Thought of charity-persuasion and the compilation, carving and spread of medical formulary in the Qing Dynasty

Abstract

Since the Song Dynasty, morality books aiming at guiding agaisnst evil and persuading charity, spread widely in the civil society. Many medical issues were categorized as encouraging kindness, hence, the thought of encouraging kindness was gradually infiltrated into the development of medical and health services. For the dissemination of medical knowledge, medical formulary became the favorite to well-doers because of its practicability in curing diseases and saving lives. Therefore, the thought of encouraging kindness infiltrated into the compilation, carving and spread of many medical formularies. The thought of encouraging kindness not only rendered a lot of doctors throw their whole life into the cause, but also attracted groups such as Confucian scholars, officers, scholar-officials and many organizations such as benevolent society, benevolent association, bookshop and publishing house to join in, thus increasing the entities of spreaders, expanding the range for the spread of medical knowledge and promoting the popularization and utilization of medical knowledge in grass-root society and remote area, which was helpful in dealing with the social problems such as shortage of medical resources and its uneven distribution.