Re-examining the Silence of Female Patients in the Ming and Qing Dynasties from an Historical Perspective of Emotions
This study re-examines the silence of female patients in the diagnostic process in the Ming-Qing medical practice and finds that there was not a solid and rigid boundary between the consciousness of virtue and ritual.The absence of female patients'voices did not necessarily mean that they remained silent during the actual diagnosis or treatment process.More importantly,the normal communica-tion between their female relatives and physicians in the medical scene revealed a problematic contradiction in the relationship between silence and virtue,which did not exist in a simple derivation.The behaviours of women patients were not based on rigid rules,but on flu-id choices that were affected by emotions.Since the power of ethics was not as authoritative as people thought,emotions became an im-portant tool that ruled women patients'decision-making in health-seeking behaviours.The connection between females and sexual pas-sion,which was originally limited to medical theories,was reconstructed in history,realizing a shift in cultural value.This mode of inter-pretation shaped the illness existing in female bodies as a metaphor,predicting their licentious behaviours and allowing the emotion of shame to play its role in the rules of conduct.
women's/gender historyhistory of emotionssilencewomen patientsemotional practice
NETL
NSTL
万方数据
