By Eric Brand

I have mentioned a number of modern masters on my blog. Regular readers will notice that several posts have referenced the work of Prof. Chang Hsien-Cheh, a teacher that I look up to with the upmost respect.

In the West, Chinese medicine is new and many of its branches are poorly developed; consequently, practitioners often do not fully realize how extremely advanced the specialists are in the various disciplines that all fall under the umbrella of “Chinese medicine.” Like all enthusiastic students, I’ve personally been very inspired by the profound expertise of some of the teachers that I’ve encountered. Over time, I’ve had the fortune to meet many people that I would consider to be true experts in Chinese medicine, and I like to blog about “modern masters” in an attempt to convey what it really means to me when I call someone a world-class expert. In this spirit, I'd like to take this chance to introduce Dr. Chang and a few of his contributions to Chinese medicine.

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Prof. Chang Hsien-Cheh is one of those rare gems in our field, a “true world-class expert.” Dr. Chang works as a professor at China Medical University in Taichung, and he teaches classes on herbal medicine and pharmacy with a passion. He has taught for over 40 years, and he is invariably considered to be one of the most inspirational and lively teachers at Taiwan’s oldest and largest university of Chinese medicine. While Dr. Chang's most visible works relate to the field of herbal pharmacy and quality discernment, he has also made profound contributions to scientific research and traditional literature. In every way, Prof. Chang is one of the most enthusiastic, kind and knowledgeable teachers that I’ve ever encountered, and the scholarship that he has put into his work is truly stunning.

Prof. Chang’s impact has been incredible in Taiwan. Most doctors that are trained at China Medical University had Professor Chang as their materia medica teacher, and he has shaped the knowledge base of generations of students. I’ve heard him lecture at conferences or give mini-dissertations in his office, and part of me would like to drop my entire life just to sit in a full round of his classes from start to finish. He keeps going and going with the enthusiasm of a young man, but tragically the Taiwanese university system has a mandatory retirement scheme at age 70, so eventually there will come a sad day when the new incoming students do not get to have Prof. Chang teaching that first materia medica class. Regardless of his eventual mandatory retirement from teaching, Prof. Chang’s work will continue to live on and inspire all those with a passion for herbal medicine.

Prof. Chang has authored many of the most important texts for herbal pharmacy in Taiwan. Fueled by intelligence, enthusiasm and good tea, he has spent his entire life seeking out the best pharmacists and chatting with them about all the intricacies of their trade. He has done entire books on topics like turtle shell differentiation, with hundreds of pages of beautiful color plates that illustrate all the different species and varieties of turtle shell that are used in Chinese medicine. But his most important text is by far his compendium “Dao Di Yao Cai Tu Li” (道地藥材圖例 “Illustrated Authentic Chinese Medicines”).

Prof. Chang’s book on authentic Chinese medicines is truly astounding. It is unprecedented in scope, and has more detail and more aesthetic beauty that any virtually any other work in the entire field of herbal pharmacy. Together, the 7 volume set covers the differentiation and special characteristics of 563 official Chinese medicinals, along with 250 local herbs. Nearly 3500 color plates cover the different wild and cultivated products of the entire materia medica, with a stunning collection of 83 plates for Chen Xiang alone, along with 105 plates on Ren Shen and a plethora of photos on every other medicinal. For every item, each key cultivation region and each main grade is discussed in detail. This is a lifetime of work, a pursuit that spans decades. There is nothing like it in the entire world of the Chinese literature, and each photo is linked to highly detailed text that describes the nuances of each specimen in great detail.

In the photo above, we see Prof. Chang with black hair, a young enthusiast starting out on his mission; 22 years later, he finally published his book after a lifetime of collecting specimens from throughout China and earning the trust and friendship of generations of herbalists. Dr. Chang truly spent his entire life pursuing the secretive wisdom of experts in Chinese herbal pharmacy, and I could only compare his work to that of Li Shi-Zhen, who traveled throughout China in the Ming dynasty to research herbs. Li spent 27 years writing the Ben Cao Gang Mu, and he cited 852 other texts along the way. Like Li Shi-Zhen, Prof. Chang is a true scholar of culture as well as medicine, and he often lectures on topics such as Taiwan’s preservation of traditional herbal knowledge and its history of quality discernment.

In terms of publications, Prof. Chang’s contributions go far beyond his seminal masterpiece on “dao di yao cai” (Authentic Chinese Medicines). Prof. Chang was also the first expert to translate the foundational Qing dynasty materia medica text Ben Cao Bei Yao (The Essential Herbal Foundation) from classical Chinese into modern Chinese. To this day, Prof. Chang’s version of the Ben Cao Bei Yao remains the standard materia medica text for the licensure exam in Taiwan. Additionally, Prof. Chang is the author of one of Taiwan’s most important texts on Pao Zhi (herbal processing).

While Prof. Chang has fundamentally dedicated his life to traditional arts such as herbal quality discernment, he has also made major contributions to scientific research. For example, Prof. Chang spent years creating software to analyze the TCM data collected by Taiwan’s national health insurance system. By crunching the numbers on 90 million TCM patient visits conducted by 4000 doctors, Dr. Chang orchestrated an unprecedented research project that statistically analyzed the prescription trends of approximately 30 million cases per year. He can thus give a precise scientific breakdown of all the formulas and single herbs prescribed for patients that share symptoms such as headache or allergic rhinitis. I have blogged before about Dr. Chang’s research in these arenas, and I am constantly inspired by his dedication and knowledge. This is a man who not only begins a journey of a thousand miles, but finishes the journey and generously shares the special knowledge that he has collected with the next generation.

My “modern masters” series of blogs is designed to recognize the incredible people that define the meaning of scholarship in our profession. Chinese medicine historically owes its profound depth to the lifelong efforts of individuals like Sun Si-Miao, Tao Hong-Jing, Li Dong-Yuan, Zhang Jing-Yue, and Li Shi-Zhen. However, the spirit of scholarship and excellence that defines the elite world of Chinese medicine has never faded, and it is alive and evident in the work of experts such as Chang Hsien-Cheh and Zhao Zhong-Zhen. I feel incredibly fortunate to have the opportunity to study with such living legends, and I like to blog about these individuals because their lives are an inspiration to us in the younger generation. Many Western students have little concept of what true scholarship means in the Chinese world, and I feel that it is important to share the story of people like Prof. Chang so that readers can get a sense for what the term “modern masters” really means to me. Thank you, Prof. Chang, for preserving and sharing your wisdom.

Prof. Chang’s books are going to be coming to America. I’ll be helping with some promotional pieces and I hope to work with Prof. Chang to bring more of his incredible material into English. I’ll keep our readers up to date with the latest news, and we also hope to have some interviews with Prof. Chang here at the Blue Poppy website (I’ll do the translation).

Finally, Dr. Chang is also an important TCM advisor to the American Herbal Pharmacopoeia, a top-notch organization dedicated to preserving the tradition and science of herbal medicine. In fact, dozens of the standard reference samples that AHP provides for the natural products industry and the scientific community here in the USA were authenticated by Prof. Chang. I was fortunate to play a small part in helping that to happen, and we are all very grateful to have Prof. Chang as a member of our authentication research team.

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