--- title: Traditional Chinese Medicine description: Traditional Chinese Medicine is a holistic health system based on balancing vital energy, or Qi. You will understand core concepts like Yin and Yang, meridian pathways, and the clinical application of acupuncture, herbalism, and dietary therapy. category: health-medicine subcategory: alternative-and-holistic difficulty: beginner, intermediate, advanced url: /subject/traditional-chinese-medicine --- # Traditional Chinese Medicine Traditional Chinese Medicine is a holistic health system based on balancing vital energy, or Qi. You will understand core concepts like Yin and Yang, meridian pathways, and the clinical application of acupuncture, herbalism, and dietary therapy. ## Available Resources 6 Books • 2 Papers ## Papers ### 1. Acupuncture for Chronic Pain: Update of an Individual Patient Data Meta-Analysis **Author:** Andrew J. Vickers et al., Acupuncture Trialists' Collaboration Individual patient data meta-analysis pooling 39 randomised trials and 20,827 patients across musculoskeletal pain, osteoarthritis, headache and shoulder pain, reporting effect sizes against sham and no-acupuncture controls and persistence of benefit at twelve months. **Difficulty:** Advanced | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5927830/ **Tags:** acupuncture, meta-analysis, chronic-pain, clinical-evidence, randomized-trials ### 2. WHO Standard Acupuncture Point Locations in the Western Pacific Region **Author:** WHO Regional Office for the Western Pacific Consensus standard from eleven WHO expert meetings fixing the anatomical location of all 361 classical acupuncture points, plus the proportional bone-measurement and surface-landmark methods used to locate them. Free 249-page PDF. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://iris.who.int/handle/10665/353407 **Tags:** acupuncture, acupuncture-points, who-standards, anatomy, clinical-reference ## Books ### 1. The Expressiveness of the Body and the Divergence of Greek and Chinese Medicine **Author:** Shigehisa Kuriyama Comparative history contrasting how Greek and Chinese physicians perceived the body — pulse against sphygmos, muscularity against Qi, colour and touch — arguing that anatomical description is shaped by trained perception. Winner of the Welch Medal. Supplies the historical and epistemological frame a serious learner of a contested system needs — why Chinese medicine describes a different body rather than a wrong one. **Difficulty:** Advanced | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0942299892?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** medical-history, chinese-medicine, greek-medicine, comparative-medicine, history-of-science ### 2. Huang Di Nei Jing Su Wen: An Annotated Translation of Huang Di's Inner Classic — Basic Questions **Author:** Paul U. Unschuld, Hermann Tessenow, with Zheng Jinsheng Complete annotated English translation of the foundational classic that first set out Qi, Yin-Yang, five-agents doctrine and vessel theory, with philological notes and commentary drawn from two millennia of Chinese scholarship. Two volumes. **Difficulty:** Advanced | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0520266986?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** chinese-medical-classics, huangdi-neijing, qi, yin-yang, annotated-translation ### 3. The Web That Has No Weaver: Understanding Chinese Medicine **Author:** Ted J. Kaptchuk Explains the conceptual architecture of Chinese medicine — Qi, Yin-Yang, the Five Phases, organ networks and pattern diagnosis — for readers trained in Western science, with appendices comparing the two frameworks and weighing clinical evidence. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/071260281X?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** chinese-medicine, pattern-diagnosis, yin-yang, five-phases, introductory-text ### 4. Chinese Herbal Medicine: Materia Medica (Portable 3rd Edition) **Author:** Dan Bensky, Steven Clavey, Erich Stöger, Andrew Gamble Herbalism treated with pharmacological seriousness, including safety data. Monographs on roughly 530 Chinese medicinal substances plus hundreds of alternates, covering properties, channels entered, dosage, contraindications, quality criteria, traditional commentary, and notes on chemistry and pharmacological research. **Difficulty:** Advanced | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0939616823?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** chinese-herbal-medicine, materia-medica, herbal-pharmacology, clinical-reference, herb-safety ### 5. A Manual of Acupuncture (2nd Edition) **Author:** Peter Deadman, Mazin Al-Khafaji, Kevin Baker Reference work on the fourteen channels and every regular and extraordinary point, giving location, needling depth, actions, classically sourced indications, point combinations and cautions, with anatomical drawings showing surface and cross-sectional placement. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0951054651?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** acupuncture, acupuncture-points, channel-theory, clinical-reference, surface-anatomy ### 6. The Foundations of Chinese Medicine: A Comprehensive Text (3rd Edition) **Author:** Giovanni Maciocia The standard first-year text in accredited acupuncture colleges. Covers Yin-Yang, the Five Elements, Qi, Blood and Body Fluids, the Zang-Fu organs, channel theory, Eight-Principle pattern diagnosis, and point selection, referenced throughout to Chinese sources. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0702052167?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** chinese-medicine, acupuncture, zang-fu, pattern-diagnosis, textbook --- *This content is part of Dantes.io - Your Treasure Map to Knowledge* *Curated by humans at Dantes.io. Personal study use welcome; republishing this curation requires permission (team@dantes.io).* View this page online: https://dantes.io/subject/traditional-chinese-medicine