There are thousands and thousands of Chinese medicinal formulas recorded in the Chinese medical literature. However, students at Chinese medical colleges in the People''s Republic of China learn a core repertoire of only 70-80 formulas. Yet knowing these core formulas, and how to modify them with additions and subtractions, allows the practitioner to treat the majority of presenting situations in clinical practice. This text also includes a special essay by Bob Flaws on how to write a Chinese herbal formula.
Author's Comments
When I was a student at the Shanghai College of Traditional Chinese Medicine, we only studied 70-80 formulas in our fang ji xue class. If one really learns and understands this core repertoire of formulas along with how to modify them for individual needs, one can treat the vast majority of cases. Beginners typically spread themselves too thin, trying to learn too much, yet what they learn is not really deep or well-integrated. In my experience, it is much better to learn a few things really well than to try to be encyclopedic but really having mastered nothing. In actual fact, I treat 85-90% of my patients with modifications of six or seven well-known formulas. AUTHORBIO: Bob Flaws, Dipl. Ac. & C.H., is one of the most famous Western doctors of Traditional Chinese Medicine in the world today. An internationally known author and lecturer on Chinese medicine, Bob Flaws has been practicing and teaching Chinese medicine for more than 20 years. His other credits include writing, translating, and editing more than 100 books and scores of articles on all aspects of Chinese medicine, being a past Governor & Fellow of the National Academy of Acupuncture & Oriental Medicine, a founder, past president, and Lifetime Fellow of the Acupuncture Association of Colorado, a Fellow of the Register of Chinese Herbal Medicine (UK), and a founder of the Council of Oriental Medical Publishers and the National Acupuncture & Oriental Medicine Alliance. Bob has been in private practice in Boulder, CO since 1977 and has specialized in gynecology since 1982.
Book Review
Journal of Chinese Medicine (UK), September, 1995, p. 43: "A lightweight revision manual for those groaning under the weight of Eastland's massive tome, this book emphasizes the more important prescriptions." BACKCOVER: This book is a beginner''s primer on the study of Chinese medicinal formulas and prescriptions. In it, Dr. flaws describes 70 essential TCM formulas - one, two, or three formulas for each of the 20 or so categories of TCM formulas. Using this core repertoire of formulas, the beginning practitioner will be able to treat the majority of patients they encounter. Rather than presenting hundreds of different formulas in an encyclopedic fashion, Dr. Flaws focuses on understanding the composition, indications, and modifications of a limited number of Chinese medicine's most famous formulas. Thus this book in similar in content and design to textbooks used in the formula and prescriptions classes at TCM colleges in the People's Republic of China.