Traditional Chinese medicine : heritage and adaptation /

Traditional Chinese medicine : heritage and adaptation /

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Bibliographic Details
Author / Creator:Unschuld, Paul U. (Paul Ulrich), 1943- author.
Uniform title:Traditionelle Chinesische Medizin. English
Imprint:New York : Columbia University Press, [2018]
Description:1 online resource
Language:English
Subject:
Medicine, Chinese.
Medicine, Chinese Traditional.
Medicine, Chinese.
Format: E-Resource Book
URL for this record:http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/11758436
Hidden Bibliographic Details
ISBN:9780231546263
0231546262
9780231175005
Notes:Includes bibliographical references and index.
Online resource; title from digital title page (viewed on January 25, 2018).
Summary:A leading authority explains the ideas and practice of Chinese medicine from its beginnings in antiquity to today. Paul U. Unschuld describes medicine's close connection with culture and politics throughout Chinese history. He brings together texts, techniques, and worldviews to understand changing Chinese attitudes toward healing and the significance of traditional Chinese medicine in both China and the Western world. Unschuld reveals the emergence of a Chinese medical tradition built around a new understanding of the human being, considering beliefs in the influence of cosmology, numerology, and the supernatural on the health of the living. He describes the variety of therapeutic approaches in Chinese culture, the history of pharmacology and techniques such as acupuncture, and the global exchange of medical knowledge. Insights are offered into the twentieth-century decline of traditional medicine, as military defeats caused reformers and revolutionaries to import medical knowledge as part of the construction of a new China. Unschuld also recounts the reception of traditional Chinese medicine in the West since the 1970s, where it is often considered an alternative to Western medicine at the same time as China seeks to incorporate elements of its medical traditions into a scientific framework. This concise and compelling introduction to medical thought and history suggests that Chinese medicine is also a guide to Chinese civilization.
Other form:Print version: Unschuld, Paul U. (Paul Ulrich), 1943- Traditional Chinese medicine. New York : Columbia University Press, [2018] 9780231175005
Review by Choice Review

Unschuld (Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin) has been a leading expert on Chinese medicine since the 1970s, known for his nuanced understanding of its historical, cultural, and political development. Traditional Chinese Medicine: Heritage and Adaptation surveys this development from the second century BCE, when a recognizable medicine of China first emerged, to its current global presence in the form of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). The TCM system evolved from classical Chinese medicine in response to advances in the West over the course of the 20th century, integrating with the benefits of emerging public health and Western medicine practices. The author's meticulous translations of Chinese medical classics, such as the Huang di nei jing su wen (The Yellow Emperor's Inner Classic), inform his understanding of Chinese medicine's roots. His work also reflects a deep respect for the context in which ancient authors lived by avoiding contemporary descriptors ("energy flow") and medical concepts that didn't exist at the time, e.g., germ theory. Unschuld's scholarship thus counters derivative "clinical pearls" that have no basis in the classics as TCM's popularity continues to rise in the West. This highly accessible text--translated from its original German--is geared toward general readers. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers. --Jane D. Saxton, Bastyr University

Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review

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