Medicine in China: A History of Ideas, 25th Anniversary Edition, With a New Preface (Comparative Studies of Health Systems and Medical Care) (Volume 13)

good historian, a little hard to follow in some sections

Treasure of a book

There are some interesting sections but overall I felt it was dry and boring. It captures some aspects of Chinese medicine but overall it rambles on and on....

Item was as described and shipped fast. Thanks!

Although it's been a while since I've read this work, it is a classic and gives a good introduction to the history of Chinese medical ideas and theories (not the plural, it's a big country with a long history and it has developed many, often contradictory styles of healing.) This book surveys and puts the ideas in context.This includes the body of ideas often referred to as "Traditional Chinese Medicine."A different reviewer gave this book a low rating saying Unschuld does not seem to think that Chinese medicine is scientific. This is correct. Unschuld believes this. Why? Because it's largely true. Most of Chinese history predates the development of the scientific method. How could something be based on science before science was invented? I suggest you ignore that review.Anyway, scientific medicine is included in this work. It is one of the theories of healing that is in use in China today. Unschuld includes it in this very complex history and also explains how those ideas, along with indigenous ideas, came to China and were implemented.Finally, I tell you what. I'm typing quickly. Don't listen to me, Don't listen to that two star guy --go to a good library database and read what historians of science, historians of medicine, and historians of China have to say about this work. It's a respected, important and good introduction to the subject. Well worth reading.

Get another book. Very hard to read.

This book was required reading in my master's program in Chinese medicine in the final year. I felt that Unschuld's goals were quite worthy, but I felt that he fell short of achieving them. He sets out to write a text that delineates the political, religious and cultural underpinnings of Chinese medicine, and he does a fair job of informing the reader as to what developments were occurring both in and out of China throughout history.Unfortunately, I felt that Unschuld inserted a significant personal bias into the work. This is accomplished both through the quotes that he chooses to translate, as well as his commentary on those quotes. It seemed to me that Unschuld holds the view that Chinese medicine is not based on science, and yet, there is data from several thousand years to support the medicine and its efficacy. It is true that Chinese medicine is based largely on empirical study, both of nature as well as of the body, however empirical study is one of the cornerstones of science.I also found that Unschuld's writing style made this book slow and difficult to read. He frequently employs paragraphs that consist of a single sentence, and rarely gets to his point before half the paragraph is finished.

I had to read this book in my masters program for acupuncture, and it was written in such a complicated manor. I had to do a few essays based on this book, and wow was it a disaster. This book is so complicated to read and actually get anything out of it. Its wordy and he tries to write "artfully" but it makes this author look like a fool because he tries way too hard to describe everything.Some people in my class seemed to 'enjoy' reading this book. Unless you are obsessed with history, try finding your library source of this book, its just not worth having on your shelf.

I give up. The language! So complicated. I suggest they find another translator. This reads like a 1970s textbook; unnessessarily complex and wordy. So disappointing as I was looking forward to this read. It's too much effort even if insightful, which I now won't know ....