Subject: Re: The nature of Qi

From: [email-masked] (Jan Nauta)
Date: Sun, 22 Jan 1995 15:41:33 +0200

At 21:01 13-01-95 +0200, Jan Nauta wrote:
>>
>>Hmm.. I read a text that was translated from Chinese and it used words like
>>"deficient" and presented Qi like it was "substatiated." 
>>
>>How about his "Chinese Medicine?" I bought it at the same time I bought
>>"The Web That Has No Weaver," but I thought I'd read this latter book first.
>>Incidently, do you think these would be good places to start?
>>
>Let's not discuss translated chinese texts, unless a Chinese who is expert
>in classical chinese, classical medical Chinese, modern medical language and
>fluently in English monitors that discussion.
>Where is P.Unschuld? Is he on the Ormed-List?
>
>Jan Nauta, Groningen, the Netherlands
>
>[I would mention here that one of the reasons for the existence of this
>list is to discuss translated Chinese texts. They are, after all, the
>basis for Western practice of TCM. Of course, it would be nice to have 
>all sorts of linguists and experts around on the list, but there is much 
>to be found in the texts we already have available. Even Paul Unschuld 
>has his critics, and there is plenty of disagreement among even those 
>Chinese who are expert in all of the above. Translation, especially from 
>Chinese to English is not a science, but a very complex inexact art. The 
>discussion of such efforts, and the use of them as references is well 
>within the scope of this list.
>
>Norm (OrMed Moderator)]

Aren't there native Chinese experts available. or Internet-contacts with
Chinese Academies for TCM for consultation?
Jan Nauta, Groningen, the Netherlands

[There are lots of them. Finding agreement among them is difficult in
regards to translation issues, but they are out there. I don't know if 
any of the list members qualify in this category, with the exception 
of Bob Felt. Still, unlike many Western sciences, no one can really be 
said to be an "authority" on these topics, in the same sense that one 
can be an "authority" in plasma physics. Native Chinese must pursue a 
lifelong struggle to understand Western viewpoints, culture and languages 
just as we must struggle to understand the Chinese. There is an uneasy
synthesis between these two efforts, making trouble for any notion that 
there is a "last word" on most translation issues to be settled by some
declared "expert."

Norm (OrMed Moderator)]

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From: [email-masked] (Jan Nauta)
Date: Fri, 13 Jan 1995 21:01:38 +0200

Norm (OrMed Moderator)]