Concerning the use of Western medical terms to represent traditional Chinese medical concepts —Answer to Prof. Xie and his colleagues

Nigel Wiseman

doi:10.1007/BF02836530

Your Location：

Home >

Browse articles >

Concerning the use of Western medical terms to represent traditional Chinese medical concepts —Answer to Prof. Xie and his colleagues

OriginalPaper | Updated：2021-08-27

- Concerning the use of Western medical terms to represent traditional Chinese medical concepts —Answer to Prof. Xie and his colleagues
- Concerning the use of Western medical terms to represent traditional Chinese medical concepts —Answer to Prof. Xie and his colleagues
- 中国结合医学杂志（英文版） 2006年12卷第3期页码：225-228
- Affiliations：
  
  School of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chang Gung University,Taiwan,Taoyuan County,China
- Author bio：
- Funds：
- DOI：10.1007/BF02836530
  中图分类号：
- 纸质出版日期：2006，
Scan for full text
Wiseman, N. Concerning the use of Western medical terms to represent traditional Chinese medical concepts —Answer to Prof. Xie and his colleagues., Chin. J. Integr. Med. 12, 225–228 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02836530

Nigel Wiseman. Concerning the use of Western medical terms to represent traditional Chinese medical concepts —Answer to Prof. Xie and his colleagues[J]. Chinese Journal of Integrative Medicine, 2006,12(3):225-228.
Wiseman, N. Concerning the use of Western medical terms to represent traditional Chinese medical concepts —Answer to Prof. Xie and his colleagues., Chin. J. Integr. Med. 12, 225–228 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02836530 DOI：

Nigel Wiseman. Concerning the use of Western medical terms to represent traditional Chinese medical concepts —Answer to Prof. Xie and his colleagues[J]. Chinese Journal of Integrative Medicine, 2006,12(3):225-228. DOI： 10.1007/BF02836530.

摘要

This paper strongly rejects the notion that the use of biomedical terms to represent traditional Chinese medical concepts is helpful to the internationalization of Chinese medicine. It further argues that this practice destroys the integrity and independence of Chinese medical concepts. Taking the term fēng hu< o y < an as an example

it shows that the biomedical term “acute conjunctivitis” often suggested as the translation for this term is unsatisfactory

because (1) the clinical reference is not identical

(2) it introduces the concepts of “conjunctiva” and “inflammation”

which are not Chinese medical concepts

and (3) destroys the Chinese medical concepts “wind” and “fire” expressed in the Chinese

which reflect the way the disease is traditionally diagnosed and treated. While for English readers not familiar with Chinese medicine

“acute conjunctivitis” may be immediately intelligible

for those seeking a deep understanding of the subject

the literal translation (loan translation) “wind-fire eye” is much more helpful. This paper supports these arguments with numerous other examples.

Abstract

it shows that the biomedical term “acute conjunctivitis” often suggested as the translation for this term is unsatisfactory

because (1) the clinical reference is not identical

(2) it introduces the concepts of “conjunctiva” and “inflammation”

which are not Chinese medical concepts

and (3) destroys the Chinese medical concepts “wind” and “fire” expressed in the Chinese

which reflect the way the disease is traditionally diagnosed and treated. While for English readers not familiar with Chinese medicine

“acute conjunctivitis” may be immediately intelligible

for those seeking a deep understanding of the subject

the literal translation (loan translation) “wind-fire eye” is much more helpful. This paper supports these arguments with numerous other examples.

关键词

biomedicized translationLiteral Translationloan translation

Keywords

biomedicized translationLiteral Translationloan translation

references

Xie ZF, White P. Comments on Nigel Wiseman’sA Practical Dictionary of Chinese Medicine (I)—On the “Word-for-word” Literal Approach to Translation. Chin J Integr Med 2005;12(4): 305–308.

Xlie ZF, White P. Comments on Nigel Wiseman’ sA Practical Dictionary of Chinese Medicine (II)—On the use Western Medicine Terms to Express the Concepts of Tratiditionla Chinese Medicine. Chin J Integr Med 2006;13 (1): 61–65.

Xie ZF. English translation of common terms in traditional Chinese medicine. Beijing: China Press of Traditional Chinese Medicine, 2004.

Cooper RA. Health care workforce for the twenty-first century: The impact of nonphysician clinicians. Annual Review Med 2001;52: 51–61.

FULL TEXT LINK

More>

浏览量

Downloads

CSCD

文章被引用时，请邮件提醒。

Submit

工具集

关联资源

On standard nomenclature of basic chinese medical terms (IMA)

On standard nomenclature of basic chinese medical terms (II)