ON DEVELOPMENT OF INTERNATIONAL STANDARD TERMINOLOGY OF TRADITIONAL CHINESE MEDICINE.doc

ON DEVELOPMENT OF INTERNATIONAL STANDARD TERMINOLOGY OF TRADITIONAL CHINESE MEDICINE
Xie Zhufan* Honorary Director of the Institute of Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine, Peking University
(Institute of Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine, Peking University)
In recent decades, the rapid growth of international interest in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has demanded English writings of this system of traditional medicine more than ever. Books and papers on TCM topics in English language have begun to flourish. However, different authors may select different English words or phrases to express one TCM term. Consequently, readers experience difficult time trying to figure out whether they refer to the same TCM term or different ones. In many cases, not all the expressions can accurately reflect the original meanings of the terms, some renderings mislead readers. Therefore, it is imperative to unify and standardize the renderings of TCM terms. The importance and the urgency have fully been aware of by the anizations. As early as 2004, WHO Western Pacific Regional Office started to standardize traditional medical terminologies and published the book WHO International Standard Terminologies on Traditional Medicine in the Western Pacific Region (IST) in 2007. Shortly after the WHO publication, the World Federation of Chinese Medicine Societies published International Standard Chinese-English Basic Nomenclature of Chinese Medicine (ISN) in 2008. I was honored to participate in both tasks and would like to make a brief review on the key points from which the divergence of standard translation arose.
1. Transliteration (Use of Pinyin)
Transliteration (use of pinyin) is the most straight-forward approach to translation of terminologies. Yin, yang and qi that have been internationally accepted are essful examples of transliteration. However, since Chinese language posed of pictographs instead of alphabetic words, the use of pinyin is limited. Thus, it is inev