This is the first of our Great Masters Series we�ve done as an undersized pocketbook. Students seem to love it when we go to schools and conventions.

BACKCOVER: Compiled in the late Ming dynasty, Li Shi-zhen�s Lakeside Master�s Study of the Pulse is still used and regarded as one of the best primers on this important diagnostic modality. Written in meter and verse, this collection of "poems" were meant to be memorized, not just read. Although this translation has not retained the meter and verse, this is one of the most concise and authoritative texts on the pulse within the Chinese literature.

Until now, no actual translation of this premodern classic has existed in English. Previous books based on this work have only been paraphrases of modern Chinese commentaries, not Li Shi-zhen�s actual words. Now, Bob Flaws, a modern Western master of Chinese pulse examination, has created this faithful translation of Li Shi-zhen�s work. No one interested in Chinese pulse diagnosis can afford to be without this seminal text.

I�ve been reading and using Li Shi-zhen�s Bin Hu Mai Xue for many years. Unfortunately, till now, a true translation of this book has not existed. All we had were quotes of lines and sections and a translation of a modern Chinese commentary. Therefore, it did not take me long to decide to translate this pithy text when asked what other books Blue Poppy might publish as undersized pocketbooks.

AUTHORBIO: Li Shi-zhen came from a medical family. In fact, some of this book was written by Li�s father who was the Lakeside Master, not Li. Li was a blend of scholar doctor and collector of folk prescriptions and herbal lore and is primarily remembered today as the author of the Ben Cao Gang Mu (The Detailed Outline of Materia Medica) published posthumously in the late 1570s. Li also was the author of a book on the eight extraordinary vessels.

Compiled in the late Ming Dynasty as a song or "poem" to serve as a mnemonic primer on pulse diagnosis in Chinese medicine, this work is still considered one of the most concise and authoritative texts on on this subject.