A son of a family line of TCM practitioners, Shifu Hwang had learned from his father and grandfather much about herbs and acupuncture as a child while growing up.  He then went on to study the art to add to his family’s knowledge base.  He was literally born to cure people with his herbal remedies, and has done so with success many times to both people and animals.  His approach is clearly presented in a straight-forward, symptom and cure fashion; first determining the ailment, then writing the exact recipe for the herbal remedy along with instructions as how to administer the medicine. The most surprising cure he writes about is a cure for death.  Yes, death by either drowning or hanging can be cured; hours after traditional Western medicine would have pronounced the person deceased.

The many cures cover a vast array of ailments from cold and flu symptoms to the various types of cancers, growths, wounds and malicious diseases.  The combination of internal and external herbal remedies, various implementation procedures, as well as acupuncture are all combined into a “recipe” for healing. TCM is an unambiguous methodology and the exact proportions of ingredients are clearly defined for each health issue, unlike Western medicine which is called a “practice.”  Whereas Western medicine cures symptoms, TCM focuses the treatment more on the cause of the health issue.

Much of the information contained within Herbal Surgeon was previously published over 700 years ago, in the Hong Wu year (1373 A.D.) by Master Zao in his work titled, The Secret Surgeon Menu From Immortals.  Many Taoist followers were called “Immortals” because of their longevity of lifespan.  Master Wan Lai Seng further contributed to this work throughout his 110 years of life, from 1889 to 1999.  Shifu Hwang does not claim this book to be anything other than his summary of the work of others, and humbly acknowledges his respect for the Masters.

Herbal Surgeon is categorized into chapters based on symptom and remedy; also indexed so formulas regarding specific ailments can be quickly found.  Even the herbs are identified with botanical drawings for clarity and understanding. The book heightens one’s awareness of the complexity and interdependency herbal remedies have to our bodies.  They have been used successfully for millenniums before the establishment of the FDA.  How brief a history Western Medicine has as compared to the many thousands of years of ancient remedies.