Dao of Chinese Medicine: Understanding an Ancient Healing Art [Hardcover]

Donald Edward Kendall (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 15, 2002 | ISBN-10: 0195921046 | ISBN-13: 978-0195921045 | Edition: 1

Dao of Chinese Medicine is the first Western text to shed light on the reality of the ancient healing arts of China, revealing that Chinese medical theories are based on important physiological findings. This is in contrast to the Western interpretation, popularized since the 1940s and 50s that Chinese medicine and acupuncture involve undefined energy and blood circulating through imaginary meridians. Unfortunately, the energy-meridian idea condemned Chinese medicine to be viewed in terms of metaphysical beliefs, limiting its acceptance into mainstream health care. It also led to a growing frustration to reinvent acupuncture in Western terms before understanding the true way (dao) of Chinese medicine. Dao of Chinese Medicine sets the record straight, explaining how ancient Chinese physicians developed a physiologically based medicine with the theories supported by human dissection studies and how Chinese medical theories are consistent with 21st century explanations about how acupuncture works.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"All in all, the contribution of this book to the study of medicine is great."--Focus on Alternative and Complementary Therapies

Product Details

• Hardcover: 370 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; 1 edition (August 15, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195921046
• ISBN-13: 978-0195921045
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 7.9 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #495,693 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A MAJOR ACHIEVEMENT ...BEYOND EVEN JOSEPH NEEDHAM, June 22, 2003

By 

Kenneth J.T. Li, Ph.D.,D.Sp. (Hong Kong, SAR, China) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dao of Chinese Medicine: Understanding an Ancient Healing Art (Hardcover)

As a Western-trained biochemist and a critical commentator of Chinese Medicine, I read Donald Kendall's book with keen interest. For more than two decades since the rise of popularity of acupuncture in the West, Chinese Medicine has been regarded as any other folklore medicine derived mainly from empirical experience with little scientific basis, despite the fact that it has been practiced for over two thousand years and has long been the only mainstream healthcare system in China until recent century. Even today, this healing art is still practiced as a complementary medicine in China and in overseas Chinese communities.

In recent years, the quest for herbal-based alternative medicine in the West has made Chinese Medicine increasingly appealing not only to the ordinary populace, but also to western medical professionals. This ancient healing art is said to have embraced the environmental, nutritional as well as emotional influence in its etiology and be capable of providing individualized therapies which could only be realized by the future pharmacogenomic approach.

However, to most westerners Chinese Medicine is as mysterious as the Chinese Ancient Civilization it belongs. The reasons could well be that the classical cannons of this healing art are all written in very concise and hard to understand ancient Chinese, and its underlying therapeutic principles are shrouded in the ancient Chinese worldviews of Five Phases and Yin-Yang. Furthermore, most attempts in the past to interpret the principles of Chinese medicine either do not properly recognize the ultimate consistency of its functional organ concepts with modern physiology, nor all together misunderstand its essential theories of disease etiology and balance of Yin & Yang due to inaccurate translation of the some of the critical concepts. All these have led to the misperception that Chinese medicine is a totally outdated traditional therapeutic system passed down merely by generations of empirical healing experience, with little scientific basis for verification and hard to reconcile with nowadays mainstream western medicine.

It is therefore an intellectual delight to find in Dr Kendall's new book "Dao of Chinese Medicine" a fresh interpretation of this oriental healing art in terms of modern physiology. The content of this book is logically laid-out in fifteen chapters starting from the quest for the Dao, i.e., the way, and the ancient beginning of this healing art, to the interpretation of many important concepts and principles of Chinese medicine, and finally to the different approaches in diagnosis and treatment which were adopted by the Chinese physicians over the centuries and are still practiced today.

From the start, what makes this book different from most existing English texts on Chinese medicine is that Kendall derived his source material by taking on new and more accurate translations of Huangdi Nei Jing, the most reverend cannon of Chinese medicine, and successfully demystifies the misleading idea that Chinese medicine is on based energy circulation through invisible meridians. As the readers will discover, ancient Chinese medicine is not just based on an ancient philosophy of Five Phases and Yin-Yang, but is firmly rooted in empirical physiological studies, which includes, against common customs of the time, post-mortem dissection.

... I consider Dr. Kendall's book a major achievement in introducing Chinese medicine to the West in ways even Dr. Joseph Needham could not achieve in his monumental work of "Chinese Science and Technology". With over 200 citations to more than 80 treatises of the Nei Jing, this book reveals the rational basis of this ancient healing art with modern insight which will be instrumental for future application, research and acceptance of Chinese medicine in the West. The Dao is a must read for students, practitioners of Chinese medicine as well as other health specialists and individuals who would appreciate the fascinating story of the great indigenous medicine of China.

By: Kenneth J.T. Li, Ph.D.,D.Sp.
Former Assistant Director, R&D, School of Chinese Medicine, Hong Kong University

26 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars The Dao that can be described is not the real Dao, August 2, 2005

By 

K. W. van Kooten (Utrecht, Netherlands) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dao of Chinese Medicine: Understanding an Ancient Healing Art (Hardcover)

As an acupuncturist and MD I am certainly interested in ideas about how acupuncture works. But I do not expect someone to tell me that his view of acupuncture is the 'true way' or therefor all other ideas about acupuncture, including the 'meridian' idea and the 'energy' idea are wrong. And that is exactly what Donald Kendall does.

Acupuncture in its various forms has always been very opportunistic in the good sense of the word: when an idea works it is a good idea (even if it is 'wrong'), if it doesn't work it is not a good idea, (even if is 'right').

So: it is very interesting to read that Chong Mai is in fact the aorta, Ren Mai the vena cava and so on, but this does not help my patients. Abolishing the concept of 'qi' as 'energy' circulating through 'meridians' certainly harms my patients, because in my practice this concept is extremely useful, versatile and elucidating. And so are the 'metaphysical' aspects of Chinese Medicine.

It is certainly possible to research the working mechanisms of acupuncture and the correlations to Western anatomy and physiology while retaining the 'meridian' concept. Outstanding examples of this approach are "Hara diagnosis - reflections on the sea" by Stephen Birch and Kiiko Matsumoto, and "Chasing the Dragons Tail" by Yoshio Manaka, Kazuko Itaya and Stephen Birch. Those are books I do read over and again and still find new insights and am invited to find out my own 'Dao'. I don't expect I will ever read Donald Kendalls book again, although it certainly did help me in finding out why trying to find one-to-one correlations between Chinese and Western medical concepts is not part of my 'Dao'.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THE FUTURE OF INTEGRATED MEDICINE, September 18, 2004

By 

Lionel Chan (Sydney, Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dao of Chinese Medicine: Understanding an Ancient Healing Art (Hardcover)

"Why does anyone care whether Chinese anatomy and physiology are explained as energy flowing through meridians, or by the circulation of blood, nutrients, other vital substances, and vital air (qi) through the vascular system? The answer to that lies in the moral obligation of every practitioner to provide each patient with the latest medical understanding available. The need to continually search for the truth is the most fundamental principle of science and medicine... Research so far shows that the true concepts of Chinese Medicine operate under known physiological principles, involving the complex organization of the neural, vascular, endocrine, and somatic systems, sustained by the circulation of nutrients, vital substances, and oxygen from vital air."

- Donald E, Kendall, "Dao of Chinese Medicine" (2002).

Kendall makes excellent points, but I just want to clarify a few things.

I think people care about using "energy" concepts as opposed to anatomy/physiology, apart from the mere functional clinical usefulness of using the "energy" model as generally understood in Western TCM, because the idea of Qi and Yin and Yang helps to connect us with some sort of universal Spirit and sense of belonging. But we must distinguish very carefully between the type of "scientism" that explains something in material and physical terms and attempts to reduce it to merely that and denies any reality to anything else, and the type of science that looks for the mechanisms for exactly how Spirit is allowed to operate in the manifest realm.

Let us imagine a hypothetical situation in the future (or near-future, if Kendall is to be believed) where biomedical science had advanced to the point where everything in TCM physiology was explained in biomedical terms, in a non-reductionist way that took the big picture and Bian Zheng into full account. The process would have meant, inevitably, that some things TCM held to be true are thrown out, and some things are added.

The point is, if a great majority of what the ancient Chinese discovered so long ago, through their own senses and their understandings of the relatedness of things on the micro and the macro levels, is confirmed in physical mechanistic terms by the very latest in scientific understanding, this actually has the effect of elevating the Spirit rather than dragging it down. How could anyone continue to believe in an uncaring world of dead particles bumping randomly into each other, when the said dead particles accidentally reflect the principles of Yin/Yang in the body/mind and its relationship to its environment? Instead of, as we might have feared, science having the effect of flattening everything into existential meaninglessness, it would instead illuminate how all (even when modelled with precise mathematical equations) is actually alive with the numinous!

At the present moment clearly, the predominant belief system in the scientific community is not yet ready to encompass and be able to accept such a reality. That itself is a very good reason to hold on to the classical Qi physiological concepts, because they are the best models we have to repeat the empirical experience of the Zhongyi that precede us in treating those that seek our aid now. Since the classics are written in pre-modern language, learning Qi physiology properly on its own terms is also vital to get access to this wealth of knowledge and experience. Also the fact is that Qi/Yin/Yang will always be more accessible to the individual than the minutiae of endocrine, neurological, connective tissue and vascular response mechanisms, and therefore 1) always a useful lens with which to translate clinical reality, 2) more understandable to the average patient that wants to regulate their own life and 3) good news for the aspiring practitioner that simply does not have the intellectual/rational capacity to think in biomedical terms, but have talents elsewhere that more than make up for it.

But holding onto classical Qi physiology does not and should not mean turning a blind eye to the latest discoveries in science, and not encouraging further understanding in this area. Also in my opinion, only science has the power to translate the important insights of Chinese Medicine into changing the way medicine is practiced on a societal or even world scale - quasi-mystical and ethnocentric concepts, however functional and "real", do not.

TCM and modern biomedical science have great potential to extend and improve each other, working side by side for the benefit of all. But for integration to happen whilst fully honouring the truths each has to offer requires a new outlook transcending both existing Western and Eastern epistemology. If you want to have some sort of idea of what the kind of rigorous science that has the capacity to fit Spirit, Qi, Yin/Yang and consciousness into its framework could look like, I highly recommend reading "Marriage of Sense and Soul" by Ken Wilber, and looking into http://www.integralinstitute.org/ .