Huangdi Neijing: A Synopsis with Commentaries

Acknowledgements

xviii | Preface The author studied Chinese medicine beginning with the search for a plant morning-after pill, as part of a multi-national research programme supported by the World Health Organization. The Hong Kong Group was lucky to have a large amount of folklore in Chinese medicine on the interruption of pregnancy, although ethically, this approach is much frowned upon by moralists, since in traditional Chinese culture it is a virtue to let a developing life live but not to take it away.3 During this research the author realised that in order to use Chinese medicines with efficacy, one must know the basic principles of Chinese medicine. The author’s interest in the theoretical aspects of Chinese medicine led to the publication of the Cultural Fabric of Chinese Medicine (ref. 53). In 1982, while working on the plant motherwort (Leonurus artemisia), the author witnessed the successful treatment of a woman from Singapore, herself a practitioner of Chinese medicine, who was suffering from endometriosis. After consulting senior gynaecologists in Singapore and Hong Kong without success, she was introduced to the Obstetrics and Gynaecology Department in a municipal hospital in Guangzhou, where she was treated with only Chinese medicines. After one month, she returned home happily and her ordeal was over. This experience reinforced the author’s conviction that Chinese medicine can be reasonably explained in the light of modern biomedical science. But to do this, there must a common language, or a suitable signal converter of the sort used from analogue to digital, between the two bodies of medical knowledge . The prerequisite to learning and practising this common language is an understanding of the theoretical core of Chinese medicine, i.e. Neijing, in the light of modern knowledge, without falling back on yin-yang theory and the five elements only. Y. C. Kong 3 See Shangshu: Dayu Mo 尚書．大禹謨: “Hao sheng zhi de, qia yu min xin. 好生 之德，洽於民心。” (“The virtue to promote life is agreeble to the public.”) Neijing.indb 18 2010/2/26 6:57:27 PM Acknowledgements I am deeply grateful to the following persons for their help during the process of writing this book. Dr. Pau Wing Foo, an experienced clinician specialised in obstetrics and gynaecology, and an avid pursuer of medical knowledge old and new, had kindly read in great detail the whole manuscript, with frequent reference to the original text word by word. Most of his comments were integrated into the explanatory notes and footnotes. Where he made lengthy discussions, especially when these were not in accordance with the views of the author or other annotators, they were transcribed integrally as an “addendum”. If there is any statement that seems unorthodox in its medical context, the responsibility lies with me. Dr. Robert Dan has again kindly read Chapter Eight of the manuscript in its draft form, as he had done for The Cultural Fabric of Chinese Medicine. His many helpful comments and revisions are, however, blended into the translation , explanatory notes and footnotes. Dr. Wai Tze Kong provided many helpful discussions and oversaw the art work as in previous publications. Professors Liu Ts’un-yan, Pierre Ryckmans (Canberra) and Nathan Sivin (Philadelphia) had kindly read part of the manuscript. Mr. Tse Wai Keung, senior editor of The Chinese University Press (CUP), contributed tremendously to the quality of this book, as he had been doing with my previous publications from CUP. This book is blessed with the final touches of Prof. Liu Ts’un-yan, who weighed over every word in the prefaces and the article in Chinese on the history of Neijing studies, as he has been doing for all my writings in humanities prior to their publication. It is regrettable that Prof. Liu cannot wait to see this book in print, but I am glad that he has graciously accepted the dedication. Neijing.indb 19 2010/2/26 6:57:28 PM Neijing.indb 20 2010/2/26 6:57:28 PM ...