查看更多>>摘要:The Five Plague Gods(五瘟神)in the Shuilu(水陆)murals from the Ming and Qing dynasties exemplify a distinctive manifestation of plague gods image developed under the pedigree of Taoist gods.As a significant system for expelling disasters in Shuilu,the depiction of the Five Plague Gods prominently merges human beings and livestock.This shape form to a large extent,draws on the image of Nuo(傩),a figure reflecting an imagination of the host of plague pathogens.In terms of the numbers of gods,it aligns with the conceptual framework of Wu Xing(五行 the five elements),a foundational principle in traditional Chinese medicine.The internal cultural connection highlights the means of plague prevention and control in China,as well as the external reflection of plague culture.Through multi-dimensional interpretations with the double proof method,this article dissects the formation,core elements,and cultural characteristics of the beliefs in the Five Plague Gods reflected in the Shuilu murals,and transcends mere visual semantics,offering a deeper understanding of these complex cultural symbols.
查看更多>>摘要:Over the past decade,medical researchers in China have debated whether the Pi(脾)corresponds to the biomedical spleen or pancreas.This debate exemplifies a broader phenomenon of"anatomical retrofitting",or the anachronistic imposition of contemporary categories onto living historical objects."Anatomical retrofitting"as a means of rectifying cases of mistranslation further positions the biomedical spleen and pancreas as representing ahistorical,universal truths.This framework gives rise to a conceptual binary:while the biomedical spleen is universalized as what philosophers may describe as"logical"ontology,the Pi connects to a different nature of reality,or"metaphysical"ontology.Far from being an object of imprecision,the Pi was a dynamic vessel that also shared characteristics with the humoral spleen.Given that scholars in China have already subjected Pi to historical scrutiny,this paper urges scholars to do the same with biomedical anatomy.For instance,historically situating the humoral spleen demonstrates that it became less known and less articulated as it transformed into the biomedical spleen.Meanwhile,the pancreas remained an unstable epistemic object that took on the dynamic functions of the humoral spleen in nineteenth-century organotherapy.Through primary source analysis and literature review,this paper contends that the apparent ontological incommensurability between Pi and spleen is neither mutually exclusive nor irreconcilable.Instead,the dynamic nature of internal viscera,their many functions,and their participation in epistemic practices contribute to an ongoing ontological ambivalence that persists despite the forced certainty of anatomical retrofitting.
查看更多>>摘要:The pancreas is neither part of the five Zang organs(五脏)nor the six Fu organs(六腑).Thus,it has received little attention in Chinese medical literature.In the late 19th century,medical missionaries in China started translating and introducing anatomical and physiological knowledge about the pancreas.As for the word pancreas,an early and influential translation was"sweet meat"(甜肉),proposed by Benjamin Hobson(合信).The translation"sweet meat"is not faithful to the original meaning of"pancreas",but is a term coined by Hobson based on his personal habits,and the word"sweet"appeared by chance.However,in the decades since the term"sweet meat"became popular,Chinese medicine practitioners,such as Tang Zonghai(唐宗海),reinterpreted it by drawing new medical illustrations for"sweet meat"and giving new connotations to the word"sweet".This discussion and interpretation of"sweet meat"in modern China,particularly among Chinese medicine professionals,is not only a dissemination and interpretation of the knowledge of"pancreas",but also a construction of knowledge around the term"sweet meat".
查看更多>>摘要:Ukiyo-e(浮世絵)was a genre of popular art during the Edo and Meiji periods in Japan.Moxibustion,which was originally introduced from China,was also in its heyday and became one of the popular topics for ukiyo-e artists at that time.Using the images as historical evidence perspective,this article focuses on the moxibustion used in daily life in Japan depicted in the ukiyo-e arts.With the perspective of acu-moxa therapy,one may identify some specific issues in the acupoint selection,leading to the discovery of special application of moxibustion used by the group of yūjo(遊女)at that time.The article concludes by exploring gender issues in ukiyo-e arts and the implications of punishment attached to moxibustion treatment.
查看更多>>摘要:Along with the surge of unearthed medical literature and cultural relics in recent years,a network of channels in the system of medical conduit vessels(meridians)during the early Western Han dynasty has become much clearer gradually.In it,the increasing number of channel branches,network vessels and needle insertion holes(acupoints)is an important feature of the development of channel medicine during the Western Han dynasty.This is not only a reflection of the expanding requirements of the theoretical system of the main trunk channels and other vessels,but also an inevitable result of the continuous enrichment and accumulation of clinical experience.This article integrates the information about channel branches,network vessels,inscriptions,dots and further relics on the Tianhui(天回)Lacquered Meridian Figurine to compare the unearthed literature of the channel genre with the transmitted classical literature about acupuncture.The"Heart-Regulated Channel"in Medical Manuscripts on Bamboo Slips from Tianhui(《天回医简》)serves as an example to explain the occurrence,development and changes of the channel branches and network vessels in the early system of medical channels.
查看更多>>摘要:In the early 20th century,French vice-consul George Soulié de Morant encountered acupuncture during his visit to China,and then brought it back to France.After more than a century,his collection was transported from Paris,France to Kunming,China,and later recognized as a Chinese national third-class precious cultural heritage.Currently housed in the Museum of Western Studies on Chinese Medicine at Yunnan University of Chinese Medicine,this set of instruments includes one needle holder converted from a fan-shaped holder,ten acupuncture needles,and eleven paper tags handwritten in English with names of diseases and body parts.This article attempts to present the foundational information and historical significance of this collection of this set of late Qing dynasty acupuncture instruments by reviewing the collection and related research on acupuncture instruments,consulting acupuncture professionals,measuring the detailed information of the set of instruments,and employing a method of translating and summarizing the content of the attached tags.
查看更多>>摘要:Jiu Ai Tu(The Moxa Treatment)from the Song dynasty is the earliest surviving painting that focuses on the subject of acupuncture and moxibustion.This paper takes the medical activities depicted in the artwork as its research object and systematically analyzes the external treatment methods for abscesses during the Song dynasty reflected in Jiu Ai Tu.By examining the understanding of abscesses during that period,the paper explores the level of development in external medicine techniques.By analyzing the medical awareness and behaviors of patients when facing such severe illnesses,it aims to explore the societal cognition and experiences regarding health and disease.The paper attempts to present the folk medical ecology of the Song dynasty represented by Jiu Ai Tu.
查看更多>>摘要:From the early Taoist diagrams of the human body to the end of the Qing dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China,Taoists exaggerated and deformed the human spine in a shape-shifting manner.It is likely that medical practitioners were influenced by this style of representation,and there are also numerous diagrams of the human body with the curved spine in the lateral-view diagrams of viscera and Ming Tang Tu(明堂图 Acupuncture and Moxibustion Chart),which constantly show the human torso in an elliptical"egg shape".No later than the Ming dynasty,medical practitioners began to depict the actual physiological spinal curve of the human body.By the Qing dynasty,the depiction of the spinal curve in medical diagrams of the human figure showed a tendency to part ways with the Taoist freehand style of the previous generation.Although the representation of the curve of the spine was very crude,later medical images of the human body at least gradually straightened the spine and no longer depicted it in a shape-shifting manner.However,the curved spine in Taoist diagrams of the human body continued to exist,and the presentation of the curved spine never changed.This way of depicting its appearance,which is very different from reality,is shaped by Taoism's special way of perceiving and viewing the body,and may also contain another form of truth.