19.3cm¡Á26.6cm, 

1250 pages, 2000,7.  

ISBN 

7-117-02306-6/R¡¤2307 

Author, Yuan Yixiang.

Published by People's Medical Publishing House.

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is one of the brightest pearls in the treasure house of the cultural heritage of China. For thousands of years, it has made a great contribution to the development and prosperity of the Chinese nation , and the health of the Chinese people. Every dynasty in the Chinese history witnessed the outstanding achievements and new break-though in TCM with the development of the society. Since the ancient times, especially the Han and Tang Dynasties, TCM has been spread all over the world, especially, in Asia, where the people got great benefit from it. TCM added its brilliant records to the world's medical history. Its superiority in the prevention and treatment of diseases is being recognized by the people of the world and more and more people are learning and studying TCM and favoring the treatment of TCM. The international exchanges of TCM are even more frequent than before. In order to conform to the historical trend we are ought to popularize TCM, a science with great amount of knowledge, more comprehensively and systematically over the world than our ancestors and serve all the human beings on our earth. Based on this knowledge we desire eagerly for a satisfactory dictionary as a too to promote the international exchanges of TCM. The project of compiling Chinese-English Dictionary of Traditional Chinese Medicine was initiated by Professor Huang Long of Nanjing Normal University, a member of the Royal Society of Literature, and Professor Yuan Yixiang of Changchun College of Traditional Chinese Medicine. The two professors took up the post of the editor in chief and won the approval of professor Ren Jixue, a well-known experienced doctor of TCM in China, who was invited to share the post of the editor in chief. professor Gao Guangzhen was in charge of executive work as a managing editor. The editorial staff consists mainly of the scholars from Changchun College of Traditional Chinese Medicine, as well as the Scholars from Norman Bethune University of Medical Sciences, Nanjing Normal University, Jiamusi Medica College, Heilongjiang College of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Liaoning College of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Jilin University of Technology, Changchun Taxation College, etc. The compiling work began in July, 1990.

The dictionary is designed for the foreigners who are eager to learn TCM and the Chinese who intend to use it as a tool in their international exchanges of TCM. In addition, the dictionary collects a large number of the terms of TCM with the detailed interpretations, which makes the dictionary a necessary reference book for the persons who intend to learn TCM. In this sense, the dictionary can be considered as one of the largest reference books which are rare in China. In order to meet the need of the users and to be distinct from the current dictionaries and libraries of TCM, this dictionary has the distinctive features as follows"

1. Extensiveness. The dictionary has collects about 9000 terms and expressions in TCM, including more than 20 divisions of TCM, such as Study of "The Yellow Emperor's Internal Classic", Study of Treatise on Febrile Diseases, Study of Synopsis of Prescriptions of the Golden Chamber, Health Preservation, Qigong, Clinics of TCM, etc. with accurate English translations. This makes the dictionary outstanding from the like.

2. Accuracy. All the selected entries in the dictionary are chosen by means of the careful research, simplification and refinement in favour of its users. A great effort has been made to present the precise interpretations for each entry and the acceptible interpretations are selected in case of the polysemous ones.

3. Authoritativeness. TCM has a unique theoretical system. Some terms, therefore, are so abstruse and unintelligible that it is very difficult to find out the references for translations. Such terms were translated by the English teachers working in the college of TCM for years, who consulted the authorities on the subjects to grasp the connotations of the terms sot heat they could translate them into English properly and accurately. The whole English versions have been checked by the nationally well-known scholars on translation.

4. Originality and practicality. The dictionary is laid out originally with Chinese-English entries and interpretations. Indexes of strokes of Chinese-character, the Chinese phonetic alphabet system and English alphabet make the dictionary more convenient and practical to its users.

At the moment of completion of the dictionary, we would like to acknowledge the state Administrative Bureau of TCM, The People's Medical Publishing House, the Department of Public Health of Jilin Province, the Administrative Bureau of TCM of Jilin Province, Changchun College of Traditional Chinese Medicine, etc. For their help and financial supports and the seniors in TCM for their valuable advice and instructions.

We are very gratified that the compiling plan of this dictionary is listed in the main publications of the Eighth Five-year Plan of China by the Press and Publications Administration of the P. R. C.. It is convinced that the publication of the dictionary will promote the worldwide popularization of TCM.

Although a great effort has been made by the editorial staff to compile and revise the manuscript, the dictionary is inevitable to be somewhat imperfect since we lack the experience in compiling such a large dictionary. Therefore, the valuable suggestions and criticism are sincerely invited from the scholars at home and abroad and these imperfections will be revised in the second edition.