Abstract
Through a case study of Zhao Xianke's One Principle through Medicine (Yiguan ) (1617?) and Xu Dachun's (1693-1771) denouncements of this text, my article zooms in on divergent discourses on the safety and efficacy of medicinal substances and compounds in late imperial China. Although Xu Dachun's fierce attacks on the popular 'warming and replenishing' (wenbu ) therapies can be situated in an epistemic shift from the cosmology of 'Song learning' (songxue ) towards the philology of 'Han learning' (hanxue ) and 'evidential research' (kaozheng ), I argue that more complex issues were at stake as well. Changed political, social, ethical, and economic realities shaped new and multifaceted perceptions of the nature of medicine, the medical profession, and the usage of medicinals in the aftermath of the Ming to Qing transition.
Highlights
In 1741, the eminent physician Xu Dachun 徐大椿 (1693–1771) completed Yiguan bian 醫貫砭 (Critique on Yiguan), a commentated anthology of Zhao Xianke’s 趙獻可 work entitled Yiguan
Xu Dachun’s fierce attacks on the popular ‘warming and replenishing’ therapies can be situated in an epistemic shift from the cosmology of ‘Song learning’ towards the philology of ‘Han learning’ and ‘evidential research’, I argue that more complex issues were at stake as well
This shift was characterised by developing from the philosophy grounded in ‘Song learning’ to the philology of ‘Han learning’ and ‘evidential research’, as Benjamin Elman coined it
Summary
Twig Decoction are ‘cinnamon twig’ (guizhi 桂枝), peony root, and liquorice root. Yiguan bian, p. 136. Ibid., p. 135. Because a physician had to understand and treat the cosmic origin of life, for wenbu authors like Zhao Xianke and Zhang Jiebin, medicine was very similar to the soteriological practices of the three doctrines.. Because a physician had to understand and treat the cosmic origin of life, for wenbu authors like Zhao Xianke and Zhang Jiebin, medicine was very similar to the soteriological practices of the three doctrines.71 For this reason, Zhang Jiebin became convinced that ‘medicine was not a Lesser Way’ (yi fei xiao dao ye 醫非小道也), but a ‘Great Way’ (da dao 大道).. Notwithstanding his fierce criticism of Yiguan, Xu Dachun even absorbed some wenbu influences in his own writings His famous discussion on ‘primary qi’ (yuanqi 元氣), a concept which did not feature in the Han medical classics, shows striking parallels with wenbu understandings of the formless fire of the ‘gate of life’.82. The monopoly on collection, ‘closely tied to the banner organization and the imperial estates’, and taxes on the trade of ginseng provided huge revenues for the Qing government.
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