Overview
Who Can Ride the Dragon? presents the essence of traditional Chinese medicine so that contemporary readers can appreciate its origins, its characteristic concepts and ideas, and most importantly its relevance to contemporary health and well-being. It pays particular attention to the nature of Chinese imagery and thought, tracing a fractal pattern of lines of influence that have developed over thousands of years.
Beginning with a basic premise—that to understand traditional Chinese medical concepts, texts, theories, and methods, one must quite literally come to terms with the cultural roots of the subject—the authors explore the ways in which Chinese language has influenced the development of medical concepts and theories since ancient times. They examine folk beliefs, myths, and customs that underlie the structure of medical theory in China, and investigate the relationships that exist between Chinese religio-philosophic ideology and medical theory and practice. Subsequently, the authors examine the literary tradition in China and suggest several important ways in which literary influences have pervaded medical thinking, strategy, and practice. The richness of the scientific tradition in Chinese history and the two common venues of medical development—folk medicine and court medicine—are portrayed.
Finally, the authors sensitively elucidate the relationship between sexual culture and medical theory, based upon examination of a number of ancient texts including passages from the great Tang dynasty physician, alchemist, and sexologist,Sun Si Miao, as well as other sources.
Who Can Ride the Dragon? conveys the Chinese viewpoint of their medicine and culture. The authors write with an appreciation for and a perspective of practice and teaching in China. As they explore the deep roots of its past, readers will admire the beauty and complexity of ancient Chinese medicine and discover its relevance to modern healthcare.
Author Information
Yuhuan Zhang
Author: A Brief History of Qi, Who Can Ride the Dragon
A native of Chengdu, China, Yuhuan Zhang has devoted large part of her life to the movement of translation and transmission of Chinese medicine into the West. In order to better understand the essence of Chinese medicine and Chinese medical linguistics, she studied at the University of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Chengdu and apprenticed with individual teachers in Chinese acupuncture clinics. She graduated from the Linguistics Department at University of California, Berkeley and for many years worked solely as a writer, translator and editor of books and journals on Chinese medicine, culture and philosophy. She has since co-authored Who Can Ride the Dragon, A Brief History of Qi, Chinese Medical Characters: Vol I-V, translated Manual of Scalp Acupuncture, The Extralinguistic Aspects of the English Translation of Chinese Medical Terminology, etc. She has also served as one of the column editors for Thieme International Publishing Group and assistant editor at Harcourt Health Sciences.
Currently, Yuhuan is a court appointed Mandarin interpreter for the State of Hawaii, and specializes in legal interpreting and translation. She has also forayed into high tech translation and interpreting as her most recent hobby.
Ken Rose
Author: A Brief History of Qi, Who Can Ride the Dragon
Ken Rose spent most of the time between 1992 and 2015 living and studying in mainland China. He is a lifelong student of Chinese thinking, art, and science. He began studying Taijiquan in 1970 and continues to study and teach in Mendocino, California where he operates the Three Springs Institute with his wife, Jessica. From 1992 he studied and taught at the Chengdu University of TCM, specializing in the translation and transmission of Chinese medicine in English. The concerns that motivated his research and writing in Who Can Ride the Dragon and A Brief History of Qi continue to concern him in his work with Elisabeth Rochat on interpreting and teaching the ancient classics in Chinese medical education and practice.
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