Read Chinese

The back of Richard Goodman’s book says it best “Why not go deeper?”

I ran into Rick back in 2005. He was just arriving in Taiwan, I was on my way back to the USA; he rented the penthouse studio that overlooked Eternal Harmony City and the Xin Dian river that I’d been living in for the past year plus. Our paths crossed again when I purchased his book. Journeys through Chinese into medicine have a way of crisscrossing from time to time.

Anyone who has read the Mitchell/Wiseman/Feng translation of the Shang Han Lun knows that there are appendixes in the back that are a treasure trove of translation gold. Especially, for understanding the Chinese of The Discussion of Cold Damage.

Rick Goodman gives us some basic vocabulary, and more importantly, grammatical parsing that helps us to crack the code of Classic Chinese. Is it a comprehensive text that spills out all the gems of the Nei Jing, Nan Jing, and Jia Yi Jing? Of course not, the process of learning Chinese can in no way be captured in one book. Does it give us some keys that coax open those doors? Absolutely! It is a clearly written, carefully explained text that gives the reader access to the treasure house of Chinese medicine. Indeed, this book will give the dedicated reader an opportunity to go deeper.

Rick also has a second volume of what will be a three part series that will be published soon. Get the details here on his blog.

Thanks Rick for your contribution!