Chinese - English Dictionary of Traditional Chinese Medicine

Chinese-English Dictionary of Tradtional Chinese medicine by Compiling and Translation Committee. Chief Editors: Yuan Yixiang, Ren Jixue, Huang Long, Gao Guangzhen. The People's Medical Publishing House, 1997. 258 mm x 185 mm or 10.25" x7.25", 1250 pages, edition binding. ISBN 7117023066

1. The dictionary collects 8760 entries which are the common terms of TCM, covering the 20 current divisions of TCM, i.e. Study of The Yellow Emperor's Internal Classic, Study of Treatise on Febrile Diseases, Study of Synopsis of Prescriptions of the Golden Chamber, Study of Doctrine of Epidemic Febrile Diseases, Basic Theory of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Diagnostics of TCM, The Chinese Materia Medica, Prescriptions of TCM, History of TCM, Literature of TCM, Internal Medicine of TCM, Surgery of TCM, Bone Diseases of TCM, Acupuncture and Moxibustion, Massage of TCM, Obstetrics and Gynecology of TCM, Pediatrics of TCM, Diseases of the Five Sense Organs, the Chinese Medicated Diet and Qigong.

2. The collection of the entries is focused on practicality. The sources of the entries selected are the national textbooks for TCM colleges, the famous works of TCM published since 1980, such as "Practical Traditional Chinese Medicine etc. Considering the characteristics of TCM, the terms in the ancient classics of TCM are selected according to the practical needs. For example, in "The Yellow Emperor's Internal Classic", such terms as Syncope due to emotional upset, Scorching syncope, Lump at the left hypochondrium, Mass in the upper or lower abdomen, etc. are no longer used in the clinical practice as a name of diseases but they are still useful. Therefore, they are also collected in the dictionary.

3. As for the historic figures in TCM and the ancient classics of TCM, the dictionary only selects the influential ones, arranging from the figures in the ancient tales such as Yellow Emperor to the modern famous persons such as Qin Bowei, who were alive until 1970.

4. As a Chinese-English dictionary, it is designed for the foreigners who speak English and the Chinese who learn both TCM and English. Considering such users the sources of the terms are not presented in the dictionary with exception of the terms of Prescriptions of TCM.

5. Considering the difficulties and accuracy in translation, the interpretations are made in the modern Chinese instead of the ancient Chinese and the original of the ancient classics of TCM are avoided. The allowance is expected from the readers, for this is a difference of the dictionary from the other current dictionaries of TCM.

6. Each term in the dictionary is lapelled by a classifying word. For example, "Chinese Angelica Root, A name of TCD", " Hegu An acupoint", and "Heat-phlegm A disease and syndrome The classifying words for the clinical divisions are disease, syndrome, disease and syndrome, pathogenesis, symptom, diagnostic methods, treatment, picture of the tongue, pulse condition, etc. The therapeutical principles are only given to disease, syndrome, and disease and syndrome.

7. According to the regulations of the Chinese government, such drugs as Os Tigris, Cornu Rhinoceroses, etc. are not selected because they are derived from the animals which are prohibited from killing. But there is an exception in the ancient prescriptions.

8. For the terms with the polysemous connotations the separate interpretations are listed out with "1.", "2.", "3.", etc.  The reference entries are introduced by "cf."

9. The entries are arranged according to the number of strokes of the Chinese characters. If the characters have equal strokes in number, the order of  will be followed. If the characters are exactly the same, the next ones will be considered according to the number of strokes.

10. The simplified Chinese characters are used in the dictionary based on "The General List of the Simplified Chinese Characters" issued by The Committee of Reforming Chinese Writing System in 1964. In order to avoid the misunderstandings the characters uniquely used in TCM are not simplified, such as  in the entry of "Blood Beasts" and  in the entry of "Mass in Abdomen".