Comprehensive Guide to TCM Identification

Author: Wu Xiangqing
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2002-11-01
Features: This book includes 334 kinds of traditional Chinese medicine requiring identification, covering more than 1,800 species. It is arranged in six categories: precious medicines, historically misused varieties, commercially confused varieties, homonymous and synonymy varieties, multi-source varieties, and uncommon varieties, facilitating readers in understanding the overall picture of each category. The book has the following characteristics:
First, it integrates ancient and modern knowledge into a unified whole. It compiles identification scattered across numerous classics, extracting the essence, presenting both strengths and weaknesses, and showcasing a colorful array of information.
Second, it clarifies the origins and truths.
Third, it employs concise, precise, vivid, and vivid ancient identification terms.
Fourth, it promotes the use of superior varieties while discarding inferior ones, ensuring that commonly used species remain updated.
Fifth, it exposes counterfeit and fraudulent practices.
Sixth, it consolidates the achievements of modern identification.
Seventh, it is rich in images and illustrations, making the content lifelike.
The book collects images of medicinal plants, animals, and minerals, totaling 1,612 species, selected from renowned literature such as Herbal Dictionary, Illustrated Collection of Chinese Pharmacopoeia, Handbook of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Manual of Traditional Chinese Medicine Identification, Comprehensive Dictionary of Traditional Chinese Medicine, and Illustrated Dictionary of Higher Plants in China. It is currently the best collection of pharmaceutical illustrations.
Eighth, it offers unique commentaries, summarizing the historical identification of each medicine, variations in species, and controversies among scholars. It promotes a platform for diverse opinions to seek truth, selecting practical insights for commentary, hoping to "cast a stone to attract jade," aiding readers in deeper understanding.
In summary, promoting the culture of traditional Chinese medicine, inheriting, developing, and innovating are the main purposes of this book. Based on the fact that traditional Chinese medicine identification is a unique discipline in China with a relatively complete theoretical system, the challenge lies in how to integrate traditional identification knowledge with modern botany, zoology, and mineralogy, absorbing beneficial nutrients, achieving "using foreign techniques for China and applying ancient methods in the modern era," and allowing the traditional Chinese medicine identification discipline to flourish and make its due contribution to human health and disease prevention.