Apr 17 2007
Welcome to Classic Formulas
It is not uncommon in life that failure opens a gate that otherwise would not have appeared. I’d gone to Beijing in the fall of 2002 to study with a Shang Han Lun doctor I’d been introduced to, but my Chinese just was not yet up to the task. It took jaw grinding days to read a few paragraphs, and my listening ability was like trying to tune in a broken radio. I gave up.
About that time Craig Mitchell was in Beijing, and sympathetic to my situation he encouraged me by handing me a thin book titled The Ten Major Formula Families (十大類方 shí dà lèi fäng). Told me that this Chinese stuff takes time, keep at it, and in the meantime read this. It is kind of an Idiot’s Guide to the Shang Han Lun. It’s a fun read, and has some really interesting ideas.
It has taken a few more years for the black holes in my understanding of Chinese to generate light and understanding. He was right, it is a fun read, and there are some tremendously interesting ideas. But, it is not an quite an idiot’s guide. In fact, it is a concise, thoughtful and clinically useful text. In it, Dr Huang looks at the “jing fang” the classic formulas of the Shang Han Lun and Jin Gui Yao Lue, not from the perspective of illness patterns and disease progression, but from the point of view of herb confirmations and formula presentations. In essence, he has taken the way we usually consider practicing Chinese herbal medicine, and turned it on its ear.
As Dr Huang says:
“In my practice I look at the what. I look at what kind of person is sitting in front of me. What is the condition of their muscular, their skin, their manner and eyes. This is how I come up with what kind of constitution they have. I then look to see what kind of signs and symptoms with which they present. Instead of tying all these to some abstract concept like liver fire, spleen xu, or qi stagnation, I map them to the well known functions of herbs that have been used in China for thousands of years.”
There is a saying in Chinese that sums this up:
“By the presentation, prescribe the herbs”
(對證下藥 duì zhèng xià yào).
That is what is helpful!
I’ve been thinking for a while that I would like to see this book in English. Last fall when I was traveling in China, I tossed it in my pack as the read on the train book. One day a Chinese friend asked me why the book was interesting to me. I told her it was one of the best books I’d read in any language on prescribing herbs. One day I’d love to translate it. She gave me a funny look and asked “So, what’s stopping you?”
Uh, the author’s permission to do so?
Um! Let’s call him and see if he would like to have it read by the English speakers of the world.
Twenty minutes, and a big dose of “yuan fen” later, I was talking to Dr Huang on the phone. Thus, began the journey of the “shi da lei fang” into English.
I’m spending most of the month of April here in Nanjing, sitting in Dr Huang’s clinic, attending his classes and discussing the book. This book might be thin compared to some of the tomes that have been written about our medicine, but in fact, it is the flower of tradition of looking at “jing fang” the classic formulas, from the perspective of the “herbs being the key.”
This website is dedicated to bringing that tradition to English speaking practitioners in the West. There will be occasional excepts from the book that I think are of clinical use, portions of discussions I’ve had with Dr Huang, and my own thoughts about herb confirmations and formula presentations as they relate to our daily clinical work.
I invite your comments and discussions. And most of all, hope that this information will serve to inform your practice in ways that allow you to help more people.
10 responses so far
Thank you so much for sharing, Michael. I’m looking forward to reading more!
Dear Michael,
This is great stuff, thanks for turning me on to this book a few months ago. I’ll be following your blog carefully, and hope to connect with you on your return to the U.S.
I’ve often thought of Chinese medicine in this ‘constitutional’ or ‘terrain’ sort of way, but have not found so many sources in the literature for it. The Japanese ‘Kanpo’ medicine, of course does have this concept of constitution, of a ‘gui zhi tang’ patient, or a ‘xiao chai hu tang’ patient.
I wish more of our colleagues shared their adventures in Chinese medicine as you have done. I wish you much success and joy in your studies!
Z’ev
I’m delighted to have something here in China worth sharing with my community in the West.
Dr Huang has a not small amount of influence from the Japanese, as he spent some time there. But, the majority of his thinking comes from the “formula family” school.
I did an interview with him that will be published in The Lantern later this year. I will also post it here, once I get it transcribed into English. He goes into quite a bit of detail on where he got his inspiration.
It is exciting to have access to some pre-TCM ideas about constitution. I did ask if his thinking dovetails at all with wu xing (5 phases), and he said it did not. He further goes onto to say that much of Chinese medicine thinking is very abstract, and he is very much into grounding any theory of practice into something tangible and observable.
Hello,Michael!It‘s a beautiful blog! I love it!
Hi Michael,
Not sure which stage is your book at. If you need another set of eyes to go through Shi Da Lei Fang, I’ll be happy to help. I am a professional translator (mostly focus on high-tech industry), a native Chinese speaker and a licensed acupuncturist and herbalist. I am also very passionate about Shang Han Lun work.
Great work and thanks for sharing.
Thanks for the beautiful site and the powerful information. I’ll be following your thinking with great interest.
hi michael
i am glad you are doing this translation; i am myself very much interested in the classic formulas; this past April 07, i had a chance to study with some classicly trained TCM docotrs in Hangzhou at the Zhejiang university; unfortuantly, i am not able to join your group on the upcoming trip to China in Oct 07 since I just gave birth about 2 month ago and I am adjusting to motherhood and returning to the clinic for work; should you plan another trip next year, please keep me informed since I would really love to join you on such an endeavor
home tel#973-761-8863
jutta gassner-snyder
best of luck
Jutta
We are planning more travel seminars for next year. I’ll keep you posted, and also be sure to check back here from time to time for the latest news, and some interesting clinical tips from Dr Huang.
I just got back this February from living and practicing TCM in Suzhou and Shanghai (I interned for 5 mos. at the Suzhou Zhong Yi Yuan and Shanghai’s Shu Guang Hospital then opened a private practice in Shanghai). I wondered if there is any chance Dr. Huang’s methodology will be offered in the U.S. as a CEU?? not sure I can pick up again and go back to China so soon…
Hi Kelly
Really? You are not ready to go back to China at the drop of a hat? Don’t you miss the food?
I suspect that once the book has been translated into English and published in the West, then we will invite Dr Huang to come to the US and teach.
Keep watching this site for those kinds of developments.