Chinese Medical Chinese: Characters is a great place to start for those wanting to begin a study of Chinese medical language. It is suitable for readers without prior knowledge of Chinese language. It covers a carefully selected core vocabulary of 100 terms that commonly occur in modern Chinese medical literature, many of which are seen in compounds in the companion volume, Chinese Medical Chinese: Grammar and Vocabulary.
The book includes the etymology of each of the 100 characters, the modern meaning, pronunciation, English equivalent according to the Wiseman/Ye standard, and a facing page with a practice grid that shows the correct order and direction of the strokes needed to write the… Read more
Deadman and colleagues should be commended for this major contribution to the English-language literature of Chinese medicine. It does what it does exceedingly well. It does so, in part, because of what it is not.
It should be understood that the Manual is chiefly an atlas and desk reference of acupuncture points and channels, not a classroom textbook or a clinic handbook or a self-study guide per se, though it does list some illustrative combinations with each point. Other books are available that fill the role of textbook better than this one does. This one's audience is the person who already knows something of the foundations and clinical applications of acupuncture.
This is simply a fascinating book, and it is next to impossible to find a review of it written by someone who has clearly sat down and read it from front to back. Once I started, I couldn't put it down.
Dr. Eckman apparently studied with J.R. Worsley (who died last year) and this book came out of Eckman's insatiable curiosity about his teacher's background, a matter which Eckman says Worsley himself was not inclined to discuss.
Eckman embarked on an investigative project of several years' duration, trying to find answers to his questions concerning the biographical and social context of Leamington Acupuncture, as he terms Worsley's eclectic personal style, which borrows heavily from… Read more
