Shén Nóng Běncǎo Jīng: The Divine Farmer's Classic of Materia Medica 3rd Edition

Shén Nóng Běncǎo Jīng: The Divine Farmer's Classic of Materia Medica 3rd Edition
Author: Sabine Wilms
Publisher:
Total Pages: 592
Release: 2017-01-21
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780991342952

This book is a literal translation of one of the earliest and most important classics of Chinese medicine and natural science: the Shén Nóng B'nc'o J'ng ? or "Divine Farmer's Classic of Materia Medica." Compiled in the third century CE but undoubtedly much older in content, it contains information on 365 substances that were considered to have beneficial effects on the human body.

Master Hua's Classic of the Central Viscera

Master Hua's Classic of the Central Viscera
Author: Tuo Hua
Publisher: Blue Poppy Enterprises, Inc.
Total Pages: 260
Release: 1993
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 9780936185439

Publication of the first English language translation of this Chinese medical text bearing the name of the most famous Chinese doctor of antiquity, Hua Tuo, gives Western practitioners access to what is, perhaps, the premier proto-Daoist medical classic. In particular, this book is a great source of information on pulse diagnosis and is the locus classicus of the theory of warm supplementation, containing numerous fascinating herbal and alchemical formulas for both internal and external usage.

Authority and Expertise in Ancient Scientific Culture

Authority and Expertise in Ancient Scientific Culture
Author: Jason König
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 871
Release: 2017-01-20
Genre: History
ISBN: 1316849066

How did ancient scientific and knowledge-ordering writers make their work authoritative? This book answers that question for a wide range of ancient disciplines, from mathematics, medicine, architecture and agriculture, through to law, historiography and philosophy - focusing mainly, but not exclusively, on the literature of the Roman Empire. It draws attention to habits that these different fields had in common, while also showing how individual texts and authors manipulated standard techniques of self-authorisation in distinctive ways. It stresses the importance of competitive and assertive styles of self-presentation, and also examines some of the pressures that pulled in the opposite direction by looking at authors who chose to acknowledge the limitations of their own knowledge or resisted close identification with narrow versions of expert identity. A final chapter by Sir Geoffrey Lloyd offers a comparative account of scientific authority and expertise in ancient Chinese, Indian and Mesopotamian culture.

Animals Through Chinese History

Animals Through Chinese History
Author: Roel Sterckx
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 293
Release: 2019
Genre: History
ISBN: 1108428150

This innovative collection opens a door into the rich history of animals in China. This title is also available as Open Access.

Healing with Poisons

Healing with Poisons
Author: Yan Liu
Publisher: University of Washington Press
Total Pages: 278
Release: 2021-06-22
Genre: History
ISBN: 0295749016

Open access edition: DOI 10.6069/9780295749013 At first glance, medicine and poison might seem to be opposites. But in China’s formative era of pharmacy (200–800 CE), poisons were strategically employed as healing agents to cure everything from abdominal pain to epidemic disease. Healing with Poisons explores the ways physicians, religious figures, court officials, and laypersons used toxic substances to both relieve acute illnesses and enhance life. It illustrates how the Chinese concept of du—a word carrying a core meaning of “potency”—led practitioners to devise a variety of methods to transform dangerous poisons into effective medicines. Recounting scandals and controversies involving poisons from the Era of Division to the Tang, historian Yan Liu considers how the concept of du was central to how the people of medieval China perceived both their bodies and the body politic. He also examines the wide range of toxic minerals, plants, and animal products used in classical Chinese pharmacy, including everything from the herb aconite to the popular recreational drug Five-Stone Powder. By recovering alternative modes of understanding wellness and the body’s interaction with foreign substances, this study cautions against arbitrary classifications and exemplifies the importance of paying attention to the technical, political, and cultural conditions in which substances become truly meaningful. Healing with Poisons is freely available in an open access edition thanks to TOME (Toward an Open Monograph Ecosystem) and the generous support of the University of Buffalo.

Stone Medicine

Stone Medicine
Author: Leslie J. Franks
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 1302
Release: 2016-02-13
Genre: Health & Fitness
ISBN: 1620555301

A comprehensive manual for using crystals, gems, and stones to address physical, emotional, and spiritual health conditions • Includes an extensive Materia Medica detailing the healing and spiritual properties of 200 crystals and stones based on Classical Chinese Medicine • Explores the role played by the color of each stone, its Yin and Yang qualities, crystalline structure, chemical composition, and topical and internal applications • Explains how to make stone and crystal elixirs, wear stones as healing jewelry, use them in massage and energy work, and cleanse and recharge them • Based on the oral teachings of Dr. Jeffrey C. Yuen, a Taoist priest from the ancient lineage of the Jade Purity School (88th generation) masters In addition to herbalism and acupuncture, Chinese Medicine has a rich tradition of using stones as medicine, passed from generation to generation for thousands of years. In this comprehensive guide and extensive Materia Medica, Leslie J. Franks presents the Stone Medicine teachings of Dr. Jeffrey C. Yuen, an 88th generation Taoist priest from the ancient lineage of the Jade Purity School, which dates to the Han dynasty, 206 BCE. Detailing the therapeutic properties of 200 gems, stones, minerals, and crystals, Franks begins with an extensive look at 15 different forms of quartz, followed by chapters on transformative stones, protective stones, nourishing stones, source energy stones, and alchemical stones. She explains the physical, emotional, and spiritual conditions each stone can treat and how their color, form, hardness, and energetic qualities affect us according to Chinese Medicine. She discusses how to make stone and crystal elixirs for internal and topical use, how to charge quartz with the healing properties of other stones, how to cleanse and recharge a stone after use, and how to combine stones to create healing formulas for individual conditions. She explains different techniques of wearing stones as healing jewelry and how to use them in massage and energy work. She examines the chemistry and sacred geometry of crystal structure, revealing how the minerals contained in the stones affect our physiology by supporting our Jing (Essence); by nourishing Qi (energy), blood, and fluids; and by clearing Wind, Cold, Damp, and Heat conditions that can lead to disease. Including a thorough primer on Traditional Chinese Medicine and backed by modern scientific research, this book explains how stones access our deepest layers, vibrating ever so slowly, to initiate deep lasting change.