Follow me to learn TCM herbal therapy

It is difficult for a non-Chinese speaking person to learn Chinese herbal therapy. The main reason is that most of the literatures and books have not been translated into English yet. You may find some books on the introduction of the herbal therapy, from which you may learn the basic idea and term explanation, but it is far away enough to allow you to practice the herbal therapy in your clinic

It is difficult to translate the books from Chinese to English for several reasons:

(1), the old Chinese is different from the current Chinese. It is the same as the old English is not the current English. The ways to express their meaning by old Chinese masters are somehow different from the current Chinese. A translator must have a good knowledge of old Chinese;

(2), along the long history, the older books have been re-copied by hands from person to person, that created some errors from the original books. There could have quite different opinions, among later doctors, for how to understand the original meaning of the masters;

(3), the translator must be a clinic doctor, not a scholar or a researcher. The person must have rich clinic experience to understand the meaning of the words in the old TCM books;

 (4), the translator must also know English as well, so be able to find as much as possible proper English expression to explain the meaning in English. In translation industry, we believe that the best way is to let a translator translate a foreign language into the translator’s mother language. It is so hard to have such person in the world. We have experience that, to translate English books into Chinese, the Chinese version could be very interesting in its spirit, while the book from Chinese to English (such as translate the Chinese poem into English), the English version becomes very plain, no taste any longer;

(5), The Chinese have different ways or philosophy to look at the nature, the body, structure and function, so have quite different ways to express their meaning, compared with the English speaking people. Therefore, the difficulty is not only the term that is new to the English speaking people, but in many times, it needs the reader to change the ways of thinking. So many times, there is no proper word in English to express exactly the meaning in Chinese. To solve this problem, we insist to use the Chinese word exactly (of course in Pinyin, not in character), rather than to find a English word that is closer to the Chinese in meaning.

There are tens of thousands of books in TCM herbal therapy. The education system introduced here, the main one is the << Shanghan Lun >>,  is not at all the ones used as text book by almost any of the TCM schools in China or in other countries.

The book series here are not touch as text book in China, for some major reasons:

(1), there has been severe infectious diseases in China in history, at which time, doctors use different herbs to solve the disasters. The herbs used at that time are less in doses, and appear more “safe” (so called) than the herbs used in this book. Thereafter, the doctors like that kinds of herbal formula in clinic;

(2), the text book currently used in the TCM school in China and out of China is set up mostly by doctors they are originally western medicine doctor and learned the TCM later. They have no strong TCM back ground for the significance of the books here in the TCM education. The textbook they organized is based on the western medicine textbook style, which appear simple and easy to understand and to remember, but not a good ways to meet the clinic needs;

(3), the dose introduced in the book << Shanghan Lun >> has been less used (for some already known reasons now) by later doctors, so their clinic effects are not as excellent in clinic;

(4), the teachers in the TCM schools or universities are not qualified to teach this book, for their poor clinic experience in use of the knowledge from this book. They are teachers, not tutors, not coaches. To read the textbook in a classroom does not mean they can “coach” you to get a medal.

We choose to lead you learn the << Shanghan Lun>>  for several reasons:

(1), most of the famous TCM doctors in history admitted that their excellent clinic effects are due to the use of the herbs in the << Shanghan Lun >>;

(2), in our experience, the successful rate in the clinic is mush higher by using the herbal therapy in this book, compared with the use of herbal therapy introduced in the current TCM textbook;

(3), current TCM textbook tells you the meaning of the TCM terms, it also tells what herbal formula should be used in a disease, but it does not tell you how a disease can develop from one stage /phase into another, nor tells you what may happen after you use such herbs, or tells you how to modify the herbal formula according to the changed conditions. This is just exactly you are going to learn form the book the << Shanghan Lun>> .

The difference between the herbal therapy in this book and that in the current textbook are very much, from the ways to diagnose, to evaluate the stage of the disease, to the kinds of the herbs used, the dose used, and of course, to the final results and to the reproducibility of the success in clinic. Here readers should know that TCM herbal therapy is not only one style, but several different styles. You are going to learn the most important one. Without knowing this one, you cannot be a TCM herbal master. Of course you cannot expect to use the herbal knowledge in this book to solve all the clinic challenges, but it should allow you to solve more than 85% of clinic problems. Then you can spend more time on advanced education from other TCM masters to improve your clinic skills.

We will introduce you how to start a new way to learn the TCM herbal therapy. The steps for the learning are:

(1), introduction of the << Shanghan Lun >> per se. You need to know what the book itself talks about;

(2), the re-organization of the herbal formula based on each formula. The same herb formula may be used in various clinic conditions. They will be collected by each major herbal formula, so that you will know for a given herbal formula, in which clinic conditions it can be used. Note, the << Shanghan Lun >> cannot be really understood by just read itself. It needs to be understood in different ways, and try the practice again and again – it may need your life long time to understand, not only to remember, even one sentence!

(3), the reorganization of the herbal formula according to the main herb ingredient, so you can understand the function of each herb in the formula. Many times, the explanation, and the use of a herb in the << Shanghan Lun >> is not exactly the same as in the current textbook;

(4). development and expanding of the << Shanghan Lun >> system. There are several famous doctors in China, who develop the use of the Shanhan Lun style and we tested their herbal formula very useful. We will introduce 3 to 4 of them.

Only after you finish the course here, can you say: I see the gate of Chinese herbal therapy and my clinic work belongs to Shanghan style!