Customer Reviews

The Web That Has No Weaver : Understanding Chinese Medicine

5 star:		(34)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This book provides a comprehensive introduction to the theory and philosophy behind traditional Chinese medicine. The average lay person may find more information here than they need at first but better that than a dumbed-down, less comprehensive book which will leave them nothing to turn to if/when they eventually decide they want more information. And unlike some Chinese medical books where 'facts' are produced seemingly from thin air, each of Kaptchuk's chapters is followed by an extensive section of notes/references.

The Web was one of the first books on Chinese medicine published in English for the layman and despite its limitations, I feel it is still one of the best. I am a practicing acupuncturist/herbalist and I recommend this book to my patients. It isn't perfect - sometimes there's too much detail, the illustrations could be clearer, could have included more info about herbs, etc. But to Kaptchuk's credit, some sections of this book are written with a beautiful simplicity unmatched by anything I've seen written since, e.g. when he compares the way Chinese painters represented the natural elements in their landscapes to the "poetic logic" a Chinese physician employs when evaluating a patient. It is no small task to sum up traditional Chinese medicine in a single volume but Kaptchuk has done an admirable job.

This book is considered required reading for every acupuncture student and is often recommended for patients who are interested in learning more about the medicine. I find it too difficult for the layman. and the text becomes laborious. Exploring the wonders of Chinese medicine should be exciting and enjoyable. There are many books which fulfill this with excellent illustrations. As students we found the book less than helpful and few ever finished reading this tome. As a practitioner, it sits on my shelf, but I have never referred to it.

My recommendations for the beginner in these studies are:

1. The Complete Illustrated Guide to Chinese Medicine by Tom Williams

Great pictures, easy to read. Have it my waiting room. Most read by my patients (next to the Chinese astrology books).

2. The Chinese Way to Healing: Many Paths to Wholeness by Mischa Cohen, LAc

Mischa presents the medicine clearly and has easy to follow suggestions for self care.

3. Healing With Whole Foods, Oriental Traditions and Modern Nutrition by Paul Pitcford

Integrates Oriental and Western nutritional knowledge. Excellent resource for layperson and practitioner alike.

4. ANYTHING by Giovanni Maciocia or Dan Bensky

5. A Manual of Acupuncture by Peter Deadman and Mazin Al-Khafaji

As a professor of acupuncture, I have found this textbook to be one of the best attempts to integrate all of the translated material and organize it into a very readable reference. Excellent, invaluable resource for students and practitioners alike.

This book is a very good treatment of the subject of acupuncture, and its associated methods of diagnosis and pattern recognition. Herbology is not discussed. Having finished the book, one will at least have an understanding of what one's acupuncturist is talking about, and may be able to take steps to better one's health. The meridians are described in basic detail, with interior and exterior branches discussed. Points and their properties are not discussed. Overall, a very good and basic description of acupuncture and its methods.

I had to learn TCM basics as part of my chinese martial art training. This book was invaluable in learning the basics of TCM. Ted Kaptchuk's writing is at times confusing, but overall is pretty well easy to understand.

A Great Book! 5 Stars

********************NEW COMMENTS************************
The above was my former review of this book. It is now almost a year later and I am now enrolled in Chinese Medicine school. Now that I have to know a great deal of theory, I find that this book is a bit lacking on explanation, as compared to "Foundations of Chinese Medicine : A Comprehensive Text for Acupuncturists and Herbalists" by Giovanni Maciocia. This book, I find is a much better basic explanation of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) than "The Web That Has No Weaver." Apparently the California Acupuncture board uses The Web book for their exams, as well as others including Giovanni's. I wanted to correct my review now that I have some perspective and understanding in Chinese Medicine. Still a good book with 3 stars.

Ted Kaptchuk has distilled the essence of ancient Chinese medicine in this clear expose. He explains the body organs as they were understood by the ancient Chinese, the acupuncture points and meridians, the fluids and flows, both of energy and fluids, in easy-to-understand language. A+ for clarifying the concepts of this medicine. With some imagination you may even begin to understand how such an ancient art could tackle modern challenges like AIDS and cancer, which it does. This book is a classic that will be around for a long time. The nice thing about it is that it clarifies ancient Chinese medicine to a person with no background in the subject.

I found this book to be the most complete resource on Traditional Chinese Medicine. It goes through the introduction and goes to quite deep details of the basics, the diagnoses, and more. I found this book to be the best so far at explaining pulse diagnosis on a level understandable to a beginner.
This book can be read on many, many levels. It is meant to be read several times over the course of one's studies of TCM, each time getting a bit more than the last time.
Some advice to beginners like myself: If while reading this book you get stuck and feel uninterested and repelled by some part of the chapter, just skip it and move on. Don't get discouraged no matter what. You may just not be ready for that part yet. Skip it and move on to the next part. You can always come back and read it.
I found that the language of this book is very easy and flowing, there is no difficult jargon at all. It is very smooth and easy to follow.
An amazing book, I would recommend it to everyone interested in TCM!!

Lent to me by an acupuncture and herbal doctor, I originally read "The Web" without any prior background and found it extremely enlightening. Thousands of years of Chinese philosophy and medicine explained by a Western doctor helps to bridge the chasm between the two approaches to medical care.

In the end, expect to be frustrated that Western medicine largely ignores what is proven to work, or steals the ideas and repackages them as "new".

The irony of the title is that Taoist philosophy acknowledges the intricate web of life, but ignores the Creator (the weaver). This is because, unlike western medicine and philosophy, Taoists do not constantly ask "why?", but instead focus solely on mapping what is. Understanding this fundamental difference may be key to understanding the Chinese mind and how to deal with their government and people.

This book gives one a sense of how much we could learn from the Chinese, and what Americans miss by ignoring a medical practice thousands of years old.

Over the course of two years since first reading, my mind repeatedly returns to lessons learned from this book.

This text is often refered to as the classic introduction to Chinese Medicine Theory. Because I am not a practitioner of Chinese medicine--or of Biomedicine--I cannot comment on its accuracy of portraying its subject matter. (I have heard that various texts abound with differing interpretations.)

I can say that the book is known as a classic, and it is HIGHLY DETAILED. It illustrates very well how Chinese Medicine is completely different from the view of health we are used to in "The West". For example, instead of diagnosing someone with cancer, or arrhythmia, or bronchitis, a diagnosis sounds something like dampness affecting the Spleen, Deficitent Kidney Yang, Congealed Blood, etc... (These are not respective equivalents for the western diagnoses cancer, et al.)

And Blood, Kidney, Spleen, Spirit, and a host of other terms that look familiar to our eyes take on larger meanings than we are used to.

What I liked best was the chapters on Meridians and on Organs, showing the organization of energy and systems of the human body.

Other later chapters got extremely detailed. While this was more than I wanted, it was fine, I just skimmed them without trying to memorize or really remember too much. Just get a basic sense of how there is a completely different approach to health and illness, which showed me that different possibilities and viewpoints always exist. I definitely enjoyed the book despite being more technical than I wanted. It opened my eyes.

(I am a massage therapist with just a pinch of training in "5 Element Theory" and Shiatsu, which is accupressure.)

No matter where I went, no matter who I talked to (about Chinese Medicine, of course), somewhere in the course of the conversation, the name of this book would pop up. I finally decided to purchase and read it.

I was not disappointed.

It isn't perfect - nothing is - but it is certainly one of the best introductions to Chinese Medicine around, especially for the westerner. The first few chapters in particular are a godsend for those unfamiliar with the Chinese way of thought. It explains the differences between western and easter scientific understanding without necessarily saying one is better than the other. I will be using many of his statements in my lectures to western medical students and doctors.

Bravo.

Book Review for The Web That Has No Weaver: Understanding Chinese Medicine by Ted J. Kaptchuk.        By Joyce Singer, Saratoga Springs, NY

As a practicing acupuncturist for over twenty-five years, I still find The Web That Has No Weaver to be the classic introduction to Chinese medicine. It is by far the most clear, authoritative and elegant book on Chinese medicine available.   I recommend this book to my patients and they report that it is revelatory and transforming.  Chinese medicine is no longer a mystery but an exciting adventure of ideas and practices that expand how we experience ourselves.  There is something in it for everyone. As one would expect from a book written by a Harvard professor, the book touches on a vast range of related topics to make insightful comparisons.  Besides all the giants of Asian medicine, Aristotle, Moses, the Church fathers, Hippocrates, Paracelsus and shamans all make appearances.  Data from modern randomized controlled trials is comfortably part of the text.  But the Web's strength is that its central focus never abandons the Asian model where health is a gestalt, pattern or web of interconnected being and behavior that cannot be reduced to pieces. Healing is an art that involves an entire person, not a simple fixing of a piece of the machine. The Web book is a beautiful introduction to another way of thinking about illness and health.  After reading it, Chinese medicine and its vision of healing finally makes sense.