Ask the Author
Dr. Goodman can answer questions below or on his personal blog (preferred). All questions will be answered! Go to http://classicalmedicine.wordpress.com to find his blog and answers to more questions.
Dr. Goodman can answer questions below or on his personal blog (preferred). All questions will be answered! Go to http://classicalmedicine.wordpress.com to find his blog and answers to more questions.
[...] Besides being the author of this text, Dr. Goodman has been working in the teaching Chinese field for several years. He has translated for and edited many teaching Chinese books in Taiwan. He is a great resource, so take advantage of this opportunity to ask him questions at http://windstonepress.com/ccm/ask-the-author/ [...]
Richard,
This is more a comment than a question. I have been a practicing L.Ac. for 25 years and have a demanding and hectic practice in Berkeley. I was familiar with the classics, but was too busy dealing with patient problems to think much about delving into the texts, altho I do study the derivations and the combinatorics of the Yijing. When I went to China in 2006, I became ignited with love of the brush and calligraphy and have been back since to the China Art Institute in Hangzhou for intensive study in brush art and calligraphy. This has led me directly into Classical Chinese and to your book. Where before, it seemed daunting and overwhelming to tackle, now I have direction. Please, please, continue the beautiful calligraphy at the beginning of each section of your book(s). I depend on it and use your book to practice calligraphy day after day. Your book is the one thing I take to China when I go to CAI. I made the the common mistake of thinking that anyone Chinese could translate the Buddhist calligraphy that I was writing and I LOVE writing sections from the ancient texts: Yijing, Lingshu, Suwen, Buddhist mantras; it doesn’t matter. What does matter is that eveything I like is in the Classical language and you have been a wonderful signpost. Thank you.
I understand from your text and explanation of characters that there is only one kidney, the left one. The right one being the life gate or mingmen and this is because the Zhang organs only exist as single entities. But what about the Lung(s)? Are they considered a single entity because they are joined by a common tube? Or is there one lung and the other entity is something else?
Hi,
Good question. The lung was never separated into two, but they saw the two lobes together as one entity. This is not to say that they didn’t recognize two “lobes”, which they called ye4, the same character used for leaves. This character is also used to describe the two major sections of the liver. In modern times, we say the liver has two lobes, but it is still one liver. In Chinese texts, they said the same about the lung. Hope this helps.
R