Celestial Secrets: A Dunhuang Manuscript of Medicinal Decoctions for the Zangfu Organs
This book is the first English translation of a rare medieval Chinese manuscript with the full title Fǔxíngjué zàngfǔ yòngyào fǎyào ("Secret Tips for Helpful Action: The Key to Using Medicinals on the Zàngfǔ Organs").
In addition to an elegant yet literal annotated translation of the complete text by Dr. Sabine Wilms, this book includes a lengthy scholarly introduction, analyzing the history of the text and its relationship to the ancient Tāngyèjīng ("Classic of Decoctions"), as it is often called.
Published in spring 2021, this book includes the following features:
416 pages.
Top-quality printing by The Gloo Factory, a small unionized print shop in Tucson, Arizona.
A lengthy academic historical introduction that takes you through 4000 years of Chinese medical history. See this page for free access to a lecture on the Daoist roots.
A literal annotated translation of the original text that includes six sections on
Differentiating Patterns of Zàng Organ Disease
Five Formulas to Address Drainage of the Five Zàng Organs
Five Formulas for Supplementing the Five Zàng Organs
The Five Flavors and Twenty-Five Medicinals
External Contractions of Celestial Movements
Emergency Treatments for Opening the Orifices.
An expertly produced critical edition of the original Chinese text.
An extensive appendix with reference tables on:
Formulas by Pīnyīn
Formulas by English
Medicinals by Pīnyīn
Medicinals by Common Name
Weights and Measures
Works Cited, and an
Index.
A foreword and clinical commentary on the “External Contractions of Celestial Movements” by Sharon Weizenbaum.
For more information on Celestial Secrets, check out these other resources:
Listen to a free Qiological podcast on “Celestial Secrets on the Mythic Tangyejing,” where Michael Max interviews me on the actual history of the mythical Tangyejing and its relationship to the present text.
Please note: There are two typos in the first print edition: On p. 33, please replace the word “bitter” with “sweet” in the translation of Suwen 22. And in the chart on p. 165, please replace the word “sour” with “bitter” as the Substance of Fire.
“A brilliant piece of detective work! I really enjoyed reading it! I find it well-balanced in perspectives, meticulously argued and rigorously substantiated. An immensely helpful guide for clinicians who have hitherto not been exposed to the methods of textual bibliography and analysis. This is an ingenious use of a high-interest text to showcase the tools of philology for locating the text in the historical timeline.”
“This small, readable, remarkably unpretentious book is several texts in one: For dedicated clinicians, it is the first published English translation of the Fuxingjue — including the text sometimes referred to as the Tangyejing — which invites us to look at herb dynamics in relation to the 5 phases. For scholar-practitioners, Sabine’s philological work is impeccable, helping us to understand the detective work of translating early Chinese texts, and how exactly they can be dated through word usage and other clues. Additionally, the book is just a great read — entertaining, even suspenseful, not unlike Jonathan Spence’s living histories — it’s a story that is fun to curl up with and hard to put down.””
“Sabine Wilms has once again provided English readers with a beautiful and important translation of a text shrouded in mystery and a source for great interest in both the East and the West. Its importance in understanding the development of classical formulas and classical methods, especially in the proper historical context, which Dr. Wilms has so thoroughly provided in the introduction, cannot be understated. For this, anyone with interest in these subjects should sit with a good cup of tea and slowly and mindfully devour its pages. Sabine’s translation style is both poetic and historically accurate, and once again, she has delivered with this rendition of the Fu Xing Jue.”
“Dr. Sabine Wilms is a great gift to Chinese Medicine. Her translations are known for their clarity and readability, while providing the proper historical and contextual perspective of the source material. In this latest book, she takes the reader on a fascinating journey that explores the origins of the Fǔxíngjué manuscript and brings to life the ancient formulas that work with the movement of the stars. This book is excellent and I learned some important things, which always makes me happy!”
“Sabine’s love of medicine, history, and old Chinese shines through in all her works, but this one is different because it is a detective story as well. The 湯液經 Tangyejing is a “lost” text that has haunted herbalists for thousands of years. As mythic as it is in its influence, it’s also problematic, as Chinese doctors like to be able to trace and track their influences and references for their thinking and commentaries. And the Tangyejing is curiously missing in terms of tangible goods. Its history is troubled to say the least.
Dr. Wilms is noted for her lively way of blending scholarship with poetry, historical context with modern perspectives, and for her keen eye towards detail and distilling out not just the clinically valuable information from ancient texts, but at the same time enlivening the material in a way that makes it readily accessible to the present-day practitioner.
This translation of the Fuxingjue, along with the history of this document as told through the eyes and mind of a studied historian of our medicine, will not only give you a new glimpse into Zhang Zhongjing’s formulations. Through the commentary of Sharon Weizenbaum, it also provides a helpful clinical perspective on human physiology as seen through the lens of the 六經 liùjīng (“Six Conformations”). This view not only is helpful in better understanding herbal medicine, it furthermore will allow you to better grasp the cycles of qi transformation that will aid in diagnostic and treatment choices as well. There have been bits and snippets concerning the Tangyejing scattered through the historical writings of our medicine, but here in Celestial Secrets: A Dunhuang Manuscript of Medicinal Decoctions for the Zangfu Organs you’ll find perhaps the most comprehensive rendering of the history of this mythic text, along with valuable perspectives on herbal medicine that you can bring into your modern clinical work.”
