This book is based on The Four Hundred Medicinal Properties in Verse and was translated by Yang of Mingyaoyuan. The Four Hundred Medicinal Properties in Verse is an introductory text on traditional Chinese medicine by the Ming dynasty physician Gong Tingxian.
Features
- Format: Written in four-character rhyming lines, it introduces the properties, effects, and uses of 400 commonly used Chinese medicinal herbs. For example: "Ginseng is sweet in taste and greatly replenishes the original qi; it quenches thirst, generates fluids, and regulates the nutritive and defensive qi." This concise, harmonious rhyming format makes the text easy to read aloud and memorize.
- Explanations: Each herb is usually presented with the original text, notes, a translation into modern language, and commentary. The explanations cover the herb's varieties, sources, places of origin, properties, effects and uses, clinical applications, dosage, and precautions, making the book highly practical.
Value and Influence
- An introductory text: The book has circulated widely for hundreds of years and is popular with beginners in traditional Chinese medicine. It has helped students at Chinese medicine colleges and universities, including undergraduates, college students, and graduate students, and also serves as a reference for those working in teaching, clinical practice, research, production, and management.
- Inheritance and innovation: It provides a framework for modern teaching of Chinese medicine. Modern editions, including vernacular explanations published by People's Medical Publishing House, retain the original text while adding contemporary notes and key points on clinical herb combinations, putting the past to use in the present.
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