Recently, listeners of #CosmicWhiteGuest have asked about how to get started with Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). This question is difficult to answer because I don’t dare say I’ve truly gotten started (Teacher Jiang Liangduo even said a few days ago that he only really started learning at 70
). However, I recently found a book that I think is very helpful for beginners, so I’m sharing it here.
This book uses very simple language to explain the Treatise on Cold Damage from the perspective of circular motion, with a very clear explanation of yin and yang. After reading it, beginners will have profound insights. It also gives a clue: a few years ago, a teacher mentioned that the book Four Sacred Sources helped him build his own TCM system. Following his recommendation, I tried reading the original text several times but couldn’t get through it. After reading this book, I found it very simple and reasonable. I’m currently reading another book by the same author, Learning TCM Is Very Simple: My Practice of Four Sacred Sources - Chen Xisheng, and next up are Thinking about TCM, Ancient TCM of Circular Motion, and the original book Four Sacred Sources.
If you know almost nothing about TCM, I recommend watching the complete series by Teacher Hao Wanshan, which is very interesting, like listening to a crosstalk performance while learning. Professor Hao Wanshan Explains the Treatise on Cold Damage (all 70 episodes). After finishing, even if you can’t diagnose illnesses, you will understand commonly used terms for easier communication with others.
If you want to see more books, feel free to check out my reading list, which contains some good recent reads: Good Books for Transitioning between Wards
If the above book and video links become invalid, just search directly through a search engine.