Overview
The Shang Han Lun has been a primary treatment theory and practice source for nearly two millenia. Its author, Zhang Zhong Jing, has been named the “Chinese Hippocrates” to highlight the depth and breadth of his contribution to traditional Chinese drug therapy.
This edition features the Chinese text, Pinyin transliteration, and an English translation of the entire Song Dynasty text, the content and textual order most used in Asia. Just as in Chinese language editions, it is fully supplemented with notes and commentaries. The notes describe the clinical symptoms Zhang Zhong Jing associated with the Chinese terms. For example, modern interpretations of a “moderate” pulse often refer to the speed of its beats. The same term, when used in the Shang Han Lun, refers to a pulse that is loose, soft, and harmonious. Such notes provide practitioners with the clinical observations necessary to properly apply the information.
The commentaries further enhance the text’s clinical utility by explaining the theoretical and practical foundations behind the lines of text. Because entire bodies of theory and practice can be associated with the terms and expressions used in canonical works like the Shang Han Lun, commentaries have become a standard means of knowledge acquisition for Asian students. The commentaries in this edition serve exactly the same purpose, greatly enhancing its utility. The introductory matter explains the background of the text, the conceptual structure of its contents, and the problems of exegesis. The appendices are designed to assist those studying Chinese and the glossary and the full Pinyin-English index make this an easily accessed reference.
Author Information
Zhang Ji
Zhang Ji (Zhang Zhong Jing) is well-know in modern Chinese medicine but little is know about his personal history. He is said to have been born in Changsha in about 150CE and to have died in 216CE. As the author of the Shāng Hán Lùn (Treatise on Cold Damage) and the The Jīn Guì Yào Lǜe(Essential Prescriptions of the Golden Cabinet) his influence on Chinese medicine persists to today.
Craig Mitchell
Translator: Ten Lecutres on the Use of Formulas from the Personal Experience of Jiao Shu De, Shang Han Lun Yi Shi
Craig Mitchell studied Chinese lanague in the United States and in the People’s Republic of China. He resides in Seattle Washington where he maintains a clinical practice and is Dean of the Seattle Institute of Oriental Medicine.
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The Shang Han Lun Yi Shi, like the Jin Gui Yao Ye edition is the authoritative English-language edition. Most Internet information; for example, Wikipedia entries, are based on these texts. This is one of the most important books in Chinese medicine and this translation is particularly important because it includes both the Chinese text and commentaries. Furthermore, because the translation is based on a published term set, readers are assured that the English rendering is as close to the Chinese meaning as can be accomplished with such a text.