Yellow Emperor's Classics: Inspirational Resources of Acupuncture
by Henry Lu
The majority of Chinese historians are of the opinion that The Yellow
Emperor's Classics of Internal Medicine was accomplished through the
cooperative efforts of a group of most outstanding scholars around the
3rd century B.C. The invaluable first Chinese medical classics stood for
an excellent presentation of past experiences that had been accumulated
from the days Chinese medicine began to be practised in ancient China.
The Chinese believe that the practice of Chinese medicine in China dates
back to the time of Yellow Emperor around 2,600 B.C., primarily on the
ground that this gigantic classic was attributed to Yellow Emperor
himself. This implies that Chinese medicine had already been practiced
in China for over two thousand years before the Yellow Emperor's
Classics of Internal Medicine was first published. The position of the
Classics in Chinese medicine may be compared to that of Plato's Republic
in Western philosophy and that of Shakespeare in English literature,
for the good reason that the classic in question had, since its first
publication, become the most authoritative guidance for the practice of
Chinese medicine. It had become the foundations of Chinese medicine in
the same way as the thought of Confucius had become the foundations of
Chinese philosophy. Very few, if any, Chinese physicians of traditional
Chinese medicine would challenge the basic contents of this celebrated
classic to this day. "To make diagnosis without asking the patient as to
how the disease originally started, whether he has any worry or
irregular habits of eating, whether he has any excessive habits of
living, whether he has suffered from toxic effects, and to rely solely
on hasty pulse diagnosis at the wrist to come up with a name of disease
on such shaky grounds, which could easily cause harm to the patient are
the fourth fault on the part of physicians." "A physician may become
known to people living as far as one thousand miles away by word of
mouth, but he cannot be called a good physician unless he knows
thoroughly about pulse diagnosis and human affairs. The way of treatment
consists in the precious heritage of naturally established truth. It is
not wise to stick to pulse diagnosis at the wrist without an adequate
knowledge of the pulse of the five viscera. When one hundred diseases
begin to attack, the physician may blame himself or he may blame his
teacher for his failure to instruct him in medical knowledge, but the
most important thing is to administer treatment according to the
established principles. A physician who fails to administer treatment
according to the established principles and foregoes the legitimate
medical skills may treat his patients with effects by accident, but it
is quite foolish for him to be content with his accidental success."
"Alas. Medicine is so subtle that no one seems able to know about its
complete secrets. The way of medicine is so wide that its scope is as
immeasurable as heaven and Earth, and its depth is as immeasurable as
the four seas. Unless you learn by heart, it is likely that you will
remain in the dark about the bright theory of medicine."
The book is available from Amazon.
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