Wiseman terminology

[Guest guest]

Hi all,

 

Recently, the World Health Organization announced the adaptation of the

terminology developed in the Clinical Dictionary of

(Wiseman-Feng) as the recommended standard for translation of Chinese

medical concepts into Western languages. In addition:

 

 

(quote from Bob Felt:)

" 1. The list is 4,000 terms, this clearly indicates that the Asians

themselves

reject the notion of small glosses and the idea that TCM has no real

technical terminology.

 

 

2. The principle of source oriented translation is explicit in the WHO

decision, this is a clear rejection of the idea that TCM terms should be

chosen to please the arrival audience.

 

 

3. The choice of PD terms was supported by both western and asian

representatives, including Paul Unschuld and Christopher Cullen of the

Needham Institute. "

 

 

Warm regards,

 

Attilio D'Alberto

Doctor of (Beijing, China)

B.Sc. (Hons) T.C.M., M.A.T.C.M.

07786198900

<enquiries enquiries

<http://www.attiliodalberto.com/> www.attiliodalberto.com

 

" A human being is part of the whole, called by us the Universe, a part

limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and

feelings, as something separated from the rest - - a kind of optical

illusion in his consciousness. " (Albert Einstein)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

A few important things should be pointed out about the recent WHO

meetings. Firstly, PD (Wiseman) terminology was approved by the WHO

to be the foundation upon which the WHO terminology is based.

Individual term disputes will be resolved by discussions (for

instance, xiao qing long tang's English name is likely to change), and

terms that have exact Western medical equivalents will be open to be

translated based upon the traditional name or the WM name (largely

depending on whether the publication is for Evidence Based Medicine or

WM-based research, or for use by CM professionals). The WHO didn't

blanketly adopt PD terminology, they just agreed that PD terminology

is accurate and based on appropriate principles of translation. Their

final list will use PD terms as a base and discuss variations and

inclusions as needed.

 

A primary motive for the WHO is the promotion of Evidence

Based Medicine (EBM). EBM is an important facet of the changing

landscape of modern healthcare. Journal articles, publications,

education, etc require consistent and professional term use.

Terminology is deemed to be the first essential step towards allowing

CM to progress into the modern world of integrated healthcare.

 

The agreement by Asian nations to develop standards in their

terminology obviously demonstates the importance of clear terms.

They also went through the source language terms to eliminate the use

of problematic phrases within the Asian world. They are assessing

their own terms at the same time as they are implementing standards

for effective discussion and transmission in English.

 

The decision of the WHO to define standard translations for 4000

technical terms shows one thing very clearly: Westerners who assert

that CM has only a few hundred technical terms have an opinion that is

not shared by the top professionals in Asia.

 

Eric