

> clinical

> context would pave the way for a lasting set of monographs.