Book excerpt: Huangdi Neijing, also known as Yellow Emperor's Inner Classic, has played a pivotal role in traditional Chinese medical education for about two thousand years. The first part of Neijing which is called Suwen — Basic Questions or Essential Questions — covers the theoretical foundation of Chinese medicine as well as disease diagnosis and treatment. There are 81 chapters in a question-and-answer format between the mythical Yellow Emperor and his ministers. This translated book is based on the Chinese version annotated and edited by Jinghua Fu and his team, published by China Renmin University Press in 2010.