Standardisation of TCM Terms

[Guest guest]

Hi All,

 

IMO, the question of whether or not people on THIS list can or should

reach agreement on Standardisation of TCM Terms is minor in

comparison to the larger question, which is: Can the INTERNATIONAL

TCM Professions reach such agreement?

 

Taking differences and difficulties of national languages, the subtleties

of Oriental languages and expressions, different levels of basic and

postgraduate literacy, education, preferences of existing authors in the

field, etc into account, I would not care to hold my breath until an

international standard terminology is agreed by, say 80-90% of the

profession.

 

That said, I agree with those who plead for a standardised terminology,

especially for use in digital storage media (databases).

 

IMO, THIS list can communicate pretty well using a wide range of

synonyms for the same concept, for example,

Feiqixu,

Fei-Qi-Xu,

LU Qi Xu,

LU Qi depletion,

LU Qi Vacuity,

LU Qi asthenia,

deficiency of LU Qi,

vacuous Qi of LU,

empty LU Qi,

Déficience de l'Energie du Poumon

Deficient lung chi/qi/energy

etc.

 

IMO, most of us on THIS List could read any of the above terms and

agree on the basic concept behind them.

 

However, the problem of diverse (non-standardised) terminology

becomes problematic if such a wide range of different terms end up in

one digital database, or across several linked databases.

 

Unless that database system has a hidden Thesaurus to link all similar

terms to a common code, a search will locate only the precise term(s)

entered into the search engine.

 

For example, a search for " LU Qi Xu " will fail to locate the other terms.

 

IMO, as in most other technical and academic areas, digital storage of

data in expert systems, and digital searching using powerful search

engines, are basic to the continuation and expansion of TCM knowledge

East and West.

 

Therefore, sooner or later, the international TCM community must try to

reach agreement on construction of an agreed database of terms that

incorporates ALL the common ways of expressing identical concepts.

 

That database could (IMO, should) have cross-linkages (via a massive

Thesaurus) to handle ANY input, such as the terms in the example

above, in English, pinyin, hanzi, and other languages.

 

This would be a massive work, needing input from TCM experts in many

languages - at least Chinese, Korean, Japanese, English, Spanish,

French & German, etc.

 

The same problem exists for acupuncture terminology. China and the

WHO have proposed nomenclatures already, but IMO, one cannot say

that there is general international agreement on, or global usage of,

these nomenclatures.

 

 

 

 

Best regards,

 

 

Tel: (H): +353-(0) or (M): +353-(0)

 

 

 

 

Ireland.

Tel: (W): +353-(0) or (M): +353-(0)

 

 

 

" Man who says it can't be done should not interrupt man doing it " -

Chinese Proverb