Fang Shi Press
To investigate through practice the wisdom of the ancients, in light of the spirit, for the sake of what is striving to live in freedom and authentic wholeness in each of us, and striving to live for the peaceful, transformative healing of humanity.
Our Dedication
The Fang Shi Press is dedicated to publishing scholarly and Spiritual Scientific work, poetry and story, and translations related to the study and practice of the healing arts, classical Chinese medicine, internal and external alchemy, Anthroposophy, and pedagogy.
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Our Commitment to Transparency, True Price, and Social Renewal
We agree with Rudolf Steiner, who stated that a “true price is forthcoming when a person receives, as counter-value for the product he has made, sufficient to enable him to satisfy his needs, the whole of his needs, including of course the needs of his dependants, until he will again have completed a like product.”
Our basic price covers the cost of the purchase, but does not sufficiently cover the needs of the author to be able to “again complete a like product”.
For this, we rely upon gift money.
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Snake Oil: An Astro-Climatologic Handbook of Remedies
Description:
Snake Oil is an Astro-climatologic handbook of remedies annually produced for each New Year in the classical Chinese medical calendar system, adapted for our times. It offers detailed flavor and qi, herb and food suggestions taken from the ancient Chinese medical classics for the treatment of disease and disharmony in relation to changes and transformations expressed by celestial, atmospheric, and geological/geographical events, manifestation, or time-markers.
Purchase:
Please make sure to include your email with purchase so that I can send the document and password to open it to you.
You can also pay $12 directly via PayPal to: mgivens.lac@gmail.com and include your email – I will send you the e-document and password.
Shipping:
If you would like a hard copy, I am taking orders and will determine the cost when there is sufficient interest. Shipping will be $7 in the US per book, $15 for international shipping per book.
Flavor, Temperature and other Practical Foundations in Chinese Medicine
Description:
This book is a foundation text in the study and practice of Chinese herbal medicine. It is intended for students, practitioners, teachers, and anyone who is interested in classical wisdom, holistic medicine and the nature of how herbal medicine works.
The first chapter offers translations of terminology and symbols used in Chinese medicine theory. This chapter is numerically organized as a way of presenting a qualitative numerology associated with the terms and symbols being defined. An understanding of the terms and symbols listed under each number can be found through their relation to the quality of that number; the quality of that number can be grasped through the understanding of those terms and symbols. Taken as a whole, the entire chapter can be seen in this way as well. Thus, it is intended to be an introduction to the hermeneutic way of approaching classical Chinese medical science.
The second chapter offers original translations of classical medical texts on the subjects of flavor, temperature, herbal medical practice, dietary therapy, and how herbs work, and discussions of the practical application of those theories in medicine. This is a complete selection of classical material on the subject of flavor, temperature and the practice of herbal medicine, taken from the Huangdi neijing (Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Medicine) and the Shennong bencao jing (Divine Farmer’s Materia Medica).
The third chapter offers the author’s thoughts and conclusions of the material presented, and focuses on the practical applications of these terms, symbols and theories. Final thoughts on the nature of illness are offered as a reflection of the material presented, and the reader is advised to take these reflections back to the beginning of the book, to complete the circle.
The main focus of the book is to present a complete, foundational image of holistic medicine. Read from start to finish, it offers the reader a careful thought process from the fundamental basis of medicine to a practical application. The entire text should be considered within each part. Additionally, it is intended for this book to be a useful, practical reference.
Table of Contents:
Prolegomenon | ||
-Intentions | 1 | |
-The Spiritual Science of Nourishing Life | 3 | |
-A Note on the Translations | 8 | |
Ch. 1 | Classical Symbolic Terminology | |
-Numerological Organization | 11 | |
-One through Twelve | 14 | |
-Important Medical terms and Symbols | 54 | |
Ch. 2 | Classical Flavor Dynamics (excerpts) | |
-The Meaning of Flavor | 63 | |
-from Suwen 4 | 67 | |
-from Suwen 5 | 69 | |
-from Suwen 10 | 77 | |
-Suwen 22 | 79 | |
-Suwen 23 | 89 | |
-Lingshu 56 | 94 | |
-Lingshu 63 | 99 | |
-from Shennong bencao jing | 103 | |
Ch. 3 | The Practice of Medicine | |
-Applied Science of Flavor and Temperature | 109 | |
-What is Classical Chinese Medicine? | 114 | |
-Dosage | 123 | |
-Bulk and Granule | 127 | |
Conclusion | 129 |
Purchase:
Available in print directly from Fang Shi Press.
Shipping:
$7 for shipping in the US per book, $15 for international shipping per book.
The Inner Treatises of the Delicately Pure Questions: A Translation and Investigation of the Huangdi neijing suwen Treatises One through Twelve
Description:
This translation offers a scholarly investigation of the foundational chapters of the Suwen, including detailed notes and unique yet highly researched translations.
Table of Contents:
Introduction | 1 | |
Suwen 1 | The Treatise on the Heavenly Truth of the Highest Antiquity | 4 |
Suwen 2 | The Great Treatise on the Resonant Tuning to the Numinous by the Four Directional Energies | 10 |
Suwen 3 | The Treatise on the Life Generating Vital Energy Openly Communicating with Heaven | 15 |
Suwen 4 | The Treatise of the Highest Truth from the Golden Cabinet | 22 |
Suwen 5 | The Great Treatise on the Resonant Symbolic Embodiment of Yin and Yang |
27 |
Suwen 6 | The Treatise on Release and Return of Yin and Yang | 40 |
Suwen 7 | The Treatise on the Divisions of Yin and Yang | 46 |
Suwen 8 | The Treatise on the Secret Scroll of the Luminous Orchid | 53 |
Suwen 9 | The Treatise on the Concealment and Symbolic Embodiment of the Six Bundles |
59 |
Suwen 10 | An Essay on the Generation and Completion of the Five Orbs | 67 |
Suwen 11 | The Treatise on the Differentiations of the Five Orbs | 73 |
Suwen 12 | The Treatise on the Unique Methods of Directional Suitability | 76 |
Bibliography | 79 |
Purchase:
Available in print directly from Fang Shi Press.
Shipping:
$7 for shipping in the US per book, $15 for international shipping per book.
Uttering the Names: A 4-fold Translation of the Shuogua (Discussion of the Trigrams)
Description:
This translation was done over many years through an attentive and meditative process by the author and translator. The text is a 4th century BCE collection of 3 poems, the earliest known, on the 8 Trigrams. It is a foundational text for all studies and practice of Chinese Medicine, Yin-Yang Theory, and the Yijing (Classic of Change, 64 Hexagrams). The Shuogua is one of the original “Wings” of the Zhouyi (The Zhou dynasty’s Classic of Change).
Table of Contents:
Preface | iv |
-Textual Organization | v |
-A Four-Fold Method of Translation | vi |
-A Discussion of the Title | vii |
Uttering the Names Part 1: Form and Function | 1 |
-“Inner” Arrangement | 4 |
-“Thunder” Arrangement | 5 |
“Outer” Arrangement | 6 |
Part 2: Numinous Manifestation | 15 |
-Numen | 16 |
-Defining the Trigrams | 17 |
-Animal Resonance | 18 |
-Bodily Resonance | 19 |
-Family Resonance | 20 |
Part 3: Ancient Resonance | 21 |
Concluding Thoughts: Perception | 30 |
Notes | 31 |
Works Cited and Suggested Readings | 42 |
Purchase:
Available in print or ebook directly from Fang Shi Press.
Shipping:
$7 for shipping in the US per book, $15 for international shipping per book.
Classical Almanac: The Year of the Yin Wood Goat (Guisi)
Description:
A few friends and I produced these beautiful and practical datebooks for 3 years in a row – now perhaps a collectors item! They offered the ancient Chinese calendar applied to contemporary usage, including the ancient science of astro-climatology (relating the phenomena of climate and weather patterns and change to solar, lunar, and celestial seasonal, annual and changeable events). Snake Oil.2019 (Year of the yin-Earth Pig) is on sale now!
Purchase:
See Snake Oil above.
Snake Oil: An Astro-climatologic Handbook of Remedies
Description:
Purchase:
The original Snake Oil from 2013 (Year of the Snake) is no longer available. A new Snake Oil for 2019 (Year of the Pig) is now available in e-document form! See Above.
Shipping:
Hard copies are also available with sufficient interest. Please contact Michael at: mgivens.lac@gmail.com. The cost will depend upon interest, and shipping will be $7 for shipping in the US per book, $15 for international shipping per book.
$7 for shipping in the US per book, $15 for international shipping per book.