Guanyin’s Role in Childbirth Protection

This paper examines the interpretation of female bodies by male medical authors in post-Han China, investigating medical theories and practices as reflected in the applied medical literature of "prescriptions for women." Between the Han and Song periods, this paper argues, the negative association of the female body with the vague category of pathologies "below the girdle," referring most notably to conditions of vaginal discharge, was replaced with a more positive focus on menstruation, which symbolized regular and predictable cycles of generativity and free flow. As male physicians came to recognize the female body as gendered and accepted the need for a specialized treatment of women, menstruation became the window through which they gained access to the hidden processes inside the female body. By "balancing/regulating the menses," they learned to treat and prevent such dreaded chronic conditions as infertility, susceptibility to cold, or general emaciation and weakness, all which were seen as related to the female reproductive processes. Thus, the practice of menstrual regulation ultimately served to ensure female fertility and the continuation of the family line.

This article offers a description and subject classification of the medical texts collection from the Tibetan fond of the Center for Oriental Manuscripts and Xylographs of the Institute of Mongolian, Buddhist and Tibetan studies of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (COMX IMBTS SB RAS). One of its main tasks has been to identify and attribute medical texts in the Tibetan collection, which is comprised of over 40,000 texts acquired from private libraries of the Buddhist clergy of Buryatia. Intensive source work has resulted in creation of a separate collection of medical texts, which includes 508 manuscripts and xylographs registered under 222 storage cyphers. All texts have been thematically classified into 11 groups according to genre of medical literature. This classification reflects the preferences of Buryat physicians in choosing particular works. Although the collection is relatively small, it contains important texts of Tibetan medicine. The article focuses on classification of the most common in Buryatia commentaries on the rGyud bzhi. The authors have identified several terms that Tibetans used for this category of texts, such as sdong 'grems, mchan' grel, bru 'grel, lhan thabs. In general, the texts in the collection are in line with Tibetan medical tradition and correspond to the level of education in the Buryat Buddhist monasteries. Electronic catalogue and data base compiled by the authors facilitate further study of the Tibetan-language medical sources by Tibetan, Mongolian, and Buryat authors. Medical texts should be available to specialists so that new approaches to their classification and systematization may be developed and rational legacy of Oriental medicine may be incorporated in contemporary medical practice. This will allow to study interinfluence of medical traditions, to determine regional, ethnic, and cultural features of medical literary tradition.

Reviewed by: Buddhist Materiality: A Cultural History of Objects in Japanese Buddhism Hank Glassman Buddhist Materiality: A Cultural History of Objects in Japanese Buddhism. By Fabio Rambelli. Stanford University Press, 2007. 394 pages. Hardcover $65.00. One commonly held assumption among undergraduates and others (not all of them neophytes) is that Buddhism is “antimaterialistic”: deeply suspicious of and antagonistic to the world of things. While this characterization may in some respects contain a kernel of truth, it is fundamentally flawed and needs to be challenged. This new study does just that. Fabio Rambelli gives his book Buddhist Materiality the subtitle “a cultural history of objects in Japanese Buddhism,” thus promising a wide-ranging and comprehensive exploration of the place of the physical in Buddhist practice and doctrine. Indeed, one of the great strengths of this groundbreaking work is the boldness of its scope. It is an important book and should be read by any scholar of Japanese religions. A novel and provocative inquiry into the cultural and intellectual history of Japan, it also deserves attention from other students of Japanese society as well. Some of the prominent themes in Rambelli’s book are: (1) the logic of the pervasive immanence of enlightenment in the phenomenal world, a product of Tendai doctrinal constructions insisting upon the “original enlightenment” (hongaku) of all beings and Shingon-based teachings on the perfected nature of physical reality as “Dharma-realm,” dharmadhâtu or hōkai; (2) Buddhist strategies of negotiation with other religious traditions and social systems, including the expansion of the combinatory honji-suijaku (“original ground–manifest trace”) model beyond the realm of one-to-one correspondences between Buddhist deities and the kami to the apotheosis of physical objects; (3) the construction of the myth of a unique Japanese love of nature attributable to “Shinto” and the unacknowledged role of Buddhism in shaping Japanese attitudes toward the natural world; (4) the place of objects sacred and mundane in the Buddhist transformation of Japan; that is, the integration of Buddhism into the everyday lives of the Japanese people and the eventual hegemony of Buddhist models over Japan’s ritual, doctrinal, and hermeneutical landscape. This deeply interdisciplinary inquiry challenges much of the conventional wisdom about the nature of Japanese religion. Rambelli’s book offers us new lenses to see what had been hidden in plain sight. As the author tells us, “The history of Buddhist materiality and the related attitudes toward objects form a condensed cultural history of Japanese religion, beginning with the process of diffusion of Buddhism, its multiple interactions with local cults, and proceeding with the development of new forms of religiosity” (p. 273). Rambelli follows Jean Baudrillard in taking the cultural system of objects to be a “reflection of a total order” (p. 61). He asserts that Buddhist ideologies simultaneously shaped and mirrored Japanese cultural sensibilities. For those wishing to unlock the code of the Japanese imaginaire, it is essential to trace the key role of the physical, both products of human invention and naturally occurring raw materials, in the creation of religious meaning. In pursuit of this goal, Rambelli proceeds through a threefold investigation over seven chapters. The first three chapters focus on establishing an understanding of Japanese Buddhist (and, at times, more generally Buddhist) philosophical or doctrinal [End Page 405] approaches to materiality. In these opening chapters, we begin to understand the complexity of the task Rambelli has set for himself. Entitled “The Buddhist Philosophy of Objects,” the first chapter establishes, through reference to a broad range of doctrinal positions and their contestation in Japanese and East Asian clerical disputes (and modern scholarly circles), a discourse that will be essential to the entire narrative of the book. This is the trope of sōmoku jōbutsu, “the enlightenment of grass and trees,” a shorthand for the notion that even beings and objects usually held to be insentient, such as plants and minerals, in fact possess Buddha nature and are thus able to become Buddhas or reach salvation. In India, such ideas had not really even existed; in China, they acted as a sort of slogan or tag-line. In Japan, however, the notion of the enlightenment of objects became the subject...

This paper shows that the practice of drinking tea and medicinal soups during the Tang and Song dynasties had a significant influence on monastic life. One example may be found in Chan 禪 (Zen) ”pure regulations” (qinggui 清規), which incorporated drinking tea and medicinal soups into the ritual and daily life of monastic communities. Tea and medicinal soups were also used as offerings during rituals, and could be consumed as part of the ritual process. Monks even consumed tea and medicinal soups as part of the practice of self-cultivation aimed at the ”preservation of life” (yangsheng 養生). In addition, this paper explores how Tang-Song monks tried to achieve a balance between adhering to monastic codes (jielu 戒律) and drinking tea or soup as a form of self- cultivation. The most important practice pertaining to this problem involves monks drinking alcohol, including medicinal alcohol. In theory, the codes did not allow such behavior, but in fact it became an integral part of practices such as the cult of the ”Sage Monk” (Shengseng 聖僧) presenting wine as an offering to monks, and making sacrifices of wine during rituals. In short, many Tang-Song monks considered the drinking of alcohol to be a legitimate religious activity. The Buddhist practices described above appear to have been at least partly influenced by Taoism, a fact that reflects the profound interaction between these two religious traditions.

This paper explores the nature and characteristics of the Tibetan medical tradition within the context of the Silk Roads as a multicultural and multilingual network, focusing on the tenth-century Tibetan moxibustion manuscript Pelliot tibétain 1058 (PT 1058), discovered in Mogao Cave 17 at Dunhuang. The Silk Roads served as a significant venue for the exchange and synthesis of diverse tangible and intangible materials from East and West, including trade goods, religions, art, and even human genes. It was also an important site in the history of medicine, where different medical traditions interacted and evolved. Dunhuang, in particular, was a crucial point on the Silk Roads that functioned as a multicultural hub in which various ethnic groups, languages, and knowledge systems coexisted. The medical manuscripts discovered there provide valuable textual evidence for understanding the formative stage of the Tibetan medical tradition.The main body of this paper is divided into three parts. First, to explore Tibetan medical tradition, its origin and its nature, it examines a well-known narrative about the King Songtsen Gampo (r. ca. 617–650) and the nine foreign physicians, including Indian, Chinese, and Greek. This narrative can be understood as a symbolic or “historicized” story, emphasizing Tibetan medicine not as a single tradition, but a synthesis that integrates diverse foreign elements from its early stages. Second, it investiagtes three Tibetan moxibustion manuscripts from Dunhuang, Pelliot tibétain 127, 1044, and 1058, considering their general structure and content. Particular attention is given to PT 1058, the earliest surviving example of Tibetan medical diagrams. The paper provides an English translation of the Tibetan moxibustion points and offers detailed interpretations, linking them to specific acupunture points in Korean and East Asian traditional medicine. Many of the moxibustion points in PT 1058 correspond with acupuncture points, such as Huantiao (GB30), Fengshi (GB31), Chengjin (BL56), Chengshan (BL57), and Taichong (LR3). It is also notable that PT 1058 includes the same method to locate Fengshi (GB31): “when the body is upright and the arms are naturally extended, the point where the middle finger touches the thigh.” This suggests the connection between the Dunhuang manuscript and East Asian medical traditions. It then compares PT 1058 with Chinese and Uighur moxibustion manuscripts, identifying similarities that show how medical knowledge was transmitted and systematized through visualized representations of the body combined with practical therapeutic knowledge along the Silk Roads. Finally, the paper critically examines contemporary efforts by India and China to institutionalize traditional Tibetan medicine, Sowa Rigpa, within their respective national cultural heritage agendas. Such state-driven cultural politics, I argue, risk neglecting or overshadowing the hybrid origins and multicultural dimensions of Tibetan medical tradition that is deeply rooted in the transcultural exchanges of the Silk Roads.In conclusion, this study highlights Tibetan medical tradition not merely as a conventional medical system, but as a dynamic and living knowledge system that emerged from a pluralistic environment of intercultural transmission. Today, it stands as a symbolic heritage embodying Tibetan historical memory and cultural agency.

The practice of medicine in Georgia has its roots in antiquity and is deeply intertwined with the medical traditions of ancient Greece and Rome. This rich scientific heritage is clearly reflected in early medieval Georgian medical traditions. In medieval Georgian historical writings contain specialized medical texts and treatises, demonstrating the advanced state of medical knowledge at the time. Among these texts, the 11th-century Georgian medical text Ustsoro Karabadini (“Incomparable Medical Handbook”) holds particular significance as an original Georgian medical treatise incorporating not only Georgian medical expertise but also insights from both ancient and medieval European medical traditions. The parallels between this text and Western European medical treatises are apparent from the very beginning. The text incorporates the Hippocratic and Galenic concept of the four humors, outlining the ailments linked to each humor and their respective treatments. Additionally, Ustsoro Karabadini offers health recommendations based on seasonal changes, describing the challenges the human body faces throughout the year and providing guidance on overcoming illness and maintaining proper nutrition. The treatise also includes noteworthy insights into pregnancy, gender prediction, and childcare practices. It places particular emphasis on a balanced diet, detailing the appropriate consumption of plant- and animal-based foods. A notable section is dedicated to the medicinal benefits of wine, a subject deeply ingrained in both Georgian and European traditions, where it was closely associated with daily life and sacred significance of Christian rituals. The analysis of these treatises clearly demonstrates that, similar to Europe, Georgia developed agricultural practices, particularly the cultivation of vines and cereals. Historical and archaeological research confirms that the tradition of cultivating grapevines and wheat in the Caucasus region dates back to the Neolithic era. The Georgian territory is considered one of the oldest centers of viticulture and wheat cultivation. An analysis of medical treatises reveals that prolonged engagement with these agricultural practices both in the Georgian and broader European contexts contributed to the discovery of similar medicinal properties associated with these crops. A comparative analysis of Ustsoro Karabadini and European medical treatises suggests that Georgian medicine was significantly influenced by both European and ancient (Greek-Roman) medical traditions, sharing many common characteristics with them.

The Dunhuang manuscripts are world-renowned precious paper cultural relics, and it is necessary to conduct research on the prevention and control of harmful biological hazards. Taking 6 Dunhuang manuscripts as the research object, through appearance observation, data measurement and literature review, the paper material characteristics are analyzed, and the types of microorganisms on its surface are collected, cultivated and identified, and the cellulolytic ability of the Penicillium strains in them is determined. The spore germination rate of Penicillium at different temperatures was measured, and the effect of low temperature on Penicillium harming paper relics was analyzed. The results showed that the 6 Dunhuang manuscripts were made of hemp paper and thin white paper from the Tang Dynasty to the Song Dynasty. A total of 12 bacteria species and 1 fungus species were isolated and identified. Among them, Penicillium has the ability to decompose cellulose on paper, which is the main harmful microorganism to the Dunhuang manuscripts, low temperature can significantly reduce the germination rate of Penicillium, so low-temperature refrigeration technology can be used to effectively inhibit the damage of Penicillium to paper cultural relics.

Starting from the perspective of fieldwork in Taiwan, this essay intends to pursue a historical analysis that combines 'ethnographic' data and Middle Chinese texts pertaining to medical gestation to examine the relationship between Chinese medicine and culture. In traditional gynecology, the medical texts can be classified into three main categories: symptoms & therapy, regimen, and taboos. This essay tries to make a dynamic relationship between Taiwan traditional strategies of fetal sedative and gynecological knowledge systems in Middle China-from Sui & T'ang Dynasties to Sung Dynasty--in order to construct the primary meanings and 'classical' discourses of pregnancy. I argue that there are two fundamental themes in the classical knowledge of pregnancy. One is the theme of fetal sedative (an t'ai), and its discourse is focused on symptoms and prescriptions pertaining to pregnancy 'disorders'. Moreover, fetal sedative is clearly the first theme in classical discourses of pregnancy, whose importance in Chinese gynecology has been strssed since the Pre-Qing &Hang Dynasties. The second is the theme of fetal nurturing (yang t'ai), which focuses on the thesis of 'zhu yue yang t'ai' (fetal nurturing monthly during the gestation),which has been developed to perfection the Northern Chi to Sui & T'ang Dynasties. This theme also involves the subordinate fields of related theories of fetation, fetal education (t'ai chiao) and other taboo subjects. As a whole, the theme of fetal nurturing has advanced to a point of maintaining a condition of 'balance' within mothers-to-be, instead of focusing on curing and reducing 'disorders', and thus has given rise to broad discourses on taboo. By comparison, relevant discourses within the category of taboo, such as exorcism devices and beliefs concerning 't'ai sha' etc., have gradually developed to perfection until Southern Sung Dynasty, and appear late in classical works such as Fu-jen ta-chun liang fang (Complete Good Prescription for Women), which was published in 1237 A.D.

With its multiplicity of short-lived states, the political history of the period between the Tang and Song dynasties in the tenth century is both confusing and convoluted. This essay makes sense of this background in order to give a context to the pipa scores found in Dunhuang that constitute some of the most important early musical notations that survive. The principal sources that Jao Tsung-i deploys are the Dunhuang manuscripts themselves with which he was evidently intimately familiar. To add contemporary drama to his narrative, a strong subtext is acerbic dissection of opinions on the topic put forward by fellow scholar He Changlin 何昌林.

초록 · 키워드 목차 오류제보하기 This paper examines the historical background behind the recent surge in the scholarly interest in "Buddhist talismans," the talismans made and used in the Buddhist context. Although talismans formed an essential part of Buddhist practice in East Asia, the study of Buddhist talismans has remained an intellectual hiatus for a long time. As Buddhologists began to more actively study various Buddhist practices rather than doctrines and scriptures in the early 21st century, things and monuments used for Buddhist practices became new objects of study in the field of Buddhology. In the larger picture, this change is related to the "material turn" that has impacted the humanities and social science since the 1990s. The "material turn" is an academic movement that examines the ways in which things affect human action and society. Bruno Latour"s (1947-present) Actor-Network Theory and Graham Harman"s (1968-present) Object-Oriented Ontology and Speculative Realism have contributed significantly to promoting this movement. With these academic changes, Buddhologists and art historians are now paying more scholarly attention to diverse materials as well as texts used outside canonical Buddhism. With such changes, "Buddhist talismans" have become an excellent tool to illuminate the actual practices done by premodern Buddhists and to reveal the porous boundary between Buddhism, Daoism, and shamanism. The Buddhist talismans included in the medieval Dunhuang manuscripts have been discussed by some leading scholars abroad. On the other hand, Buddhist talismans excavated from Buddhist statues and tombs from Koryŏ and Chosŏn have little been known outside of Korea. Because some of the Buddhist talismans used in Koryŏ show connections with those included in the Dunhuang manuscripts, they will be an appropriate object to explore from the perspective of global history. By adopting the global historical approach, we will be able to avoid the pitfall of simply assuming the latter as the origins of the former. Instead, we should consider them as traces of the extensive network of Asian Buddhist talismans that once covered a large area from west China to the Korean peninsula. #불교부적 #지구사 #물질적 전회 #고려 #다라니 #Buddhist talisman #global history #material turn #Koryŏ #dhāraṇī 머리말1. 국제적 흐름에서 살펴본 불교부적 연구의 타당성2. 국내외 불교부적 연구 현황3. 한국 불교부적 출토 및 수집 현황4. 한국 불교부적의 융합적 연구방법 모색5. 한국 불교부적의 지구사적 연구방법 모색맺음말참고문헌Abstract

Feminist concerns about the social representation of sex, sexuality, and sexual organs have included analyses of their representation both in dictionaries and in medical texts. Drawing on feminist and social constructionist work, we analysed entries for ‘clitoris’ and ‘vagina’, using entries for ‘penis’ as a comparison, in 12 medical and 16 English language dictionaries. Both ‘vagina’ and ‘clitoris’ were overwhelmingly defined by their location in a female body, whereas the penis was defined in terms of function. Description of sex/sexuality was frequently omitted from both vaginal and clitoral definitions, and women's genitals continue to be defined in relation to an implicit penile norm. Three assumptions informed these definitions – that female sexuality is passive (and male sexuality active), that women's genitals are ‘absence’ (and men’s are ‘presence’), and that genitals are used for heterosexual sex – explicitly coitus. We suggest that these definitions present, as natural biological fact, common sense sexist and heterosexist assumptions about female and male bodies and sexualities.

Taming of the Demons: Violence and Liberation in Tibetan Buddhism. By Jacob P. Dalton. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2011, x + 311 pages, ISBN 978-0-300-18796-0 (paper), $27.50; ISBN 978-0-300-15392-7 (cloth), $40.00. last several years have seen an increased interest in and publication on the topic of and violence. Jacob P. Dalton's Taming of the Demons: Violence and Liberation in Tibetan provides great insight into the topic of ritual and violence in Tibetan Buddhism, largely because it brings to light new materials on violent ritual and its role throughout Tibetan history. Dalton's research is based on manuscripts from the Dunhuang library cave, thus offering details from previously un-translated texts. Taming of the Demons offers the reader balanced and nuanced examination of an ethically complex topic. As Dalton notes in his acknowledgments, The subject of violence, and perhaps even more so religious violence, can elicit strong reactions (ix). In Taming of the Demons Dalton has undertaken massive project, an investigation of the history of violent ritual and themes of violence in Tibetan Buddhism. What results is comprehensive study that incorporates textual analysis and historical research that spans religious traditions and centuries of religious development. Taming of the Demons comprises an introduction, seven chapters, three appendices, and glossary of Tibetan titles and terms. Chapter One presents the history of compassionate violence in beginning with early Buddhist conceptions, particularly interpretations within Abhidharma and Vinaya literature, then moves to discussion of the range of Mahayana perspectives. Dalton offers textual support for the various opinions on violence from variety of Buddhist literature, including the Jatakas, the Upayakausalya Sutra, and the Bodhisattvabhumi. By highlighting the various pre-tantric positions regarding violence, Chapter One recognizes that ... the necessary doctrinal pieces were in place (29). Pre-tantric literature included numerous examples of moral and immoral violence, often focusing upon the intention behind the violent act. subtle distinction between moral and immoral violence is discussed in relationship to the Rudra myth, the central text for Dalton's overall argument. Dalton argues, two kinds of violence--one wise and compassionate and the other ignorant and demonic--are difficult to distinguish, and yet if the Rudra myth tells us anything, their differentiation is crucial to the tantric Buddhist path (11). Chapter Two offers glimpse into the so-called dark age of Tibet. Traditional Tibetan history depicts this period of fragmentation, the period from the mid-ninth to the late tenth century, as an era in which was persecuted and no longer thrived in Tibet. Recent scholarship has questioned these traditional accounts and based on new materials from Dunhuang, this period of fragmentation seems to have been one in which there was a wide range of creative changes and developments and nonmonastic continued to thrive (46). Dalton argues convincingly that, The forms took during these 'dark' years have been distortions in the view of later Tibetans, but these same corruptions were fundamental in shaping Tibetan Buddhism (46). A major assertion of the book is the importance of ritual violence, sorcery, and demonology in the Tibetan view of history (48). These themes are cemented during the period of fragmentation as the nonmonastic tantric traditions gain traction in Tibet and are evidenced in the Dunhuang texts (59). Chapter Three introduces the reader to Dunhuang textual material that includes (sgrol ba). Dalton provides translation and description of the rite followed by comparative textual analysis with the Kalika Purana's Blood Chapter. Dalton highlights the pan-Indian development of tantra and the shared characteristics of Hindu and Buddhist practices, concluding that the liberation rite from the Dunhuang manuscript may represent an example of such intersectarian sharing . …

Reviewed by: The Politics of Chinese Medicine under Mongol Rule by Reiko Shinno William A. McGrath Reiko Shinno. The Politics of Chinese Medicine under Mongol Rule. Needham Research Institute Series. Oxon, UK: Routledge, 2016. xxii + 194 pp. Ill. $51.95 (978-1-138-09932-6). Do not be misled by the slight stature of The Politics of Chinese Medicine under Mongol Rule; it contains multitudes. In just over two hundred pages Reiko Shinno effectively synthesizes official edicts and histories, biographies, medical instructions, and gazetteers from the Yuan dynasty (1260–1368), all while responding to English-, Chinese-, and Japanese-language scholarship on both Chinese medical and institutional history. Although the Chinese medical traditions of the Song dynasty (960–1276) have attracted much scholarly attention in recent years (see the prologue and chapter 6), before Shinno's doctoral dissertation (Stanford, 2002) and the Politics of Chinese Medicine, which is an "extensive revision" of her dissertation (p. xiii), the history of Chinese medicine during the Yuan dynasty remained relatively opaque. In what is perhaps its most significant contribution to the field, The Politics of Chinese Medicine under Mongol Rule fills a major lacuna in the intellectual and institutional history of Chinese medicine over the past millennium. If we carefully consider the title of The Politics of Chinese Medicine under Mongol Rule, we might expect a work that explores the official regulation of medicine during the Yuan dynasty. While this is indeed the case, The Politics of Chinese Medicine also provides an overview of the major medical institutions, physicians, and medical texts that emerged during the Yuan period, with a particular focus on the intellectual history of medicine in Southern China under Mongol rule. In chapters 2, 3, and 4 Shinno uses the official edicts preserved in the Institutions of the Yuan (Yuan dianzhang 元典章) and the official histories recorded in the Yuan History (Yuanshi 元史), among many other primary and secondary sources, to describe the establishment of the Imperial Academy of Medicine and regional medical temple-schools (appendix 1), as well as the bureaucratic status of specific physicians (appendix 2) and medical households. These three chapters will surely interest sinologists in particular as well as historians of medicine in general, for, in emphasizing the "politics" in the Politics of Chinese Medicine, they elucidate the relationship between the central government, regional institutions, and familial lineages during the Yuan dynasty for the first time. In addition to this institutional background, chapters 1 and 5 focus on the biographies of specific physicians, while chapter 6 explores the intellectual developments of "Chinese medicine under Mongol rule." Taken together, these chapters demonstrate Shinno's overarching thesis: although the medical institutions that developed during the Yuan have had a limited legacy in the whole of Chinese history, Yuan Jue 袁桷 (1266–1327), Zhu Zhenheng 朱震亨 (1282–1358), and the other physicians of thirteenth- and fourteenth-century China created a "medical theory that is the foundation of East Asian medicine today" (p. 159). In sum, Shinno argues that the study of Chinese medicine under Mongol rule provides key insights into the relationship between Yuan-era politics, people, and philosophy, while also revealing an orthodox synthesis of competing medical interpretations that has persisted down to the present day. [End Page 455] As indicated above, The Politics of Chinese Medicine under Mongol Rule is a consummate work of philology and history, and Shinno should be commended for the precision of her translations and argumentation. At times, however, the argumentation feels too careful—that is, too grounded in philological detail—such that general interpretive analysis is sometimes left to the reader. Although Shinno thoroughly analyzes the representation of physicians according to several different authors in chapter 5, for example, a more comprehensive analysis of these classifications, like that of the term "Confucian physician" (ruyi 儒醫) found in the prologue (p. 6), is left for future studies. Brief mentions of Buddhist (p. 101) and Islamic sources (huihui 回回, pp. 138–40), as well as non-Chinese physicians (appendix 3), also hint at the hybrid and cosmopolitan nature of medical traditions throughout fourteenth-century Eurasia, although a full study of these topics would be beyond the purview of the work in question. Indeed, I have no doubt that Shinno's careful...

The Chinese language showed great difference between regions as early as the Sui dynasty Lu-Fa-Yan 『Qie-Yun』(AD 601). The phonemes covered in the various Yun-Shu before the 『Qie-Yun』 were also not the same. 『Qie-Yun』 system Yun-Shu is a phonetic norm for the Sui dynasty Shi-Fu. It is the standard of the Sui dynasty literary phonology, the standard of ancient Chinese phonetic, and the first standard phonetic system in China. 『Qie-Yun』 is reached 『Guang-Yun』(1008년) in the Song dynasty and established the standard of the Chinese phonological system for about 407 years. 『Guang-Yun』 is the only authoritative source material for the estimation of phonological system of 『Qie-Yun』 and Tang dynasty Yun-Shu and ancient Chinese phonemes. This is the first official Yun-Shu compiled by the King’s command, the first Yun-Shu compiled for testing purposes in the past, and the first standard language coined by the Chinese. Standardization of character pronunciation should consider the right and wrong of north and south, but there is a problem in discussing ancient sound. In the Song dynasty, the 『Qie-Yun』 phonological system dealing with ancient phonemes was already complex and far from the actual sound. In particular, the development of the common society of the Song dynasty and the characteristics of the Mongolian subjugation dynasty brought great changes to Chinese society. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, novels written in the language of everyday life were very popular. In this way, during the Yuan dynasty, the Zhou-De-Qing 『Zhong-Yuan-Yin-Yun』(1324년) appeared in the world. It can be inferred that the Yuan-Qu reflected in the 『Zhong-Yuan-Yin-Yun』 phoneme is similar to the phoneme of the Yuan dynasty capital at the time. 32 years before the appearances of 『Zhong-Yuan-Yin-Yun』, Various types of Yun-Su have appeared, dealing with unique and innovative phonological systems such as 『Gu-Jin-Yun-Hui』·『Gu-Jin-Yun-Hui-Ju-Yao』·『Mong-Gu-Zi-Yun』. These Yun-Shus are the key to phonological change in Han-Yu. The Ming and Qing dynasty Yun-Shu did not receive much attention. But In the Ming and Qing period, the study of ancient phonology was actively. In addition, the 15th century Ming 『Yun-Lue-Yi-Tong』 Zao-Mei-Shi 20 Zi-Mu, reflected the actual Sheng-Mu system of southern and northern China in the 15th century better than the Sheng-Mu system of the 14^th century Yuan dynasty 『Zhong-Yuan-Yin-Yun』. Song and Yuan dynasties Yun-Shu blossomed in the history of Chinese Yun-Shu and Han-Yu phonology. On the other hand, among the Yun-Shu of the Ming and Qing dynasties period, most Yun-Shu and Yun-Tu except 『Hong-Wu-Zheng-Yun』 and 『Ying-Yun-Chan-wei』 are valuable materials for the study of modern Chinese dialects, dialect history, modern standard language Sheng-Mu systems, and ancient phonemes.

Reviewed by: Menstruation and the Female Body in Early Modern England by Sara Read Olivia Weisser Sara Read. Menstruation and the Female Body in Early Modern England. Genders and Sexualities in History Series. Houndmills, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013. xii + 248 pp. Ill. $95.00 (978-1-137-355207). Although its title suggests a narrow focus on menstruation, this book offers a broad discussion of women’s reproductive health in early modern England. This is because prevailing views of the body taught that women lost blood throughout their lives in a range of ways, nearly all of which were linked in some way to menstruation: menarche, defloration, childbirth, and menopause. These “transitional bleedings,” in turn, marked key developments in early modern women’s social [End Page 804] lives: from maid to wife and from wife to matron. Sara Read examines representations and discussions of these physiological and social milestones in a variety of texts from the period, including personal and religious writing, medical treatises, judicial cases, plays, and poetry. The book opens by exploring the lexicon of menstruation in early modern England. Euphemisms included courses, terms, flowers, and months, among others. Read then moves on to examine representations of menarche in literature and medical texts. She mines the spiritual writing of Elizabeth Delaval, for instance, to capture this little-recorded life event. Because women like Delaval were reluctant to write openly about such matters, Read’s discussion offers insightful speculations about menarche and focuses more firmly on Delaval’s adolescence, including her concerns about overeating, oversleeping, and wasting time. Two court cases from the Old Bailey illuminate prevailing assumptions about the link between early menarche and lustiness. In her investigation of how women viewed and understood menstruation itself, Read again carefully analyzes her sources for evidence of a topic that few women wrote about candidly. As a result of women’s reticence, some of the book’s analysis remains conjectural. One of the most direct discussions we have is Queen Anne’s use of the name “Lady Charlotte” to refer to menstruation in her correspondence with Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough. How did women in this period manage the day-to-day reality of monthly bleeding? Read looks in creative places to answer this question, including a court case and collections of poetry. She also provides an interesting discussion of sanitary provisions and negative assumptions about menstruation recorded in religious texts—for instance, likening a false idol to a menstrual cloth. The remainder of the book looks at a series of bleedings that readers may not, at first glance, consider to be menstrual: “hymenal bleeding” during the first time a woman engages in sexual intercourse, blood loss during and following childbirth, and menopause. Hymenal bleeding was thought to be a key step in women’s maturity, while bleeding during and after childbirth marked another significant transition to motherhood. Finally, menopause could include heavy bleeding and irregular blood loss. Aging was thought to accompany the drying up of the body’s humors, thereby explaining the decline of women’s “flowers” in their later years. Menstruation and the Female Body offers an intriguing look at a range of related themes, including early modern women’s life cycles, reproductive health, and representations of women’s bodies and lives. Nearly all of the sources in the book are modern editions of early modern texts or are cited from secondary literature rather than the original manuscripts. To historians, this may come as a surprise in part because manuscripts can provide different information than modern editions; indeed, editors are most likely to cut the very passages where we would most likely find discussions of commonplace bodily functions like menstruation. The book’s strength lies in the inventive use of a range of writing to piece together prevailing representations of a bodily process that, as Read smartly puts it, was simultaneously mundane and taboo. [End Page 805] Olivia Weisser University of Massachusetts Boston Copyright © 2015 Johns Hopkins University Press