Medicine in China: A History of Ideas

Rating:
Summary: Medicine in China: A History of Ideas
Review: By now most Americans accept acupuncture as a medical treatment of medical treatment. Very few if any can give a thorough explanation as to why TCM works. This appears to be a good book understanding the historical aspect of TCM over the celetial melllinums. It contains useful infomration on Yin Yang Drug qualities(pg 183), duration (pg 184), 5 elements (pg 185). It also described the decline of the popularity during the first half of 20th century. Marxist T'an Chuang termed the Chinese medicine as "collected garbage of several thousand years". With the policy to combine Western & TCM and the emergency of a new therapy just began in the '70s. This is a great book with a weak ending. If there is another edition it needs to bring up the subject of Nixon's visit and revived interest and what China is doing with AIDS and Cancer reseach and how TCm is going to impact mankind. The Wade-Giles phonetics also can be mind bogging for those forward thinking readers.
Sam Shueh, librarian, Samra University with inspiration from Denise Takahashi

Rating:
Summary: Good intellectual history
Review: I realy don't know what book the above reviewer read before writing their review, but it certainly appears not to have been this one. Unschuld's premise is that any medicine MUST be understood within the context of the intellectual and cultural history out of which it arises, and not judged or even atempted to be understood from the intellectual and cultural framework of another culture seeking to understand the medicine only. Therefore, students of Traditional Chinese Medicine MUST study Chinese culture, history, and intellectual thought in order to fully understand the emdicine itself. Otherwise it is just a haphazard grab bag of clever techniques, at best. He intends his book to be a start n that direction, giving an overview of Chinese political, cultural, religious, and intellectual history, and attempting to show how this rich history of ideas manifested within the field of Chinese medicine from the earliest oracle bones and shamanic healers to the current attempt under Communism to develop a pragmatic system of primary care totally divorced from the spiritual context that gave birth to its world view and concepts.

This is not a book for the casual reader who wants to learn a little bit about acupuncture. It is, however, a book serious students of Chinese Medicine ought to be thoroughly familiar with.

Rating:
Summary: Good intellectual history
Review: I realy don't know what book the above reviewer read before writing their review, but it certainly appears not to have been this one. Unschuld's premise is that any medicine MUST be understood within the context of the intellectual and cultural history out of which it arises, and not judged or even atempted to be understood from the intellectual and cultural framework of another culture seeking to understand the medicine only. Therefore, students of Traditional Chinese Medicine MUST study Chinese culture, history, and intellectual thought in order to fully understand the emdicine itself. Otherwise it is just a haphazard grab bag of clever techniques, at best. He intends his book to be a start n that direction, giving an overview of Chinese political, cultural, religious, and intellectual history, and attempting to show how this rich history of ideas manifested within the field of Chinese medicine from the earliest oracle bones and shamanic healers to the current attempt under Communism to develop a pragmatic system of primary care totally divorced from the spiritual context that gave birth to its world view and concepts.

This is not a book for the casual reader who wants to learn a little bit about acupuncture. It is, however, a book serious students of Chinese Medicine ought to be thoroughly familiar with.

Rating:
Summary: All the facts, in English, but not flattering to Chinese med
Review: Unschuld has a deep fascination for Chinese medicine, as can be seen by his scholarly works in the field. This book is the best compilation of historical facts available in English that I know of. However, Unschuld has a deep bias toward the Western concept of the world and the result is not flattering to the science of China. Chinese science is as scientific in its rigor as Western medicine, matching experience and observation with theory and trial-and-error. It is just that the area of study is not limited to the physical body, but includes the energy body and the spiritual body as well: with no rigid demarcation of the three.