Prof. Chen Keji, winner of the Albert Einstein World Award of Science, is a professor at Beijing's Xiyuan Hospital, China Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and WHO consultant on traditional medicine. He pioneered the project of sorting out the original medical archives preserved in the imperial palace of the Qing Dynasty, the present Forbidden City in Beijing, and published it in this book.

This book, a unique contribution to the development of TCM, consists of 391 herbal formulae then prescribed for Empress Dowager Cixi and Emperor Guangxu. They were classified according to their actions and indications, plus detailed comments. Ninety-nine TCM classics and the assorted historical literature were cited to assist readers' comprehension over the medicinal principles of the prescriptions. The medical archives and files covered a span of thirty years, involving the TCM knowledge of the imperial palace and that of the folk medicine in ancient China.

China underwent centuries of feudal dynasties. Emperors and empresses, the supreme dignity and power of the nation, benefited fürom the best medical care in different historical periods. Therefore, herbal prescriptions formulated for them did represent the highest level of TCM, particularly in the late Qing Dynasty. Empress Dowager Cixi was one who exercised the dictatorship over state power for many years. In those days, the most established TCM practitioners throughout China were summoned to the Forbidden City in service of her health and longevity. And prescriptions for those past emperors and empresses were called the secret remedies of the imperial palace.

Approaching fürom the philosophy of modern medicine and TCM, Prof. Chen Keji and his study group made painstaking efforts in sorting out these ancient medical files. With reliable sources of literature, the book is of high academic value and practicability. It also serves as a handy reference book for the study of TCM in making the ancient medical knowledge useful to its practice in the modern era.
323 pages, hc.