A Barefoot Doctor's Manual

Here is this wonderful book in its enlarged format, VERY BIG and HEAVY! It is 11 inches by 8.5, and 1 1/4 inches thick! This book was originally put together by the Chinese government at Hunnan Province to educate people in small villages where there was no doctor or modern medicine available, hence "Barefoot Doctor". The book contains a complete explanation of acupuncture, including illustrations of therapeutic methods and charts. There is also information on basic first aid, including the herbs to give a person who is hurt. Over half of the book is an Encyclopedia of Chinese medicinal herbs, including detailed drawings, plant family, scientific name of plant, where it is found, how to gather, preserve, prepare and treat with the herb. Throughout the book there are herbal combinatons prescribed for a variety of ailments. This is a practical book meant to be used by average people, so there isn't a lot of high philosophy or complex metaphysical theory. Villagers and people in rural areas had to know things like how to identify dangerous snakes and treat venemous bites, what to do if a child broke a limb, how to treat grandma's bleeding ulcer, and so on. They often had to be able to do this without the aid of modern medicines most of us now take for granted, hence the practical focus on herbal medicine and acupuncture. This comprehensive volume was actually put together during a time in China when the Communist Party under Chairman Mao was trying to encourage self sufficiency among common people and do away with old superstition, so the advice is factual and practical and easy for any layman to understand. Medical conditions are descrbed in Western clinical terms, the translator Titus Yu has done an excellent job of making things easy to understand! I have found this book useful in understanding the practical basics of Chinese medicine, I found it a benefit that this book was not filled with theoretical fluff, but instead focused on sensible matters. This book was actually brought to the U.S.A. by a physician, Victor W. Sidel M.D., who had visited China. In 1974 the first edition of this book was released, it appears the publishers did everything right, including having an herbal consultant by the name of Lam Wah Bong go over the text and check for errors and understandability before it was printed. The text reads well and is easy to understand. I would recommend getting one of the original series of printings from the 1970's or 1980's. These editions include readable Chinese characters to accompany the herbs shown in the illustrations.

Having first read this book back in the late 70's it still amases me how little the west has learnt about healing and this book teach's so much about our bodies. It treats the individual not the disease, makes sense I think.

There aren't enough doctors in China for all those people, so This book is used by many "paramedics" or 'midwives' to fill the gap. Included are herbal medicines, accupuncture and western medicine treatments for just about anything that ails you.