Chinese Medicine Notes

Feminine Philosophy

Posted on January 5, 2009 by Yael2 Comments

I recieved 2 books by Elisabeth Rochat de la Vallee in the mail.
One of them, The Essential Woman, is about women’s health and fertility in the Chinese classics.
Happy happy, joy joy! Here is a look at how the Chinese classics look at gynecology, a very important aspect if you ask me, especially those who chose Chinese gynecology as their main path in their clinic.
Truth should be told that I was a bit offended that Elisabeth wrote just 127 pages on the subject. Is there really so little to be said about gynecology? And no, the woman on the cover, a painting dated back to the Tang dynasty, did not make me feel any better. I thought there’s a lot more to be said…

Of course- I was correct.
I say “of course” because for a moment there, I forgot we’re talking about Elisabeth, the woman with the amazing ability to read ancient texts, collect important information in Chinese philosophy and make it all usable for us to practice daily in our clinic. Elisabeth always has a lot to say that way.
One should keep in mind that we’re talking about the classical text itself, which presents a certain amount of information. Elisabeth then translates the text so that we will understand it better.
So yes, it’s 127 pages, but just like in her other books, these are pages with wonderful deep knowledge that is worth knowing.