By Eric Brand

Chinese medicine is expressed through a complex body of technical terms. While an average Chinese person can read the words in a Chinese medical classic or a modern textbook, the meaning is largely incomprehensible if the person hasn’t studied Chinese medicine. While the technical nature of TCM literature is self-evident in the Asian world, in the West we find that people who haven’t studied Chinese often lack an appreciation for the depth of technical terminology in the field. It is obvious to any Chinese layperson that TCM has complex and specialized terminology, and within the Chinese community of educated practitioners, the importance of clear and accurate expression is a given.

Consequently, when the expert community in Asia ponders the globalization of Chinese medicine, significant attention is paid to the issue of terminology. After all, Chinese medicine’s depth of insight cannot reach the outer world unless there is a way to talk about TCM concepts in foreign languages. While Chinese medicine uses more metaphors and has more colorful terminology than biomedicine, the two medical systems are comparable in terms of their academic sophistication and heavy use of specific, specialized terminology.

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