Essentials of Chinese Medicine

The Essentials of Chinese Medicine is a text book intended for international students who wish to gain a basic understanding of Chinese Medicine (CM) at the university level. The idea of writing such a text was originated from the Sino-American Consortium for the Advancement of Chinese Medicine (SACACM) which was founded in February 2000. In 1995 the British Hong Kong Administration set up a Preparatory Committee for the Development of Chinese Medicine to look into ways of bringing Chinese medical practice and herbal trade under proper control and r- ulation. After the reuni?cation of Hong Kong with mainland China in 1997 the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region continued the efforts to uplift the practice of CM to a fully professional level through legislation. To help bring up a new generation of professional CM practitioners the Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU) obtained approval from the Government���s univ- sity funding authority to develop a School of Chinese Medicine to prepare students who will meet the future professional requirements through public examinations. In order to establish itself quickly as a rigorous provider of university level CM education HKBU sought alliance with eight major CM universities in the Chinese Mainland and one US university which was interested in developing CM edu- tion within its medical college. As a result the Consortium known as SACACM was formed with ten founding institutions from Beijing Shanghai Nanjing Sh- dong Guangzhou Chengdu Heilongjiang Hong Kong and the United States.