A foundation of Chinese life sciences and medicine, the "Huang Di Nei Jing Su Wen" is now available for the first time in a complete, fully annotated English translation. Also known as "Su Wen," or "The Yellow Emperor's Inner Classic, " this influential work came into being over a long period reaching from the 2nd century bce to the 8th century ce. Combining the views of different schools, it relies exclusively on natural law as conceptualized in "yin/yang "and Five Agents doctrines to define health and disease, and repeatedly emphasizes personal responsibility for the length and quality of one's life. This two-volume edition includes excerpts from all the major commentaries on the "Su Wen," and extensive annotation drawn from hundreds of monographs and articles by Chinese and Japanese authors produced over the past 1600 years and into the twentieth century.

This dictionary reflects the English meanings of Chinese characters and character compounds laid down in the annotated edition of the Huang Di Nei Jing Su Wen, translated by Hermann Tessenow and Paul U. Unschuld. The Huang Di Nei Jing Su Wen is a seminal text of ancient Chinese medicine and natural philosophy. It reflects empirical knowledge and the doctrines of yin-yang and Five Agents in the perception of the human body and its organs, qi and the blood, pathogenic agents, concepts of disease and diagnosis, and a variety of therapies, including acupuncture. The original printing of this title contained an enclosed CD containing two concordances that list all characters along the pinyin-alphabetical sequence.