How Chinese students memorize their formulas or HOOKED ON MNEMONICS...

[Guest guest]

Have you ever wondered how the Chinese doctors at our schools memorize such a

vast body of information? Have you ever asked a question about a formula and

seen them stare off into the distance over your head or glance through the

chalkboard. Wondered what was going on as their lips started moving chanting

something you couldn't quite make out even if you were a native speaker? Were

they channeling some spirit of the " Herb King " Sun Simiao?... tapping into some

internal ancient chinese secret chip hardwired genetically over the course of

2000 years...While it's a distinct possibility if you believe in that sort of

thing..but more likely in post " lets take the magical mystical stuff " out of

Chinese medicine, they were using mnemonic poems to recite the ingredients and

the function of these formulas. Poems like this exist for single herbs,

formulas, acup channels, classical texts and all the other stuff we were to have

assimilated in school. Cheating you say...there ought to be a

law... just one more fun reason to " taste bitter " and take up the language.

 

After showing these to a classmate of mine, he asked our professor, " Does

everyone in China really use these to remember the formulas, should I learn

them? " To which our teacher answered in a dry sort of monty python way, " No

not everyone uses them, only the people who remember them(the formulas) do " .

 

Throughout my formulas class at AOMA I used these sort of poems and they

worked very well. To really absorb them you need to review them several times

beyond test taking time. Basically there are two basic types. The first

consists of four lines, each contains seven characters. Generally the

ingredients and the name of the formula appear in the first two lines, and the

next two lines give the indications for the formula. There are some poems

however where the ingredients may flow into the third or fourth lines. The last

character in some of the lines usually rhyme or nearly rhyme to help you

remember/link the lines. Most of the time I just used the first two lines of

these poems because I found that it was easier for me to remember the

indications in english.

 

The second type are short humorous sentences where each character is either a

perfect homophone or near homophone representing one of the characters in an

herb name. Sometimes the character in the sentence is the same as the one in

the herb name. In this kind of sentence there are no fixed numbers of

characters...usally about one character for each ingredient. Admittedly I

sometimes had to ask a native speaker why the line was funny, and some of these

have literary or historical references that you dont get in your typical chinese

class. Chinese humor just like english is often predicated on word play. With

chinese there are alot more homophones involved and more multiple meanings for

each chinese character then with english...as a student of the language...this

made things very interesting for me in formulas classes.

 

If you ask anyCM doc with a little age which one is better to use (there are

both types for every major formula), everyone will tell you that the first type

is the way to go. While the second may be a good quick study for an exam, it

may be easier to forget, as not all the names of the formulas appear in the

humorous sentences...ie it can become easy to mix them up ...and thats really

bad when studying for a larger exam. I used both kinds...depending which I

thought suited me better at the time. Sometimes it was based simply on which

version did I have to look up less characters in the dictionary for.

 

I'm going to assume that you have had at least one semester of Chinese some

where and can use a dictionary to find pinyin. So for time sakes I will not

include the pinyin, if you are really interested in these and are new to chinese

or just want to try it in pinyin ...let me know and I can send you the pinyin.

Again I'm having issues with my entering chinese...so I think you should be able

to view by...above in your browser ....View.......encoding...Chinese

simiplified.

 

The first a teaser....it doesnt really fit into either of the two categories

but its the first one I learned....

1. Liu Wei di Huang Wan µØ°ËɽɽËÄ£¬

di ba shan shan si di=shu Di, ba=8, Shan=Shan zhu yu, Shan=Shan yao, si=4

µ¤ÔóÜòÜßÈý¡£ dan=Dan Pi, Ze=Ze xie, fu ling= fuling, san=3

dan ze fu ling san

 

 

What are 8, 4 and 3 for you ask?

Open bensky to pg263....these are the gram ratios of the herbs in the formula

8:4:3

shudi 8, both shan's 4

danpi zexie and fuling all 3

 

Try to Say it ten times really quickly...if your tongue doesnt spasm...you

will permanently own this one.

 

 

THE SECOND TYPE:

 

2. Suan Zao Ren Tang

ÁîĸÐÜÕÒ²Ý

ling mu xiong zhao cao

Ling= command, order or bookish for good,

excellent

Mu= mother

Xiong= Bear

Zhao= find

Cao = grass ( use plant or herb if you like,

like gan cao)

so we have: Command or order momma bear (to) find grass.

or Good/excellent momma bear finds (the) grass.

sounds like

ÜßĸܺÔæ²Ý

ling mu xiong zao cao

Ling= fu Ling

Mu= zhi Mu

Xiong= chuan Xiong

Zao = suan Zao ren Zao/zhao come on that's

really close

Cao= gan Cao

 

One of my favorites:

3.Long Dan Xie Gan Tang

Áú³µÍ¨»Æɽ£¬ µ±µØж²ñ²Ý¡£ long che tong huangshan£¬

dangdi xie chaicao

 

Áú³µÍ¨»Æɽ£¬ µ±µØк²ñ²Ý

long che tong huangshan , dangdi xie chaicao

 

 

Meaning: Sounds like and represents:

Long = Dragon ÁúLong = Long dan cao

Che = car/cart ³µChe = Che qian zi

Tong = go through ͨ tong = mu Tong

Huang = Yellow Ȯ huang = Huang Qin

Shan = Mountain ɽ = Shan Zhi aka Zhi zi

»Æɽ Huangshan (in An Hui province) by

Chinese accounts is arguably the most beautiful/spectactular of all mountains in

China¡£

 

Dang = The compound dang di (ren) µ±µØ(ÈË) = Local(s) (people)

Di =

µ±= dang = Dang gui

µØ = di = sheng Di

ж= xie= Unload к= xie = ze Xie

 

Chai = firewood ²ñ= chai = Chai hu

Cao = grass ²Ý= cao = gan Cao

²ñ²Ý/chai cao is a compound for

faggot/firewood.

 

So our silly sentence reads something like:

(The) Dragon car/cart (you choose) goes through Yellow Mountain, Local(s)

(people) unload the firewood.

 

With the pinyin and english and chinese this is taking much more time then I

had anticipated...so I will continue with the other variety of mnemonic in my

next post. Please let me know if these of are interest to anyone??? I have two

books of these and once thought of translating the smaller one...but thought who

would use them?

 

 

Mark

I hope that formatting has not been moved around when you receive this...it

looked very evenly spaced before i hit send.

 

 

 

Music Unlimited - Access over 1 million songs. Try it free.

 

 

[Guest guest]

Since a colleague told me about the poems I've thought a translation

of these would be great to have. I bet you could easily find a

publisher... Paradigm: The depressed Ursus horribilis precipitated on

the vacuous grass... or Eastland: Constrained, the bear crapped on the

empty lawn... or Foreign Scientific Press/China: Bear defecation

stangnant on front the house. :-)

 

doug

 

 

 

, Mark Schwartz

<insighthealing> wrote:

>

>

> Have you ever wondered how the Chinese doctors at our schools

memorize such a vast body of information? Have you ever asked a

question about a formula and seen them stare off into the distance

over your head or glance through the chalkboard. Wondered what was

going on as their lips started moving chanting something you couldn't

quite make out even if you were a native speaker? Were they channeling

some spirit of the " Herb King " Sun Simiao?... tapping into some

internal ancient chinese secret chip hardwired genetically over the

course of 2000 years...While it's a distinct possibility if you

believe in that sort of thing..but more likely in post " lets take the

magical mystical stuff " out of Chinese medicine, they were using

mnemonic poems to recite the ingredients and the function of these

formulas. Poems like this exist for single herbs, formulas, acup

channels, classical texts and all the other stuff we were to have

assimilated in school. Cheating you say...there ought to be a

> law... just one more fun reason to " taste bitter " and take up the

language.

>

> After showing these to a classmate of mine, he asked our

professor, " Does everyone in China really use these to remember the

formulas, should I learn them? " To which our teacher answered in a

dry sort of monty python way, " No not everyone uses them, only the

people who remember them(the formulas) do " .

>

> Throughout my formulas class at AOMA I used these sort of poems

and they worked very well. To really absorb them you need to review

them several times beyond test taking time. Basically there are two

basic types. The first consists of four lines, each contains seven

characters. Generally the ingredients and the name of the formula

appear in the first two lines, and the next two lines give the

indications for the formula. There are some poems however where the

ingredients may flow into the third or fourth lines. The last

character in some of the lines usually rhyme or nearly rhyme to help

you remember/link the lines. Most of the time I just used the first

two lines of these poems because I found that it was easier for me to

remember the indications in english.

>

> The second type are short humorous sentences where each character

is either a perfect homophone or near homophone representing one of

the characters in an herb name. Sometimes the character in the

sentence is the same as the one in the herb name. In this kind of

sentence there are no fixed numbers of characters...usally about one

character for each ingredient. Admittedly I sometimes had to ask a

native speaker why the line was funny, and some of these have literary

or historical references that you dont get in your typical chinese

class. Chinese humor just like english is often predicated on word

play. With chinese there are alot more homophones involved and more

multiple meanings for each chinese character then with english...as a

student of the language...this made things very interesting for me in

formulas classes.

>

> If you ask anyCM doc with a little age which one is better to use

(there are both types for every major formula), everyone will tell you

that the first type is the way to go. While the second may be a good

quick study for an exam, it may be easier to forget, as not all the

names of the formulas appear in the humorous sentences...ie it can

become easy to mix them up ...and thats really bad when studying for a

larger exam. I used both kinds...depending which I thought suited me

better at the time. Sometimes it was based simply on which version

did I have to look up less characters in the dictionary for.

>

> I'm going to assume that you have had at least one semester of

Chinese some where and can use a dictionary to find pinyin. So for

time sakes I will not include the pinyin, if you are really interested

in these and are new to chinese or just want to try it in pinyin

....let me know and I can send you the pinyin. Again I'm having issues

with my entering chinese...so I think you should be able to view

by...above in your browser ....View.......encoding...Chinese simiplified.

>

> The first a teaser....it doesnt really fit into either of the two

categories but its the first one I learned....

> 1. Liu Wei di Huang Wan µØ°ËɽɽËÄ£¬

> di ba shan shan si di=shu Di, ba=8, Shan=Shan zhu yu,

Shan=Shan yao, si=4

> µ¤ÔóÜòÜßÈý¡£ dan=Dan Pi, Ze=Ze xie, fu ling= fuling, san=3

> dan ze fu ling san

>

>

> What are 8, 4 and 3 for you ask?

> Open bensky to pg263....these are the gram ratios of the herbs in

the formula 8:4:3

> shudi 8, both shan's 4

> danpi zexie and fuling all 3

>

> Try to Say it ten times really quickly...if your tongue doesnt

spasm...you will permanently own this one.

>

>

> THE SECOND TYPE:

>

> 2. Suan Zao Ren Tang

> ÁîĸÐÜÕÒ²Ý

> ling mu xiong zhao cao

> Ling= command, order or bookish for

good, excellent

> Mu= mother

> Xiong= Bear

> Zhao= find

> Cao = grass ( use plant or herb if

you like, like gan cao)

> so we have: Command or order momma bear (to) find grass.

> or Good/excellent momma bear finds (the)

grass.

> sounds like

> ÜßĸܺÔæ²Ý

> ling mu xiong zao cao

> Ling= fu Ling

> Mu= zhi Mu

> Xiong= chuan Xiong

> Zao = suan Zao ren Zao/zhao come on

that's really close

> Cao= gan Cao

>

> One of my favorites:

> 3.Long Dan Xie Gan Tang

> Áú³µÍ¨»Æɽ£¬ µ±µØж²ñ²Ý¡£ long che tong

huangshan£¬ dangdi xie chaicao

>

> Áú³µÍ¨»Æɽ£¬ µ±µØк²ñ²Ý

> long che tong huangshan , dangdi xie chaicao

>

>

> Meaning: Sounds like and represents:

> Long = Dragon ÁúLong = Long dan cao

> Che = car/cart ³µChe = Che qian zi

> Tong = go through ͨ tong = mu Tong

> Huang = Yellow Ȯ huang = Huang Qin

> Shan = Mountain ɽ = Shan Zhi aka Zhi zi

> »Æɽ Huangshan (in An Hui

province) by Chinese accounts is arguably the most

beautiful/spectactular of all mountains in China¡£

>

> Dang = The compound dang di (ren) µ±µØ(ÈË) = Local(s) (people)

> Di =

> µ±= dang = Dang gui

> µØ = di = sheng Di

> ж= xie= Unload к= xie = ze Xie

>

> Chai = firewood ²ñ= chai = Chai hu

> Cao = grass ²Ý= cao = gan Cao

> ²ñ²Ý/chai cao is a

compound for faggot/firewood.

>

> So our silly sentence reads something like:

> (The) Dragon car/cart (you choose) goes through Yellow Mountain,

Local(s) (people) unload the firewood.

>

> With the pinyin and english and chinese this is taking much more

time then I had anticipated...so I will continue with the other

variety of mnemonic in my next post. Please let me know if these of

are interest to anyone??? I have two books of these and once thought

of translating the smaller one...but thought who would use them?

>

>

[Guest guest]

Mark,

 

Yes, this has been the way many generations of practitioners memorize the

formulas.

There has been many such books published since Ming/Qing dynasties. They are

typically called Fang Ge (formula song) prefaced by the author's name or a

school's name. I do rely on these poems heavily and couldn't imagine without it.

I also compose my own to memorize the acupuncture points. In fact, it was when I

successfully memorized the 67 points of UB meridian did I feel being " in

business " in the second year of my study.

 

And you got it right: the second type won't stay in your memory for long,

except a few.

 

Mike L.

Mark Schwartz <insighthealing wrote:

 

Have you ever wondered how the Chinese doctors at our schools memorize such a

vast body of information? Have you ever asked a question about a formula and

seen them stare off into the distance over your head or glance through the

chalkboard. Wondered what was going on as their lips started moving chanting

something you couldn't quite make out even if you were a native speaker? Were

they channeling some spirit of the " Herb King " Sun Simiao?... tapping into some

internal ancient chinese secret chip hardwired genetically over the course of

2000 years...While it's a distinct possibility if you believe in that sort of

thing..but more likely in post " lets take the magical mystical stuff " out of

Chinese medicine, they were using mnemonic poems to recite the ingredients and

the function of these formulas. Poems like this exist for single herbs,

formulas, acup channels, classical texts and all the other stuff we were to have

assimilated in school. Cheating you say...there ought to be a

law... just one more fun reason to " taste bitter " and take up the language.

 

After showing these to a classmate of mine, he asked our professor, " Does

everyone in China really use these to remember the formulas, should I learn

them? " To which our teacher answered in a dry sort of monty python way, " No

not everyone uses them, only the people who remember them(the formulas) do " .

 

Throughout my formulas class at AOMA I used these sort of poems and they

worked very well. To really absorb them you need to review them several times

beyond test taking time. Basically there are two basic types. The first

consists of four lines, each contains seven characters. Generally the

ingredients and the name of the formula appear in the first two lines, and the

next two lines give the indications for the formula. There are some poems

however where the ingredients may flow into the third or fourth lines. The last

character in some of the lines usually rhyme or nearly rhyme to help you

remember/link the lines. Most of the time I just used the first two lines of

these poems because I found that it was easier for me to remember the

indications in english.

 

The second type are short humorous sentences where each character is either a

perfect homophone or near homophone representing one of the characters in an

herb name. Sometimes the character in the sentence is the same as the one in

the herb name. In this kind of sentence there are no fixed numbers of

characters...usally about one character for each ingredient. Admittedly I

sometimes had to ask a native speaker why the line was funny, and some of these

have literary or historical references that you dont get in your typical chinese

class. Chinese humor just like english is often predicated on word play. With

chinese there are alot more homophones involved and more multiple meanings for

each chinese character then with english...as a student of the language...this

made things very interesting for me in formulas classes.

 

If you ask anyCM doc with a little age which one is better to use (there are

both types for every major formula), everyone will tell you that the first type

is the way to go. While the second may be a good quick study for an exam, it

may be easier to forget, as not all the names of the formulas appear in the

humorous sentences...ie it can become easy to mix them up ...and thats really

bad when studying for a larger exam. I used both kinds...depending which I

thought suited me better at the time. Sometimes it was based simply on which

version did I have to look up less characters in the dictionary for.

 

I'm going to assume that you have had at least one semester of Chinese some

where and can use a dictionary to find pinyin. So for time sakes I will not

include the pinyin, if you are really interested in these and are new to chinese

or just want to try it in pinyin ...let me know and I can send you the pinyin.

Again I'm having issues with my entering chinese...so I think you should be able

to view by...above in your browser ....View.......encoding...Chinese

simiplified.

 

The first a teaser....it doesnt really fit into either of the two categories

but its the first one I learned....

1. Liu Wei di Huang Wan µØ°ËɽɽËÄ£¬

di ba shan shan si di=shu Di, ba=8, Shan=Shan zhu yu, Shan=Shan yao, si=4

µ¤ÔóÜòÜßÈý¡£ dan=Dan Pi, Ze=Ze xie, fu ling= fuling, san=3

dan ze fu ling san

 

 

What are 8, 4 and 3 for you ask?

Open bensky to pg263....these are the gram ratios of the herbs in the formula

8:4:3

shudi 8, both shan's 4

danpi zexie and fuling all 3

 

Try to Say it ten times really quickly...if your tongue doesnt spasm...you

will permanently own this one.

 

 

THE SECOND TYPE:

 

2. Suan Zao Ren Tang

ÁîĸÐÜÕÒ²Ý

ling mu xiong zhao cao

Ling= command, order or bookish for good,

excellent

Mu= mother

Xiong= Bear

Zhao= find

Cao = grass ( use plant or herb if you like,

like gan cao)

so we have: Command or order momma bear (to) find grass.

or Good/excellent momma bear finds (the) grass.

sounds like

ÜßĸܺÔæ²Ý

ling mu xiong zao cao

Ling= fu Ling

Mu= zhi Mu

Xiong= chuan Xiong

Zao = suan Zao ren Zao/zhao come on that's

really close

Cao= gan Cao

 

One of my favorites:

3.Long Dan Xie Gan Tang

Áú³µÍ¨»Æɽ£¬ µ±µØж²ñ²Ý¡£ long che tong huangshan£¬

dangdi xie chaicao

 

Áú³µÍ¨»Æɽ£¬ µ±µØк²ñ²Ý

long che tong huangshan , dangdi xie chaicao

 

 

Meaning: Sounds like and represents:

Long = Dragon ÁúLong = Long dan cao

Che = car/cart ³µChe = Che qian zi

Tong = go through ͨ tong = mu Tong

Huang = Yellow Ȯ huang = Huang Qin

Shan = Mountain ɽ = Shan Zhi aka Zhi zi

»Æɽ Huangshan (in An Hui province) by

Chinese accounts is arguably the most beautiful/spectactular of all mountains in

China¡£

 

Dang = The compound dang di (ren) µ±µØ(ÈË) = Local(s) (people)

Di =

µ±= dang = Dang gui

µØ = di = sheng Di

ж= xie= Unload к= xie = ze Xie

 

Chai = firewood ²ñ= chai = Chai hu

Cao = grass ²Ý= cao = gan Cao

²ñ²Ý/chai cao is a compound for

faggot/firewood.

 

So our silly sentence reads something like:

(The) Dragon car/cart (you choose) goes through Yellow Mountain, Local(s)

(people) unload the firewood.

 

With the pinyin and english and chinese this is taking much more time then I

had anticipated...so I will continue with the other variety of mnemonic in my

next post. Please let me know if these of are interest to anyone??? I have two

books of these and once thought of translating the smaller one...but thought who

would use them?

 

 

Mark

I hope that formatting has not been moved around when you receive this...it

looked very evenly spaced before i hit send.

 

 

 

Music Unlimited - Access over 1 million songs. Try it free.

 

 

[Guest guest]

made my day.....

 

 

 

Since a colleague told me about the poems I've thought a translation

of these would be great to have. I bet you could easily find a

publisher... Paradigm: The depressed Ursus horribilis precipitated on

the vacuous grass... or Eastland: Constrained, the bear crapped on the

empty lawn... or Foreign Scientific Press/China: Bear defecation

stangnant on front the house. :-)

 

doug

 

 

 

----------

 

 

 

Version: 7.1.362 / Virus Database: 267.13.8/184 - Release 11/27/05

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

I have a colleague who purchased a CD with songs of the formulas. He said it

really helped him to study for the nccaom exam.

Cara

 

 

 

> made my day.....

>

>

>

> Since a colleague told me about the poems I've thought a translation

> of these would be great to have. I bet you could easily find a

> publisher... Paradigm: The depressed Ursus horribilis precipitated on

> the vacuous grass... or Eastland: Constrained, the bear crapped on the

> empty lawn... or Foreign Scientific Press/China: Bear defecation

> stangnant on front the house. :-)

>

> doug

>

>

>

> ----------

>

>

>

> Version: 7.1.362 / Virus Database: 267.13.8/184 - Release 11/27/05

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

As far as I know there are two sets of songs out there. One is by Joe

Curcio and is called Tunes on Tangs. The other is by a guy in Boston,

I believe. It uses popular songs, Beatles etc... and as far as I know

is fairly hard to find, being pretty much illegal, copyright wise.

I think Redwing might have Tunes or it's easily found otherwise.

doug

 

 

 

, Cara Frank <herbbabe@v...>

wrote:

>

> I have a colleague who purchased a CD with songs of the formulas. He

said it

> really helped him to study for the nccaom exam.

> Cara

>

>

>

> > made my day.....

> >

> >

> >

> > Since a colleague told me about the poems I've thought a translation

> > of these would be great to have. I bet you could easily find a

> > publisher... Paradigm: The depressed Ursus horribilis

precipitated on

> > the vacuous grass... or Eastland: Constrained, the bear crapped

on the

> > empty lawn... or Foreign Scientific Press/China: Bear defecation

> > stangnant on front the house. :-)

> >

> > doug

> >

> >

> >

> > ----------

> >

> >

> >

> > Version: 7.1.362 / Virus Database: 267.13.8/184 - Release Date:

11/27/05

> >

> >

> >

[Guest guest]

Here's Joe's website:

http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/curcio

 

If you like Ween, you'll love Joe's " Tunes on Tangs, Songs on Sans " .

 

-al.

 

On 11/28/05, wrote:

>

> As far as I know there are two sets of songs out there. One is by Joe

> Curcio and is called Tunes on Tangs. The other is by a guy in Boston,

> I believe. It uses popular songs, Beatles etc... and as far as I know

> is fairly hard to find, being pretty much illegal, copyright wise.

> I think Redwing might have Tunes or it's easily found otherwise.

> doug

>

 

--

 

Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional.