Update: As a few people informed me, there was some problems with the twitter & RSS feed notification system, however I think it has been resolved. Furthermore, while finishing up the final stages of my book I have had little time to post, so for those that actually may have checked the website recently, I apologize for the lack of activity. However, at the moment I have more time and will resume posting. Please let me know if there is
Continue readingA restructuring of Warm Disease names (QBW)
By: Qin Bo-Wei
By: Qin Bo-Wei Translated By: Jason Blalack The names in the warm disease current are extremely complicated. Besides the name, warm disease itself, there is wind-warmth, spring-warmth, summerheat-warmth, autumn-warmth, winter-warmth, damp-warmth, warm-epidemic, warm-toxin, warm-malaria, as well as lurking summerheat, autumn-dryness etc. All of these are within the scope of warm disease. I think that these should be restructured with some added explanation. Only after we rectify these terms will we be able to perform some judicious pruning. Spring-warmth: Warmth is
Continue readingUnderstanding Case Records Pt. 2
A Touch of Ling: Learning from ancient case records
This article originally appeared in The Lantern, Volume 7, No.3 September 2010.
by Jason Blalack
Continue readingStudying Chinese medicine case records is an invaluable way to enhance one’s clinical skills beyond basic textbook knowledge.
Understanding Case Records Pt. 1
Further thoughts on understanding Ye Tian-Shi’s case records.
By: Jason Blalack
Ye Tian-Shi is quite arguably one of the most important clinicians in Chinese medical history. His most important contribution, Case Records as a Guide to Clinical Practice (lin zheng zhi nan), is a compilation of case records by his students. It should be noted that, for a period of time in the Qing Dynasty that doctors/students would only study this book while ignoring the “classics.” Although criticized for this by their teachers, it definitely demonstrates the impact that Ye’s case records had on medicine.
Continue readingHerbs & the Eight Extraordinary Vessels
By: Charles Chace
The first systematic discussion of the extraordinary vessels in Chinese herbal medicine appears in Li Shizhen’s 李時珍Exposition on the Eight Extraordinary Vessels (Qijing bamai Kao 奇經八脈考, circa, 1576).In our forthcoming translation and commentary on this text, Exposition on the Extraordinary Vessels, Acupuncture, Alchemy and Herbal Medicine, Eastland Press, 2009, my co-author Miki Shima and I describe Li’s approach to herbal prescribing as an overarching “meta-diagnosis” encompassing a wide range of possible zangfu presentations. For instance, Li Shizhen considers any disease characterized by masses or accumulations in the lower burner that presents in conjunction with an ascending counterflow to the upper burner to be a disorder of the chong vessel. This might present in the context of number of possible disease or zangfu patterns, but for Li the simultaneous presence of stagnation in the lower burner and counterflow extending to the upper burner define it as chong vessel problem. This is, I believe, the most pragmatic way to make use of the extraordinary vessels in herbal medicine
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