The Systematic Classic of Acupuncture and Moxibustion: Huang-Ti Chen Chiu Chia I Ching (Jia Yi Jing) [Paperback]

Mi Huang-Fu (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0936185295 | ISBN-13: 978-0936185293 | Publication Date: April 2004 | Edition: 1st

The first clinical textbook of acumoxa therapy dating from the third century - and one of the four great Chinese acupuncture classics - this book is so authoritative that it has provided the framework and standard for all subsequent acupuncture textbooks in China. It contains all the most important passages of the Su Wen and Ling Shu, collated, edited, and arranged according to topic.

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Chinese

About the Author

Yang Shou-zhong was born in Tangshan, Hebei into a family of Confucian scholars. He was raised and educated by his uncle who tutored him in the Chinese classics, including medicine, from 1950-1960. From 1960-64, Yang studied English at the Tangshan Teachers' College from which he graduated with a B.A. degree. From 1966-68, Yang studied Chinese medicine and acupuncture-moxibustion with Dr. Xu Shou-wen, a pupil of Shi Jin-mo, a very famous modern TCM scholar. During the Cultural Revolution, Yang, like so many other Chinese, was "sent down to the countryside to learn from the Chinese people." While there, he practiced Chinese medicine and gained a reputation as being a very effective healer. At the same time, from 1972-79, he was principal of a middle school and a tutor in a special training course for "barefoot doctors."

After the Cultural Revolution, from 1979-81, Yang studied English postgraduate at the Beijing Languages Institute, and, in 1981, he got a job as an English teacher at the North China Coal Mines Medical College. This allowed him to continue his personal medical studies from 1982-84 in the Rehabilitation Research Center of the Teaching Hospital of the North China coal Mines Medical College. Yang has continued teaching English at this college to this day where he is also A) editor of the North China Cola Mines Medical College Journal of Medicine, B) director of the Qigong Research Center, and C) instructor of foreign students in Chinese medicine and acupuncture.

In terms of publications, Yang has published scores of poems, literary criticisms, essays, and papers on Chinese literature and history in various Chinese newspapers, magazines, and academic journals. In addition, he has also published dozens of papers on the English language in Chinese and is the author of two books on English grammar published in China. Yang is also the senior translator and Chinese coordinator of Blue Poppy Press's Great Masters Series. This is a collection of premodern Chinese medical books selected for their continued importance within Chinese medicine. Yang is the translator of the following Great Masters books: Fu Qing-zhu's Fu Qing Zhu Nu Ke (Fu Qing-zhu's Gynecology); Li Dong-yuan's Pi Wei Lun (Treatise on the Spleen & Stomach); Hua Tuo's Zhong Zang Jing (Classic of the Central Viscera); Zhu Zhen-heng's Dan Xi Zhi Fa Xin Yao (The Heart & Essence of Dan-xi's Methods of Treatment) and Ge Zhi Yu Lun (Extra Treatises Based on Investigation & Inquiry); Huang-fu Mi's Huang Ti Zhen Jiu Jia Yi Jing (The Yellow Emperor's Acupuncture & Moxibustion Systematic Classic); Yang Ji-zhou's Shen Ying Jing (The Divinely Responding Classic); Tao Hong-jing's Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing (The Divine Farmers Materia Medica Classic); Liu Yi-ren's Yi Xue Zhuan Xin Lu (The Heart Transmission of Medicine); and Wang Bing's Mai Jing (The Pulse Classic).

Yang Shou-zhong is married and has two children, a son and a daughter.

Product Details

• Paperback: 508 pages
• Publisher: Blue Poppy Pr; 1st edition (April 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0936185295
• ISBN-13: 978-0936185293
• Product Dimensions: 10.3 x 8 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,187,805 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars the First Acupuncture Textbook, April 16, 2006

By 

John Kokko "Lim Mu-Bong" (Berkeley, CA, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Systematic Classic of Acupuncture and Moxibustion: Huang-Ti Chen Chiu Chia I Ching (Jia Yi Jing) (Paperback)

This translation is actually in its 2nd edition now. The first edition came out in a hard-cover, which can often be found in used book stores, under books that are too esoteric for the general population, and too expensive for the novice student. Almost 10 years after the first edition arrived, this paperback version does not fail to inspire the one who has discovered it. It's like a gem among common stones.
If you've tried reading the Nei-Jing: Su wen and Ling Shu, you may have already figured out that it's a conglomeration of 162 treatises, loosely organized and difficult to assimilate. The Jia Yi Jing, first published in 282 CE., derives most of its information directly from the Nei-Jing (2nd-3rd century B.C.E). So why spend more money on another version of the Nei-Jing? The difference may be best understood with these words taken straight from the Translator's Preface: "While the expositions on pathogenesis, diagnosis, and the pathophysiology of disease in the Ling Shu and Su Wen are indeed instructive these books are not oriented toward clinical practice and most often do not contain therapies for specific, clinically encountered problems. The Jia Yi Jing, on the other hand, is a clinically oriented manual arranged in a manner that a student or practitioner can easily access. It presents the reader with the signs and symptoms of a given disease, and then provides us with acupuncture moxibustion treatment choices. Having made these choices, the Jia Yi Jing then provides us with a clear description of what to expect from its formulas and their relevant points, the depths of needle insertions, the number of cones allowed in moxibustion, and the manipulation of the needles, etc."
Furthermore, while the Su Wen records only one hundred sixty acupoints... the Jia Yi Jing adds one hundred eighty-nine points to this list, increasing the total number to three hundred forty-nine points... Texts on classical Chinese acupuncture and moxibustion published in the fifteen hundred years since Huang-fu Mi's death have added only twelve channel points to the number contained in the Jia Yi Jing." (iv translator's preface). This elucidates the importance of this text, not only in light of the fact that it was the first textbook on classical acupuncture, but also given its position as a milestone in the systemic classification and application of acupuncture in general.
Organized into 12 sections, the following are my personal labels for each one: 1. Theory 2. Channels 3. Points 4. Pulses 5. Needling technique 6. Diagnosis 7,8,9. Contraction of disease in the 6 channels and Zang/Fu 10. Bi-Pain disorders 11. Severe disorders 12. EENT and miscellaneous disorders.
Finally, the other source of the Jia Yi Jing material is the now lost Ming Tang Zhen Liu Zhi Yao (The Acupuncture and Moxibustion Treatment Essentials of the Enlightening Hall), which was given much reverence in its day and is best preserved through the Jia Yi Jing.
If I could give this 6 stars, I would. My recommendation is that only serious acupuncture students/ practitioners should consider making this purchase. The paperback value is not great enough for collectors and the material is too dependant on having a TCM background for non-practitioners to make this investment. A better read for non-acupuncturists is "The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Medicine: A New Translation of the Nei-Jing Suwen with Commentary" by Maoshing Ni. It reads more like a Taoist narrative. My personal recommendation for serious Nei-Jingers is Henry Lu's Nei-Jing and Nan-Jing in one volume, available from www.tcmcollege.com. Also, the Nguyen Van-Nghi group is making English translations of the Ling Shu available through www.jungtao.edu.