Essential Subtleties on the Silver Sea: Yin-hai Jing-wei

Here is the first translation into English of the complete Yin-hai jing-wei, a classic 15th century text on Chinese ophthalmology. As one of the few original manuscripts on traditional Chinese medicine translated into a Western language, this work offers an unprecedented view of the practice of medicine, and specifically eye care, in pre-modern China. Superbly rendered from the classical Chinese and extensively annotated by the authors, the text provides detailed descriptions of the etymology, symptomatology, and therapy of every eye disease known to Chinese practitioners of the era. The translators' introduction also provides the first in-depth analysis of the development of this specialty within Chinese medicine. As a source for comparative studies of Chinese and Western medicine and numerous other issues in the history of medicine and Chinese thought, this work has no equal in the Western world.