In his unique sourcebooks, Liu Yanchi not only provides an invaluable reference for the practitioner of traditional medicine, but also an enlightening, readable introduction for anyone interested in Chinese culture or holistic medicine.

For more than four thousand years, Chinese scholars and medical practitioners have documented ways of maintaining health and treating illness, from theories of yin-yang and the zang-fu organs to the use of herbs and acupuncture. The Essential Book of Traditional Chinese Medicine marks the first time such concepts have been made accessible to Westerners in a comprehensive form.