by Bob Flaws

Eric Brand and Nigel Wiseman have recently published their Concise Chinese Materia Medica through Paradigm Publications and readers will see that I have written a very laudatory blurb on the back of the dust-cover. Taking a quick look at this book, some may wonder at my effusive praise. In some ways, this book seems to contain less material than Bensky et al.’s 3rd edition of Chinese Herbal Medicine: Materia Medica. So why do I think Eric and Nigel’s book is so good? First and foremost, it uses Wiseman and Feng Ye’s translational terminology. I’ve been saying for years that this translational terminology is the best we have and the closest one can currently get to the original Chinese in English. I understand that, if one doesn’t personally read Chinese, they have no way of knowing how good this terminology is. I also understand that some of the term choices use unfamiliar words. But I would stress that this is a professional technical terminology, and one should not expect familiar every-day English words. Until one has studied Western medical terminology, the professional technical words of Western medicine also are strange and unfamiliar. However, one of the arguments for not adopting this better, clinically more accurate Chinese medical terminology has been that all the schools use Bensky’s materia medica as a required text. Since Bensky’s text uses a different terminology, teachers did not want to confuse their students making them learn two different term sets. Now this is no longer necessary. In fact, now in 2009, a person can pretty much study all of Chinese medicine, soup to nuts, using Wiseman and Feng Ye’s single term set. In a way, Eric and Nigel’s new materia medica puts the capstone of that linguisitic edifice. This body of work has been built over the last 25 years by such authors and translators as Bob Damone, Marnae Ergil, Philippe Sionneau, Fred Jennes, Sabine Williams, Simon Becker, Dagmar Riley, Robert Helmer, Zhong Bai-song, Wei Li, David Frierman, Lynn Kuchinski, Jim Cleaver, Lorraine Wilcox, Craig Mitchell, Shelley Ochs, Lifang Liang, Shuai Xue-zhong, Andrew Ellis, Honora Lee Wolfe, Juliette Aiyana, Hoy Ping Lee Chan, Thomas Dey/Michael Helme, myself, and, of course, Eric Brand, Nigel Wiseman, and Feng Ye, all of whom have chosen to use this terminology as their standard. Now there is no need to learn two different term sets, since all the textbooks necessary for learning Chinese medicine in this linguisitically superior, more technically and clinically accurate terminology are available. Further, when it comes to this particular materia medica, Eric and Nigel have added definitions and explanations of all the critical technical terms, thus making this book all the more easy to use. So, not only will using this book help you understand Chinese herbal medicine in a more technically precise way, ultimately, the bottom line is that this increased clarity and precision will then result in better clinical results for you and your patients.

Copyright Blue Poppy Ent. Inc. 2009. All rights reserved.