Hi From the Translator

[lorraine]

Hello All,

I had fun translating this little book. I think Zhang Yuansu is very important but often forgotten. He basically gave physicians permission to break from tradition and think differently. People had been following only Shang Han Lun theory for a thousand years, almost as if it were a religion. Zhang said something to the effect that new times have new diseases and so need new ways of treating. Zhang was Li Dongyuan's teacher, and he cured Liu Wansu of dysentery. (These are two of the four great masters of the Jin-Yuan period.) In a sense, we could call Zhang Yuansu the father of the four great masters.

Zhang developed new herbal theories, including the idea of entering channels. He felt that each formula needed to be totally individualized, not followed stiffly from a book.

Zhang also was an early systematizer of zangfu differentiation, which is what the zangfu biaoben yongyao shi is about... What individual herbs are good for each pattern. He doesn't suggest formulas because for the most part, he felt you need to make up your own.

BTW, it is said that he wasn't a very special doctor until one night he dreamed that someone implanted a book in his chest. After that, he knew amazing things. I wish someone would implant a book like that in me!!!

All the above, I am writing from memory. I hope I got all my facts straight!

In any case, I really like his zangfu biaoben book. However, I translated it a little too quickly and fear I was not careful enough at times. When I read what I sent to Jonathan, I want to edit it again... sometimes it is not very smooth at all and I am afraid there are some careless errors. Please feel free to point them out.

Lorraine

[jonathanschell]

I see you have found the Forum, it is not completely optimized yet, but it is up. We decided on this forum because it was a better option right now then building one from scratch. I have to admit I do not completely understand all the aspects of how it works, but I think it will work well enough for our purposes. I have really enjoyed reading the ZFBBHRXSYYS and hopefully we will have some more of that text up in the near future. I just wanted to let you know that someone is reading the forum .

In a few days, I will be posting some in the herbs section of the forum, I have been studying the Blue Poppy translation of Zhu Dan Xi's book, and reading it really makes me want the Database to have it's own copy. But all in good time

Take Care,

Jonathan

[lorraine]

Hi Jonathan,

Yes, having Zhu Danxi visiting the CM DB would be great, but there is so much stuff that doesn't even have any translation to English. Blue Poppy's translations are decent. I would vote for something new. But I certainly understand wanting to have multiple translations of the same works... Translation, to some degree, is commentary. You get a different view from different translators.

Anyway, nice work getting the forum up.

Lorraine