Flavour and Nature: The Neijing as our guide to herbal medicine

In the last many years of researching and writing about the classical perspective on herb use, I have been struck not by new advances or developments, but rather by the way in which the same simple theme has held through more than two thousand years of herbal history, and through the writings of many famous doctors. The foundation of the herbal theory which guided the scholars who came before us, and which shape the formulas we still use today comes from the Nei Jing. Yet the connection of the Nei Jing to herb theory seems largely forgotten in the modern practice of Chinese medicine.