Foreword I

It is my great pleasure to write the preface to the second new edition of Classified Dictionary of Traditional Chinese Medicine (published by Foreign Languages Press). Professor Zhufan Xie, a pioneer in the field of integrated Chinese and western medicine in China, has made many achievements ranging from internal medicine to TCM in both research and clinical treatment.

Graduated from Peking University School of Medicine in 1946, Prof. Xie started his career in internal medicine. It did not take him long to become an expert in the field of renal medicine, including gout nephropathy and renal amyloidosis. With strong theoretical background and rich clinical experiences in western medicine, Prof. Xie started to study traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) systematically in the 1960s, preparing to establish a new branch of medicine at the time– integrated Chinese and western medicine. Since then he has engaged in the teaching, research and clinical practice of integrated traditional Chinese and western medicine. In 1987, Prof. Xie founded the Institute of Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine (now called “Institute of Integrative Medicine”) of Peking University and served as its director, leading several research programs on integrated traditional Chinese and western medicine. He has conducted pacesetting modern scientific research on the theory of cold and heat syndromes of TCM eight-class syndrome differentiation, uncovering the relationship between cold-heat syndromes differentiation and the functional activities of the sympathetic-adrenal system – heat syndrome is manifested in hyperactivity of sympathetic-adrenal system, while cold syndrome the opposite. Such a valuable finding has become a general principle that guides TCM doctors to evaluate syndrome differentiation treatment during clinical practice. Prof. Xie also led post-graduate programs on the study of the curative effect mechanism of ancient formulas and achieved outstanding results, earning praises and affirmation from academic circles.

Prof. Xie's proficiency in the English translation of TCM terminology is of great renown both nation- and worldwide. Prof. Xie produced many TCM reference books and clinical literatures and held positions as honorary president of Translation Association of the World Federation of Chinese Medicine Societies and as a WHO consultant. With his tremendous output of works over the years, Prof. Xie has made outstanding contributions in bringing traditional Chinese medicine to the world.

The first edition of Classified Dictionary of Traditional Chinese Medicine was published in 2002, which has been receiving a warm welcome in the field of English translation of TCM. This work provides a clearly leveled classification of TCM basic theories, diagnostics, clinical principles, therapeutics, acupuncture, medical history, classic reference works as well as many other aspects of traditional Chinese medicine. It also provides indices by Chinese words, pinyin input, citation and by Chinese character strokes. The entries are carefully selected and the English counterparts are defined in such a way that they are readily acceptable in western mentality and in the meantime full homage is paid to the original thoughts of TCM theories and therapies.

Over the past 16 years, advances have been made in TCM terminology, and Prof. Xie has continued his research in the field, making efforts to refine his previous work. The second edition is not simply a correction of the mistakes in the first one; it has summed up his most recent research achievements.

While remaining the style of “classified dictionary”, which offers great convenience for users to look up a term or an expression, the second new edition has collected another 944 entries, making a total of 8330 entries. The addition of the appendix of “Commonly Used Chinese Characters in TCM Terminologies” is of great importance because it convincingly rationalizes the translation of TCM terminologies from etymological origins. In any case, it remains one of the great reference works in the field of traditional Chinese medicine.

Keji Chen, MD

Academician and Master of Chinese Medicine

Chinese Academy of Sciences

November 2018, Beijing