App Profile: Chinese Medical Characters

"Learning Chinese is very probably the most rewarding single investment that a student of East Asian medicine can make." - Nigel Wiseman and Zhang YuHuan

The Chinese Medical Characters app is a tool to learn the foundational terms and concepts of Chinese medicine.

The app allows users to search the dataset by translation, Pīnyīn, or Chinese character. This feature enables the user to quickly understand the different translations of common Chinese characters they encounter in medical textbooks or other references. For example, a user can easily determine that the Chinese medical term translated variously as "deficiency" or "vacuity" or "emptiness" is actually a single Chinese medical term: 虛Xū. This knowledge allows the user to avoid confusion when referencing texts from different translators.

In order to increase fluency in Chinese medical terms, the app has a built-in character test. The test allows users to practice recognizing traditional or simplified characters and matching them with their correct Pīnyīn and English translations. Correct answers on the test reveal the common acupuncture points, herbs, formulas, and concepts in Chinese medicine that include this character. The user can select from different categories to test, such as Theory, Anatomy, Acupuncture, Herbal Medicine, Vital Substances and others to focus on, or the user can access the whole dataset at once. All progress made in mastering each category is recorded and displayed.

Finally, users can test their character retention by writing each character. To help with this challenging section, the user can temporarily display the character and review its proper stroke order before proceeding. Like the reading section, the user can select from different categories, such as Theory, Anatomy, Acupuncture, Herbal Medicine, Vital Substances and others to focus on or the user can access the whole dataset at once. All progress made in mastering each category is recorded and displayed.