Chinese Medical Chinese Grammar and Vocabulary

Given the absence of a systematic approach to the westward transmission of Chinese medicine, and the paucity of texts translated from Chinese using a consistent terminology, the Western student unable to read primary Chinese literature has only limited access to Chinese medical knowledge, and has therefore has much to gain by learning Chinese. This is not as daunting a task as is often thought. By narrowing the scope of study to Chinese medical texts, the task is made considerably easier. In the past, it took students over a year of intensive study of general and medical Chinese to approach Chinese medical texts. Since the terminology of Chinese medicine, especially in modern literature, rests largely on little more than a thousand characters, a focused approach to vocabulary learning should be to reduce this time

This book assumes a knowledge of how Chinese characters are composed, how they are written by hand, and how they are pronounced. Anyone who has this basic knowledge of Chinese can tackle this book. Part I describes the basic features of the literary language of Chinese medicine and its relationship to the language of the classical period and to the modern vernacular of northern China, Mandarin. It explains many gram-matical constructions commonly encountered in Chinese medical texts, and describes the build-up of Chinese medical terms in detail. Part II breaks down the terminology of Chinese medicine into its component characters. The characters are introduced in lists according to subject matter. The Ping Yin pronunciation and English rendering. (Kenyon and Knott transcription of English renderings is also given for the benefit of non-native-English-speaking learners.) The list is followed by examples of compound terms using only characters so far introduced. The examples are followed by drills that test the student on vocabulary items. The answers to questions are given at the end of the book. Considerable space has been devoted to the explanation of terms. Till now, the English-language literature of Chinese medicine has been greatly marred by the absence of a standardized terminology that faithfully reflects the Chinese concepts. In the present text, we explain terms in relation to the concepts they denote, and in many cases explain the choice of the English term used in this book. We hope that this will contribute to a greater awareness of terminological and translation issues, so that a well-chosen terminology may gradually be adopted by the Chinese medical community as a whole. Students wishing to find out more about Chinese medical terms and concepts can consult the Practical English Dictionary of Chinese Medicine.