Abstract
This is one of the cases that mentions the non-medical curers who treated patients in villages though history. Here Xu mentions two types: diviners who used the Book of Changes and spirit mediums. These groups of healers took different approaches to disorders. The diviners based their therapy on divining the cause and outcome of the disorder. The second group was local popular priests. Wu was a derogatory term that literati applied to them and others whom they did not bother to distinguish from them. In the lower Yangzi region, wu were usually spirit mediums who cured while in trance. Their therapy also used methods borrowed from Daoists, Buddhists, and physicians. Xu also mentions that ‘someone else’ applied a sweating treatment, which – since there was no doctor in the village – means that someone applied mainstream medical therapy. That, of course, complicates the health care picture even more.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
- 2.
- 3.
For further information see Hinrichs 2003.
- 4.
Jurong was a name of a city and a district in Jiangning Prefecture (present-day Nanjing region, Jiangsu), which become the Jiankang (建康) Prefecture during the Southern Song.
- 5.
This refers to non-medical healers.
- 6.
The character kou 寇 also means “invaders,” which may also fit here given the Jurchen invasion of 1127. Since Xu did not provide a date for this case, I chose to translate this as “bandits.”
- 7.
The candles were needed because it was night. Realgar Pellet was first recorded in Sun Simiao’s Beiji qianjin yaofang in juan 9, p. 139 and juan 24, p. 345. It is also recorded in three other Song-dynasty formularies: the Imperial Grace Formulary (juan 7, p. 130; juan 16, p. 316), the Medical Encyclopedia (juan 7, p. 142; juan 29, p. 372), and the Imperial Pharmacy’s formulary (Taiping huimin hejiju fang) under the name “Toxin Releasing Realgar Pellet 解毒雄黄丸,” juan 8, p. 143). Scheid et al. 2009 do not record it.
- 8.
See Scheid et al. 2009, pp. 171–173.
Bibliography
Other Sources:
Chen, Zilin 陈泽霖. 1982. “Shezhen shi gaishu” 舌诊史概述 [Overview of the History of Tongue Diagnosis]. Zhonghua yishi zazhi 12.1: 1–4.
Hinrichs, T.J. 2003. “The Medical Transforming of Governance and Southern Customs in Song dynasty China (960–1279 C.E.).” Ph.D. diss., Harvard University, 2003.
Holroyde-Downing, Nancy. 2005. “Mysteries of the Tongue.” Asian Medicine, Tradition and Modernity, 1(2): 432–461.
———. 2017. “Tongues on Fire: On the Origins and Transmission of a System of Tongue Diagnosis.” Ph.D. dissertation, Department of History, University College London.
Meng, Xianyou and Huang Shuiqing. 2016. “Zhongyi shezhen yuanliu tanxi” 中医舌诊源流探析 [Origin and Development of Tongue Diagnosis of TCM]. Liaoning zhongyi zazhi 43.5: 946–948.
Scheid, Volker, Dan Bensky, Andrew Ellis, and Randall Barolet. 2009. Chinese Herbal Medicine: Formulas and Strategies. Seattle: Eastland Press.
———. 2015. Health Care in Eleventh-Century China. New York: Springer Media.
Strickmann, Michel, edited by Bernard Faure. 2002. Chinese Magical Medicine. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Zhang, Lan 张岚. 2006. “Zhongyi shezhen de lishi wenhua tanyaun” 中医舌诊的历史文化探源 [Probe into the Cultural Rootstock of Inspection of Tongue of Traditional Chinese Medicine]. Ph.D. dissertation, Heilongjiang Zhongyiyao daxue, Department of History of Chinese Medicine.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Goldschmidt, A. (2019). Case Number 45. In: Medical Practice in Twelfth-century China – A Translation of Xu Shuwei’s Ninety Discussions [Cases] on Cold Damage Disorders. Archimedes, vol 54. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-06103-6_46
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-06103-6_46
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-06102-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-06103-6
eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)