On modern representatives of Wenzhou medicine and their reform thoughts

Abstract

Reform thought was the mainstream of thoughts among the modern Wenzhou intellectual communities. It exerted great and profound influences on medical learning and activities, with medical education as the chief reform practice of Wenzhou intellectual communities in the late Qing Dynasty. Liji Hospital and Liji Medical School were the symbols of the reform. Chen Qiu was a thinker and doctor; Xu Dingchao was an officer and doctor; Chen Baoshan was a professionally educated physician; and Xu Yunzhi was a folk doctor inherited the experiences handed down from his family. The four representatives of Wenzhou medicine, though with different social backgrounds, and their purpose of studying medicine and experience of being a doctor different alike, their medical thoughts are naturally different, reflected the overall condition of Wenzhou medicine in the late Qing Dynasty.