The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Medicine: A New Translation of the Neijing Suwen with Commentary [Paperback]

Maoshing Ni (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 10, 1995

The Neijing is one of the most important classics of Taoism, as well as the highest authority on traditional Chinese medicine. Its authorship is attributed to the great Huang Di, the Yellow Emperor, who reigned during the third millennium BCE. This new translation consists of the eighty-one chapters of the section of the Neijing known as the Suwen, or "Questions of Organic and Fundamental Nature." (The other section, called the Lingshu, is a technical book on acupuncture and is not included here.)

Written in the form of a discourse between Huang Di and his ministers, The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Medicine contains a wealth of knowledge, including etiology, physiology, diagnosis, therapy, and prevention of disease, as well as in-depth investigation of such diverse subjects as ethics, psychology, and cosmology. All of these subjects are discussed in a holistic context that says life is not fragmented, as in the model provided by modern science, but rather that all the pieces make up an interconnected whole. By revealing the natural laws of this holistic universe, the book offers much practical advice on how to promote a long, happy, and healthy life.

The original text of the Neijing presents broad concepts and is often brief with details. The translator's elucidations and interpretations, incorporated into the translation, help not only to clarify the meaning of the text but also to make it a highly readable narrative for students—as well as for everyone curious about the underlying principles of Chinese medicine.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Pondering how best to describe this distinctly innovative translation of the Neijing, the most apt image would be the instant clarity revealed by wiping a steam-misted mirror. Suddenly everything is clear."— American Journal of Acupuncture

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Chinese

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Product Details

• Paperback: 316 pages
• Publisher: Shambhala; 1 edition (May 10, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1570620806
• ISBN-13: 978-1570620805
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #36,354 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

103 of 111 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars a solid paraphrase for the practitioner, April 22, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Medicine: A New Translation of the Neijing Suwen with Commentary (Paperback)

While this book is sometimes criticised for its lack of scholarly style, it is important to realize that the writer is approaching a 2,500 year old work, the seminal theoretical treatise of Chinese medicine, from the point of view of a clinician. It is frankly not much easier for native speakers of Chinese to approach the Neijing in its original form than it is for Westerners. Moreover, Mr Ni comes from a medical family spanning several generations of physicians. Being a practitioner myself, I can attest to the correctness of the decisions made in preparing this book. He has done a commendable job in making this ancient classic accessible to modern readers. Chinese physicians make use of this material during nearly every moment spent in the clinic. It is practical in a way that sinologists locked in their ivory towers can scarcely imagine.

Those who would prefer a dry, smugly academic translation with separate footnotes, devoid of historical context or cultural annotation, would do well to investigate Ilza Veith's translation of the Neijing; a valiant effort which inevitably fails as a result of its refusal to acknowledge the living traditions surrounding the text itself.

34 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The best we have., March 14, 2006

By 

Pierce Salguero "Historian of Asian Medicine" (Philadelphia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Medicine: A New Translation of the Neijing Suwen with Commentary (Paperback)

As an graduate student who has worked on translating the Huangdi Neijing Suwen, I have had the opportunity to place this translation side-by side with most of the others currently in print. This is one of the best we have. The Neijing is often arcane and difficult to penetrate because of opaque language, and it is invariably read with a later commentary alongside to assist in understanding. Ni has provided the commentary and translation integrated on the same page. No, this is not a word-for-word translation, but it does capture the gist of the text and explain how it is understood in contemporary clinical settings more effectively than any other English translation currently available. Until there is a critical academic edition of the text, this is probably as good as it gets. Clinicians will probably prefer this over an academic translation anyway as it smoothes out many of the original's rough edges and internal contradictions, and applies the passages to Chinese medical theory as it is understood today.

31 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars An all in one: translation, paraphrase, and commentary., February 28, 2005

By 

Stuart-Little - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Medicine: A New Translation of the Neijing Suwen with Commentary (Paperback)

The good thing about this book is that is by and large readable. The bad part is that the translation, paraphrasing and commentary are all rolled into one and are indistinquishable to the casual reader. Even when a snipet of text is more or less trying to be faithful to the Nei jing the translation is sometimes clearly unfaithful in meaning. I wouldn't want to try and incorporate the statements of fact and theory in this book into a clinical practice without first checking them out with another translation. However, what this book can do is serve as a source of ideas and inspiration that can then be checked with other translations or texts.

One thing that bothers me is that the author is a doctor of oriental medicine and so is his father, which the author consulted, and yet there are errors in the book. These errors (mostly?) appear to be due to poor translating, which causes erosion of the subtle or secondary meaning of the text and leaves statements which unfortunately are contradictory to what I learned in acupuncture school, have read in other respected medical texts or have experienced clinically. Upon examining the passages in Chinese I can see the true meaning has only been partially captured and hence inadvertantly appears to contradict other texts and clinical experience. This is unfortunate as by and large there is a great deal of useful information in this "translation", but it is unevenly presented, unlabeled (i.e., what part comes from the Nei jing, what part is traditional commentary and what part is the author's opinion) and hence I can't feel totally confident in this book.

I don't think it is possible to translate the Nei jing without a deep understanding of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and Classical Chinese. The one part of the Nei jing I have personally translated with great care required a deep understanding of the subject at hand, a consultation or two with my Classical Chinese professor, my Classical Chinese tutor, and discussions with a master Chinese doctor who in turn consulted a commentary as well as consulted with another master Chinese doctor.

Needless to say it was all very time consuming. During my first few attempts I kept discovering new errors in translation due to mistakes in my understanding of Classical Chinese grammer and the subtle meaning of the characters. It took persistent and multiple consultations by me to each of the above persons to get the errors corrected (In other words at first they either missed the errors or were not sure themselves of how to best translate a character or phrase.) and then synthesizing all that each person taught me to arrive at a balanced and correct translation. Then to make sure my translation sounded good I consulted with my brother who is a poet. To further put things in perspective I think the small portion I translated was one of the easier parts of the Nei jing.

In mainland China not that many Chinese study Classical Chinese, most only know the simplified characters as opposed to traditional characters. The meaning of identical characters in Classical Chinese can be very different from Modern Chinese and the grammer is quite different from Modern Chinese grammer. Without a good understanding of Classical Chinese grammer it is not possible to consistently translate the Nei jing correctly. From reading the author's bio there is no indication he studied in Taiwan where Classical Chinese is routinely taught or that he studied Classical Chinese formally. I would think if he had studied Classical Chinese he would have mentioned it, as after all he mentions his TCM training in quite a bit of impressive detail in his bio.