FOREWORD

  Now, our society has been going into an information era. The level attained in the transmission and processing of information will directly affect the progress of social development. As medicine and pharmacology are a concentrated type of scientific and technological knowledge, the modernization of their information processing is urgently needed. At present, many countries over the world have made great progress in the research of medical terms, the publication of a computer oriented, multilingual medical dictionary and the establishment of various kinds of information systems have been promoting the development of global medicine greatly.

  Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is a great treasure-house of knowledge. Its specific system and superb technique make itself into an influential medical school in the world. With a view to promote TCM information exchange and advance the standardization and automation of Traditional Chinese medical information processing, we edited the [Chinese-English Classified Dictionary of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Pharmacology] in a unique classified form on the basis of peculiarities of TCM terms.

  Serving as an example of TCM classified thesaurus for computer use, the book can provide readers with TCM terms in Chinese as well as in English. Just by inputting a simple YB code into a computer, medical professionals can conveniently inquire, retrieve and translate TCM terms in their work. The dictionary collects more than 40,000 entries used in TCM and in TCM-Western medicine combination. According to TCM characteristic, we divide the terms into 9 chapters, namely, YIN YANG and Five Elements; State of Viscera, Meridian, Nomenclature of Bodily Parts, Essence, Qi, Blood, Body Fluid and Mind; Etiology, Pathogenesis, Names of Syndromes, Differentiation of Symptoms and Signs; Names of Traditional Chinese Drugs and Methods of Drug Preparation; Symptoms, Sings, Names of Diseases and Diagnostic Methods; Therapeutic Principles and Methods, Health care and Longevity; Acupuncture and Moxibustion, Massage and QI GONG; Medical History and Medical Literature; Medical Administration and Other Vocabularies Relevant to Medicine.

  The entries in the dictionary are chosen from 20 branches of TCM and its relevant frontiers of scientific endeavors. We tried our best to make the entries comprehensive and practical, and the denominations accurate and unified. We devote ourselves not only to reflect the historical heritage of TCM, but also the new achievements in exploring, systematizing and improving TCM after the liberation of China. In order to give readers more appropriate corresponding English expressions, we adopted respectively literal translation, free translation or transliteration. For the sake of correctly understanding the meanings of certain technical terms of TCM, please consult the tabular notes in the appendix I.

  During editing, we invited a number of TCM specialists, experts working in combing TCM with Western medicine and English specialists to check and revise it repeatedly and used computer technology to edit it. Every entry in the dictionary is marked by a special information code and stored in computer in a given form. Not only can it provide a fast and convenient transferring function of TCM terms in English and Chinese, but also provide a powerful tool for information exchange of TCM.

  The dictionary is available in two formats: book and floppy disks. It is hoped that this work will offer convenience for scholars at home and abroad to study TCM and contribute to international medical exchange.

  Since the TCM standard terms have not been announced by China National Committee for Natural Scientific Terms and the volume TCM of Chinese Encyclopedia has not been published at present, this dictionary is the first one of its kind in our country. If readers come across any mistakes and shortcomings of the dictionary, we will express our sincere appreciation. Once the standard technical terms are announced, we will revise this book as soon as possible.

                             CONTENTS

Foreword

Guide to the Use of This Book

Direction for YB Code

1.       YIN YANG and Five Elements

2.       State of Viscera, Meridian, Nomenclature of Bodily Parts, Essence, QI, Blood, Body Fluid and Mind

3.       Etiology, Pathogenesis, Names of Syndromes, Differentiation of Symptoms and Signs

4.       Names of Traditional Chinese Drugs and Methods of Drug Preparation

5.       Symptoms, Signs, Names of Disease and Diagnostic Methods

6.       Therapeutic Principles and Methods, Health Care and Longevity

7.       Acupuncture and Moxibustion, Massage and QI GONG

8.       Medical History and Medical Literature

9.       Medical Administration and Other Vocabularies Relevant to Medicine

Appendix I  Annotation List of Common TCM Terms with Chinese Phonetic Alphabets

Appendix II  Names of Prescriptions

Appendix III  Compositions of Prescriptions

Indices

Strokes of First Chinese Character and their

  Corresponding Syllables of the Phonetic

 Transcriptions of Chinese Characters

Index of Terms in Order of the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet