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Curing the Incurable

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 August 2014

Jeffrey Riegel 王安國*
Affiliation:
School of Languages and Cultures, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Rm 510 MacCallum Building A18, The University of Sydney, Sidney NSW 2006, Australia, jeffrey.riegel@sydney.edu.au

Abstract

This paper compares how ancient Chinese sources discussed the causes and treatment of ailments suffered by the elite. It focuses on the Zuozhuan account of the long-term illness of Duke Ping of Jin (r. 557–532 B.C.E.) but contextualizes this passage by introducing as well other examples of stories—found in transmitted literature as well as in recently excavated manuscripts—about sick rulers who consulted with a sage in search of a cure for their troubles. The Zuozhuan passage is also viewed in the light of the Yin shu, an excavated text written on bamboo strips that is concerned with the treatment of elite ailments. A comparison of the two sources suggests that the claim in the Zuozhuan that Duke Ping's illness was “incurable” was not simply based on the medical knowledge and practices of the day.

本文比較了傳世典籍對春秋戰國時代患病貴族的病因及其治療方法的 記載,著重分析了《左傳》所記晉平公 (公元前 557–532 年在位) 受痼 疾困擾的故事,並借鑒其它資料豐富了該故事的背景信息–––這些資 料分別來自傳世的文學作品和新近出土的文獻,記述的都是疾病纏身 的統治者們如何向聖賢求醫問病的事跡。文中對《左傳》的分析,也 比較了漢簡《引書》所見醫學資料。對這兩種不同資料的比較表明, 《左傳》記述的有關晉平公所患疾病無法被治癒的觀點,並不是簡單 地依據當時的醫學知識和行醫經驗得出的。

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Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Society for the Study of Early China 2013

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