The Healing Green, Cultural Synaesthesia and Triangular Comparativism

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article asks what kind of ‘fatigue' (lao) the Chinese “Five Twig Powder” with qing (green) twig ingredients treated. If one considers the pronunciation of the colour term qing a phono-aesthetic aspect of the treatment, the Chinese ‘sound of greenness' can be compared to the Anangu ‘smell of greenness' that medical practices effected after the first rains in Australia's deserts (Young, Diana 2005. The Smell of Greenness: Cultural Synaesthesia in the Western Desert. Etnofoor, 18(1):61–77), and to how in early modern England young women of good standing started to experience greene sycknesse (King, Helen 2004. The Disease of Virgins: Green Sickness, Chlorosis and the Problems of Puberty. London: Routledge). As a ‘triangular comparison’ of these historically and culturally unrelated settings demonstrates, the respective greens – qing, ukiri and greene – are all an intrinsic aspect of body techniques that trigger life-enhancing effects. The synaesthetic experience of colour explains their medical efficaciousness.