Innovation in Chinese Medicine
In the West ideas about Chinese medicine are commonly associated with traditional therapies and ancient practices which have survived, unchanging, since time immemorial. Originally published in 2001, this volume, edited by Elizabeth Hsu, demonstrates that this is far from the reality. In a series of pioneering case-studies, twelve contributors, from a range of disciplines, explore the history of Chinese medicine and the transformations that have taken place from the fourth century BC onwards. Topics of discussion cover diagnostic and therapeutic techniques, pharmacotherapy, the creation of new genres of medical writing and schools of doctrine. This interdisciplinary volume will be of value to anyone with an interest in the various aspects of Chinese medicine.
- Approach to the history of Chinese medicine, exploring developments and transformations of traditional medicines
- Contributors from around the world offer pioneering case-studies from a range of disciplines
- Interdisciplinary approach, a hallmark of the field, will ensure readership from scholars and practitioners
Reviews & endorsements
Review of the hardback: '… this book is a splendid, diverse collection of innovative research …' EASTM
Review of the hardback: 'Innovation in Chinese Medicine is the most significant collection of works in English to date in the study of chinese medical history.' Medical History
Product details
February 2011Paperback
9780521182591
444 pages
246 × 189 × 23 mm
0.79kg
Available
Table of Contents
- Introduction Elisabeth Hsu
- Part I. Mai and Qi in the Western Han:
- 1. The influence of nurturing life culture on the development of Acumoxa therapy Vivienne Low
- 2. Pulse diagnostics in the western Han: how mai and qi determine bing Elisabeth Hsu
- Part II. Correlative Cosmologies:
- 3. Iatromancy, diagnosis, and prognosis in early Chinese medicine Donald Harper
- 4. The system of the five circulatory phases and the six seasonal influences, a source of innovation in medicine under the Song (960–1279) Catherine Despeux
- Part III. Dietetics and Pharmacotherapy:
- 5. Dietetics in Tang China: beginnings of a specialised materia dietetica Ute Engelhardt
- 6. A Song innovation in pharmacotherapy: some remarks on 'white arsenic' and 'flowers of arsenic' Frederic Obringer
- 7. The Bencao gangmu (classified materia medica) of Li Shizhen - an innovation for natural history? Georges Metailie and Elisabeth Hsu
- 8. Robust northerners and delicate southerners: the nineteenth-century invention of a southern medical tradition Marta Hanson
- Part V. Rise of the Genre of Medical Case Statements:
- 9. Yi'an (case statements) - the origins of a genre of Chinese medical literature Christopher Cullen
- 10. From case-records to case-histories: the modernisation of a Chinese medical genre, 1912–49 Bridie J. Andrews
- Part VI. Medical Rationale in the People's Republic:
- 11 A new, scientific and unified medicine: civil war in China and the new Acumoxa, 1945–9 Kim Taylor
- 12. Shaping Chinese medicine: two case studies from contemporary China Volker Scheid.