by Eric Brand

Many of our readers are familiar with the work of Philippe Sionneau. Philippe's books on Dui Yao (herbal combining) and Pao Zhi (herbal processing) are the best English-language sources on their respective topics, and his seven volume "Treatment of Disease in Chinese Medicine" series is an important and comprehensive reference work. Philippe is a native speaker of French and a leading European expert, but his work has had a major impact on practitioners in the U.S. and Canada as well.

I recently heard that Philippe is working on a French-Chinese glossary for Chinese medicine. It sounds highly comprehensive in scope, covering some 12,000 terms (not counting herb names, author names, etc). A publication like this would be an incredibly important development for the global world of Chinese medicine.

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Chinese medicine has complex technical terminology, and the mature development of Chinese medicine in any new culture depends upon the presence of literature that can express this depth and precision in the target language. For example, Korean and Japanese dictionaries for Chinese medicine are extremely well-developed, allowing scholars to exchange well-grounded ideas in medicine for centuries. In the Western world, English is the only language that has something like the Practical Dictionary of Chinese Medicine, a comprehensive reference work that serves as a starting point for translating the wider range of literature.

The English literature of Chinese medicine is extremely limited in comparison with the literature in Chinese, Japanese, or Korean. For example, the English literature on materia medica is somewhat well-developed, but we still only have a few good books on the subject; in Chinese there are dozens of modern materia medicas and hundreds of classical materia medica sources. In English, we do not have even a single high quality, complete translation of the Huang Di Nei Jing; in Chinese, dozens of editions, hundreds of commentaries, and huge academic dictionaries and resources cover the Nei Jing in great detail. Other great works, such as the Jing Yue Quan Shu, are essential classics in Chinese that are prohibitively vast and expensive to produce in English.

That said, the English literature is much more developed than the literature of other Western languages, such as Spanish. There are no widely accepted translation standards in Spanish, and there are remarkably few good Spanish-language books. Given the huge Spanish-speaking population and the enthusiasm for Chinese medicine in the Spanish-speaking world, there is a crucial need to establish terminology that can be used to effectively preserve CM concepts in Spanish.

We can see that the English literature blossomed following the publication of Wiseman and Feng’s Practical Dictionary of Chinese Medicine, and it sounds like Philippe’s work will be setting the stage for a similar transformation in the French literature. After Wiseman and Feng published their comprehensive translation approach, dozens of new translators produced hundreds of new titles, and the English translation standards have risen across the board. I suspect that Philippe’s monumental work in French will lead to a similar flowering of high-quality, source-based literature for French readers.

Creating a glossary of thousands of technical terms in a new language is a tremendous feat that takes incredible skill, patience, and knowledge. It is a largely thankless task because its importance is not fully grasped by many practitioners, there is no financial reward, and often one hears more criticism than praise after decades of academic hardship. Clearly, anyone who works to develop high-quality translation standards makes a great personal sacrifice for the good of the profession. My hat goes off to Philippe, he’d be my first nominee for the 2009 “Global Hero of Chinese Medicine” award. :)

The World Federation of Chinese Medicine Societies (WFCMS), a Beijing-based international group, is currently working on terminology standards for French, Spanish, and Portuguese. Typically, it is difficult for committees to create term lists that rival those of individual scholars. Individual scholars often use term systems that have a cohesive vision complemented by native language skill. Committees must often balance various academic perspectives and politics; this process often creates inconsistencies in terminology.

Any committee needs a good starting foundation of existing term lists. For the Chinese-English world, this foundation is largely achieved by the work of scholars like Nigel Wiseman, Xie Zhu-Fan, and Li Zhao-Guo, whose work was used as a basis for term discussions by groups such as the WFCMS and the World Health Organization (WHO). I sincerely hope that Philippe Sionneau’s foundation similarly becomes the global de facto standard for discussion in the French-Chinese world. Knowing Philippe, I’m sure he’s done a great job.

For more on Philippe and his work, click on this link. French readers will also enjoy his website.

For book picks, I would particularly recommend Philippe’s “Dui Yao” and “Pao Zhi” texts. Dui Yao is a phrase that refers to herbal combining. Good herbalists invariably think of the relationships between herbs and employ medicinals in pairs or groups to maximize their clinical effect. These pairs, such as Jin Yin Hua with Lian Qiao, are based on extensive empirical knowledge.

(To understand the concept of “dui yao,” think about the subtle but profound combinations that we see in classical formulas. In the modern day, we think of Chai Hu as having several distinct actions, raising yang, harmonizing lesser yang disease, coursing liver qi, etc. Yet these actions all arise from “dui yao” theory, any potential action of Chai Hu depends on the formula and dui yao combinations in use. With Huang Qin, it harmonizes lesser yang (as in Xiao Chai Hu Tang), with Xiang Fu, it courses liver qi (as in Chai Hu Shu Gan San), with Sheng Ma and Huang Qi, it raises yang (as in Bu Zhong Yi Qi Tang). Philippe’s book on Dui Yao goes into this fascinating and fundamental material in a well-organized, clinically rich fashion.)

I’m also a huge fan of Philippe’s book on herbal processing. Pao Zhi is regarded as a key element that makes or breaks clinical success. In fact, Pao Zhi is an entire genre in the Chinese literature. Philippe’s book goes into the various effects of Pao Zhi at a great level of detail. It is a must for all serious herbalists.