Customer Reviews

Chinese Acupuncture and Moxibustion

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I have been studying oriental medicine for the past 5 years intensively. I am currently preparing for a trip to beijing to practice medicine in China as an internship.

After reading the previous reviews I picked up a distinct feeling from all of the reviews that is typical.

You must remember Chinese Medicine is not a light topic anyone can understand with a few reads. It is truly a differnt mindset and lifestyle.

This book is not meant as a book to teach one the precise form and techniques of acupuncture, hence the brief overview of techniques.It will be greatly appreciated once you do learn the techniques however as a guide.

If you are interested in learning TCM please keep this in mind. There is a reason all formal medicine schools in China use this book.

THIS TEXT BOOK HELPED ME PASS THE EXAM. I love it !

This book is No. 1 primary source book recommended by National Certification Commissions for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine. If you are going to take the exam, it is a must ! Yes, the translation is not great, but it is understandable. Do not bypass
all the resource and information you need to take the exam.

Unfortunately, I couldn't choose zero stars.

This is a pretty bad translation from Chinese authors. It's been the standard for a long time. The needling depths, etc. are essential... but can be found in other books like Deadman's Manual of Acupuncture.

Particularly nice are the meridian pathway full-color pictures with the asian man in his underwear. What were they thinking?

It's not all bad, but I wish someone would edit it or write a better reference! No wait, Peter Deadman already did! Maybe we could get rid of CAM and replace it with the Manual of Acupuncture... please!

The simple fact is that if you want to pass the NCCAOM acupuncture exam you will need this book. Otherwise don't waste your time. Even if you need to pass the exam, find other books first. This book is definitely not useful for understanding the "whys" of Traditional Chinese Medicine. It is mainly a poorly assembled mass of factoid minutiae that need to be memorized for the exam.

The language of the book is both confusing and contradictory. Often you don't know if particular terms are different because they actually represent different principles in TCM or just because it was translated differently. The diagrams for point locations are mediocre, at best. You will need to find better descriptions and diagrams to pass NCCAOM.

Most importantly, this book completely fails to provide beginning students with the conceptual overview of how TCM is used to actually diagnose and treat patients. The authors really got lost in the trees and forgot to describe the forest.

So, a big thumbs down here.

This book is, sadly, a mainstay in Chinese medicine colleges across the U.S., for the sole reason that specific passages from it are tested on the National and various state board exams.

It's hard to imagine how a basic textbook could be worse than this one. The terminology used is unclear, unglossed, and totally non-standard. The quality of the writing ranges from marginal to completely unintelligible. Many basic essentials of acupuncture theory go unmentioned or covered in such an obscure and cursory manner as to be of no value to beginning students, for whom the book is supposedly intended, which is all the more ironic considering the book's title in earlier editions was "Essentials of Chinese Acupuncture and Moxibustion."

We wrestled with this book when I was a student, trying to glean something of value from it, and now my own students are faced with the same struggle. It's a shame this book is still considered a standard, since virtually all of its competitors are in every way superior. Ellis, Boss, and Wiseman's Fundamentals of Chinese Acupuncture is far better as a basic English-language textbook on this subject, since it is comprehensive, understandable, and inexpensive.

Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion is a tremendous reference and learning tool for students of Oriental Medicine. It is based on a text used in Mainland Chinese Acupuncture training facilities! I strongly recommend this book to students and clinicians everywhere.