Case Records as Medical Stories: Narrating Medicine in Song-Dynasty China: A Song-dynasty Doctor’s Narration of His own Medicine – Xu Shuwei (1080-1154)

Abstract

Abstract: The focus in studying or teaching the history of Chinese medicine is often on the doctrines underlying it and on its perception of the body, physiology, pathology, and its treatment. In other words, we often tend to focus on reading and analysing the classical canons and therapy-related texts including formularies and materia medica collections. However, focusing on these sources provides us with a one-sided presentation of Chinese medicine. These studies only show what physicians wrote in order to pass down their knowledge, either theoretical or practical, to their readership. However, these primary sources lack the clinical down-to-earth know-how that encompasses medical treatment, which are represented, for instance, in the clinical rounds of modern medical schools. In other words, our traditional focus on the medical canons and formularies provides almost no clinical knowledge, leaving us with a one-sided narrative that ignores how medicine and healing are actually practiced in the field. This paper focuses on the latter aspect of medicine from a historical perspective. Using written and visual sources dating to the Song dynasty, the paper depicts the clinical encounter between doctors and patients including their families based on case records recorded by a physician, members of the patient’s family, and bystanders. This array of case records or case stories will enable us to narrate the interaction between physicians and patients both from the clinical perspective and from the social interaction. Namely, we can use these case narratives to illustrate the process of diagnosis and treatment all while interacting with members of the patient’s family. I will also discuss visual depictions of the medical encounter to provide another perspective for narrating medicine during the Song dynasty. Medical case records and paintings depicting medical encounter are exemplary of the potential of Chinese primary sources for narrative medicine.