This work offers a selection of sixty texts with vocabulary and translation, compiled and translated from 33 classics including the Huang Di Nei Jing, Yi Xue, Nan Jing, Shi Ji, San Yin Lun, Shang Han Lun, Ben Cao Gan Mu, and Pi Wei Lun. The texts are presented in ten lessons. Each lesson provides information on the issues that have gained the most attention in the West: general values, structure and function of the organism, concepts of disease and diagnosis, principles of therapy, pharmaceutics, and needle treatment.

Intended to optimize student study, each monograph includes the Chinese text in easily readable type size; a table containing each Chinese character with its PinYin and English translation; a PinYin translation of the excerpt; an English translation of the excerpt; and translational notes. A vocabulary is provided which builds up as the lessons progress and which emphasizes medical terminology. Also included is a final glossary of all the characters introduced in the individual texts, which allows the student to systematically access the classical Chinese medical literature. The work also contains a detailed guide to currently available dictionaries, biographies, and bibliographies, thus making it indispensable as a starting point for the study of the primary sources of Chinese traditional medicine.

Given the widespread and increasing interest in traditional Chinese life sciences, this work will receive wide attention. It lends itself as a textbook for academic Chinese language courses and for private use. Even for readers not intending to study "medical" Chinese language, this book presents rich data on ancient Chinese life science and medicine since – with only very few exceptions – all texts reproduced here are translated into a Western language for the first time.