耿俊英

Dr. Gcng Junying brings over twcnty-fivc years of cxperiencc to this, his most reccnt work on tradition- al Chinese medicinc. Dr. Geng is an Associate Pro- fessor and the Deputy Director of the Acupuncturc Departmcnt at the. Beijing Collegc of Traditional Chinese Medicinc. He has spcnt virtually his entire career at this prestigious collcge, whcrc he has been teaching, researching, and conducting clinical prac- tice since his graduation in 1964. His publications in Chinese includc Studits of the Five Tastes of Herbs, Contrainliications and Inttrdeptneenct in Herbal For- mulas, and Chinest Moxibustion Tberapy. In English, he has co-authored four volumcs in this five-volume series-Basic Tbeories and Principlcs, Acupuncture and Moxibustion, Medicinal Herbs and Herbal Formulas.

Introduction Acupuncture and Moxibustion, one of the five books in the Practical Traditional Chinese Medicine and Pharmacology series, is intended to acupuncture practitioners and students. Instead of expounding largely and copiously on acupuncture theories and principles, we stressed in the book more on its practical value and applicability than theoretical explorations. It is mainly of our personal experiences accumulated from years of teaching and clinical practice. The book is divided into three chapters. The first chapter introd- uces the most essential and practical techniques as well as the points which merit special attention in applying acupuncture treatments. The second chapter is devoted to the most commonly used acupoints. With a view to practicability and convenience, we have not only explained the location, function, pathological indications of each point as almost all books on acupuncture do, but also provided detailed information on the main points to be combined with the current point in treating different types of diseases as well as point variations for the different syndromes of the same disease. Notes are made also to the needling method for each point. The third chapter deals with acupuncture treatments of common diseases. Again in order to make the book more practical and convenient for clinical use, we did not follow the conventional practice of merely mentioning the syndromes and listing the points. Instead we first differentiated each case to determine the nature of its syndrome type as a doctor of traditional Chinese medicine would have done in the clinic. That is to determine whether the syndromes are of the yin, yang, xu, or shi type. Then different methods as well as their purpose and functions are suggested for each type. We personally used all these treatments and found them very effective. In fact, so wonderfully effective are some of the methods that the patients thought we had played magic on them. Case studies are given to the specially effective cases. We sincerely hope it will be of help to those who work in this field.