Nguyen Van Nghi

Nguyen Van Nghi (January 11 1909 - December 17 1999)

Born January 2nd, 1909 in Hanoi, Vietnam, Nguyen Van Nghi was educated in Vietnam, China and France. Completing his medical degree from the University of Marseilles, he began a combined Eastern and Western medical practice in 1940.

In 1954 he devoted his practice entirely to acupuncture based on the classical texts: Huang Di Nei Jing (Suwen, Lingshu) and the Nan Jing. He died December 17th, 1999, in the town of his residence, Marseilles, France.

He was a doctor, author, teacher and scholar of the classic texts of Chinese Medicine (acupuncture-moxibustion). Much of Dr. Van Nghi's life's work revolved around translating and adding his own commentary to an unmolested Tang Dynasty copy of the Huangdi Neijing (Yellow Emperor's Internal Classic) from an ancient script into French. What distinguished this particular version of the Huangdi Neijing from those available in China was that it included commentary by two Tang Dynasty physicians, without which, Van Nghi claimed, made the texts indecipherable.

Van Nghi was insistent that Western medicine and Chinese Medicine were not separate scientific pursuits, but that there was One Medicine.