YPE html>

Principles of Chinese Medicine
Skip main navigation
Close Drawer MenuOpen Drawer Menu

Cookies Notification

We use cookies on this site to enhance your user experience. By continuing to browse the site, you consent to the use of our cookies. Learn More
×
Our website is made possible by displaying certain online content using javascript.
In order to view the full content, please disable your ad blocker or whitelist our website www.worldscientific.com.

System Upgrade on Mon, Jun 21st, 2021 at 1am (EDT)

During this period, the E-commerce and registration of new users may not be available for up to 6 hours.
For online purchase, please visit us again. Contact us at [email protected] for any enquiries.
Purchase Save for later Item saved, go to cart
'); } else if(index == "relateddisplay") { //relatedresult = d; //alert(relatedresult); } else if(index == "subjectdisplay") { //subjectcrumb = d+"

"; //alert(subjectcrumb); } }); //$("#div391").html(eisbnresult+"

 

"); //$("#relatedbooksnew").html(relatedresult); //$("#subjectbreadcrumb").html(subjectcrumb); }, error: function(e) { console.log(e.message); } }); });

As the world's most comprehensive and deeply researched system of alternative and complementary medicine, Chinese medicine enjoys a large following in scientifically developed communities. Yet its concepts and principles have been shrouded in mystery and obscure language. This path-breaking book strips this ancient science of its mystique and metaphysical pretentions and interprets it to strike common ground with biomedical science. Concepts like qi and meridians are interpreted not as physical entities, but as constructs to facilitate diagnosis and therapy using heuristic models. Written for medical professionals, philosophers of medicine and discerning readers interested in holistic therapies, the book offers a unique perspective of Chinese medicine in an advanced biomedical world. It has practical chapters on cardiovascular disease, irritable bowel syndrome and cancer, and a compilation of Chinese herbs. This second edition of the acclaimed Theory of Chinese Medicine has new material on chronic diseases and the intriguing possible convergence of biomedicine and TCM.

Sample Chapter(s)
Foreword (43 KB)
The Origins and Nature of Chinese Medicine (200 KB)


Contents:
  • The Origins and Nature of Chinese Medicine
  • Chinese and Western Medicine: Never the Twain Shall Meet?
  • The Causes of Disease
  • The Fundamental Ingredients of Life
  • Organ and Meridian Systems
  • Methods of Diagnosis and Therapy
  • Treating Illness: Herbs and Other Therapies
  • Scientific Evidence for TCM
  • Cultural Factors in Placebo Effects
  • Treatment of Chronic Illnesses
  • Chinese Medicine: Reinterpretation and Future Direction

Readership: Medical professionals, both Western medical doctors and TCM practitioners; librarians of TCM professional associations and teaching institutes; scholars interested in the theoretical basis for Chinese medicine, and the informed general reader seeking to understand the rationale and applicability of Chinese medical therapies to enhance their health.
Free Access
FRONT MATTER
  • Pages:i–xxi

https://doi.org/10.1142/9781783268016_fmatter

Preview Abstract

The following sections are included:

  • About the Author
  • Foreword
  • Preface
  • Acknowledgments
  • Contents
No Access
Chapter 1: The Origins and Nature of Chinese Medicine
  • Pages:1–13

https://doi.org/10.1142/9781783268016_0001

Preview Abstract

As noted by Needham and other Western scholars, Chinese science was pre-eminent in the world for hundreds of years up to the end of the Song dynasty (AD 960–1279). It was not entirely without justification that China regarded itself as the centre of world, reflected in the name Zhongguo (中国) commonly translated as ‘The Middle Kingdom’; more correctly, it was The Central Kingdom…

No Access
Chapter 2: Chinese and Western Medicine: Never the Twain Shall Meet?
  • Pages:15–24

https://doi.org/10.1142/9781783268016_0002

Preview Abstract

The eminent Canadian physician William Osler, who held the Regius Chair of Medicine at Oxford University, had an old-fashioned suspicion toward etiology (the science of disease causation), as well as synthetic medications: “It is more important to know what sort of a patient has a disease than what sort of disease a patient has …. . The first duties of the physician is to educate the masses not to take medicine”…

No Access
Chapter 3: The Causes of Disease
  • Pages:25–43

https://doi.org/10.1142/9781783268016_0003

Preview Abstract

Why does a person fall ill? As innocuous as this question appears, it has baffled scientists for thousands of years…

No Access
Chapter 4: The Fundamental Ingredients of Life
  • Pages:45–67

https://doi.org/10.1142/9781783268016_0004

Preview Abstract

In Chinese medicine, the fundamental ingredients that make up the living human organism are entities like Qi, blood and body fluids essential to the functioning of the body, as well as pathogens like heat, wind and phlegm that can cause illness…

No Access
Chapter 5: Organ and Meridian Systems
  • Pages:69–90

https://doi.org/10.1142/9781783268016_0005

Preview Abstract

In the Chinese medical picture of the human body, there are two core systems — the vital organs and a complex network of meridians (jingluo 经络). In this chapter we describe these systems according to conventional TCM theory, then interpret them in the light of modern knowledge of anatomy and physiology…

No Access
Chapter 6: Methods of Diagnosis and Therapy
  • Pages:91–125

https://doi.org/10.1142/9781783268016_0006

Preview Abstract

Chinese medicine evolved from ancient times over many centuries of clinical experience. The enduring insights of the Neijing did not come in a flash of vision but were the result of painstaking work of generations of physicians. The principal tenets of TCM theory are not immutable laws of nature but pragmatic heuristic models found from empirical experience to be useful guides for diagnosis and therapy…

No Access
Chapter 7: Treating Illness: Herbs and Other Therapies
  • Pages:127–137

https://doi.org/10.1142/9781783268016_0007

Preview Abstract

There are four principal modes of therapy in Chinese medicine: herbs, acupuncture, tuina (medical massage) and qigong exercises. These are used either singly or in combination, depending on the condition of the patient and the resources available…

No Access
Chapter 8: Scientific Evidence for TCM
  • Pages:139–163

https://doi.org/10.1142/9781783268016_0008

Preview Abstract

We now confront the central issue that biomedicine, with fairness and complete justification, has traditionally posed to Chinese medicine: Scientists can to some extent condone TCM concepts being fuzzy and hard to understand and the models for diagnosis and therapy lacking the rigour of modern physiology but, to be regarded as serious medicine, TCM needs to show that its therapies really work.

For too long, most of the Chinese medical community has regarded such a question as being superfluous. Look at the millions who visit TCM clinics each year and keep coming back for more, they say. Examine the the case records of Chinese physicians around the world and the testimony of numerous patients who get well after treatment. What more proof do you need? Would Chinese medicine have survived and thrived for over two thousand years if it was not working…

No Access
Chapter 9: Cultural Factors in Placebo Effects
  • Pages:165–173

https://doi.org/10.1142/9781783268016_0009

Preview Abstract

Placebo (‘psychological’) effects exist in TCM as they do in Western medical interventions. In fact they serve a virtuous purpose, predisposing the patient to benefit more from medicines administered by their doctors. Experienced physicians know the power of the placebo effect and make it an essential part of their therapeutic arsenal. It has also commonly observed that many patients start to feel better once they are on the way to see a doctor in whom they have confidence. (new para:) Placebo effects are troublesome mainly to researchers, who want to know the real effect of medicines, as they complicate results and make experimental design more challenging. RCTs aim, among other things, to determine if the effects of interventions are significantly higher than those of placebos.

In this chapter, we elucidate a cultural aspect of TCM that makes the placebo effect under certain conditions possibly stronger than may be the case for Western interventions. This does not in itself detract from the therapeutic value of TCM interventions, but can certainly make the detection of their direct effects harder to tease out in clinical trials…

No Access
Chapter 10: Treatment of Chronic Illnesses
  • Pages:175–193

https://doi.org/10.1142/9781783268016_0010

Preview Abstract

TCM is used extensively in East Asian countries, and to some extent in Australia, Europe and North America, as complementary treatment for certain chronic illnesses. In less acute cases, it is also used as an alternative to Western treatments.

To illustrate how TCM methods are applied to some common chronic illnesses, we examine briefly its use in coronary heart disease, strokes, digestive disorders and irritable bowel syndrome, depression and cancer. These conditions have been chosen because TCM treatment in each case provides an interesting complement or alternative, or a combination of both, to Western medicine. TCM physicians regularly encounter patients who may not have found satisfactory results with Western medicine for such ailments and seek complementary or alternative treatments.

The objective here is not to demonstrate the viability of TCM methods — this would in any case require elaborate and complex clinical trials — but rather to show how TCM methods, centred on patient syndromes rather than on disease, have been used in a wide variety of clinical work and, where possible, offer a biomedical interpretation of why these methods might have brought relief to patients.

No Access
Chapter 11: Chinese Medicine: Reinterpretation and Future Direction
  • Pages:195–203

https://doi.org/10.1142/9781783268016_0011

Preview Abstract

Chinese medicine came under furious attack after the May 4th movement of 1919 in China, first by Chinese youth educated in Western science and technology, and later by scientists in the West influenced by philosophical positivism. After the revolution of 1949 Chairman Mao ordered its modernisation. In the 21st century, even as TCM clinics and colleges flourish in China, East Asia and many Western countries, challenges to its scientific credentials remain strident from a generation of biomedical scientists nurtured in the reductionism of molecular and cellular biology and armed with the statistical arsenal of the new evidence-based medicine.

TCM continues to play a significant role in health care because, among its regular users, it enjoys a reputation for healing not demonstrably lower than that of biomedicine. However, in the absence of clear explanations of TCM concepts and convincing evidence that the healing was not just placebo or fortuitous, the scientific validity of TCM remains in doubt among most scientists and biomedical physicians.

No Access
Annexes
  • Pages:205–244

https://doi.org/10.1142/9781783268016_0012

Preview Abstract

The following sections are included:

  • Annex 1: Common Chinese Herbs
  • Annex 2: Common Chinese Prescriptions
  • Annex 3: Translating Chinese Medical Terms
Free Access
BACK MATTER
  • Pages:245–259

https://doi.org/10.1142/9781783268016_bmatter

Preview Abstract

The following sections are included:

  • Bibliography
  • Index

"Despite its efficacy in treating ailments (for some of which Western medicine offers no cure), traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) continues to be regarded with skepticism in the West. To a large extent, this is due to the fact that TCM practitioners have been unable to explain TCM theories using Western scientific categories. A TCM physician who was also trained in the philosophy of science at Cambridge and the London School of Economics, Hong Hai offers a fresh and at times iconoclastic interpretation of Chinese medicine. This is without doubt the most important contribution to the field in the modern era. At last, Chinese medicine makes sense. Surprisingly accessible, this work is a must read for doctors East and West."

Michael Tai, PhD (Cambridge)
Research Associate
Cambridge University

"This is a book which should not be missed by anyone with an interest in Chinese medicine."

Emeritus Professor Donald Gillies
Dept of Science and Technology Studies
University College, London

"A fascinating book with special implications for medical professionals evaluating TCM as a genuine science and therapeutic armamentaria."

The American Journal of Chinese Medicine

"I enjoyed reading the book and applaud the seriousness with which the author tackles the difficult problem of evaluating TCM and his recognition of the amount of work that still has to be done."

Professor Sir Geoffrey Lloyd
Needham Research Institute
Cambridge University

"A scientific, historical, philosophical and at times unconventional interpretation of TCM. It is a refreshing read and highly recommended to anyone who wishes to explore and understand TCM better in order to improve and maintain one's health."

Dr Koh Hwee Ling
Associate Professor
Department of Pharmacy
National University of Singapore

"The core of this book deals with the epistemological issues concerning the scientific status of medical conjectures in Traditional Chinese Medicine, very intelligently written and bringing to bear a great deal of common sense and good philosophy. There is much that is highly original in it."

Peter J Clark
Professor Philosophy
University of St Andrews

"Lucid, brilliant explanation of the terminology and principles of TCM and its approach to the management of syndromes. This is a book that anyone with even the slightest interest in complementary medicine should read."

Dr Teoh Eng Soon MBBS, MD, FRCOG, FACS
Gynecologist and former lecturer
NUS Medical School

"Approaching the theories of traditional Chinese medicine from the perspectives of the contemporary philosophy of science, this book is an important contribution to both of these two fields. It has expanded the intellectual horizons to better understand traditional Chinese medicine."

Jing-Bao Nie, BMed, MMed, MA, PhD
Bioethics Centre
University of Otago

"This book, by far, is one of the most useful and lucid sources for understanding Traditional Chinese Medicine. In my reading of Western sources on Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), I would have to rate this as an essential read. The author effectively bridges Eastern and Western medicine without either losing their essential identities and strengths. The author is extremely clear on the philosophies underlying the practice of TCM and how it relates to the biomedical science and suggests reasonable ways of testing TCM that go beyond simple conclusions drawn from random control designs and the pitfalls of scientism. Let me also be perfectly clear that this is not a 'cheer leading' book blindly accepting the wisdom of the sages past and is by no means a New Age reading: it's solid, balanced, insightful and respectful.
If I had one book to recommend for a first reading of those seeking to explore and understand TCM and its relationship to Western medicine, this would be the one. Frankly this is a brilliant book written by a brilliant author and should be required reading for students studying TCM."

Robert A Figleron
Amazon.com

Sample Chapter(s)
Foreword (43 KB)
The Origins and Nature of Chinese Medicine (200 KB)

JOIN OUR NEWSLETTER

Be the first to get notified on new Alternative/Chinese Medicine publications and promotions

Related Books

Evidence-based Clinical Chinese Medicine
Healing in Urology
Handbook of Traditional Chinese Medicine
The Healing Art of Self-Study
The Complete Guide to Complementary Therapies in Cancer Care
Evidence-Based Acupuncture
Medical Philosophy
Nutraceuticals for the Prevention and Treatment of Chronic Diseases
Anecdotes of Traditional Chinese Medicine
Concepts of Chinese Science and Traditional Healing Arts
Cardioprotective Natural Products
The Healing Art of Tai Chi
Evidence-based Clinical Chinese Medicine
Essence of Traditional Chinese Medicine
The Ultimate Chinese Martial Art
Evidence-based Clinical Chinese Medicine
World Century Compendium to TCM
An Illustrated Chinese Materia Medica in Hong Kong
A Comprehensive Guide to Chinese Medicine
A Brief History of Chinese Medicine and Its Influence
https://www.oronihgh.com