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Northern Purgatives, Southern Restoratives: Ming Medical Regionalism

Northern Purgatives, Southern Restoratives: Ming Medical Regionalism Physicians during the Ming dynasty (1368—1644) understood that the Chinese empire was geographically diverse. They observed that their patients were corporeally and physiologically heterogeneous. They interpreted this ecological and human diversity within the reunited Ming Empire according to both an ancient northwest-southeast axis and a new emphasis on north versus south. The geographic distinctions—northern and southern (nanbei 南北) as well as northwestern (xibei 西北) and southeastern (dongnan 東南)—similarly helped explain doctrinal and therapeutic divergences within the literate sector of Chinese medicine. They thought about ecological, climatic, and human variation within the framework of a uniquely Chinese northwest-southeast polarity with roots in Chinese mythology and the Inner Canon ef the Yellow Emperor. They also thought in terms of a north-em and southern split in medicine, which the Yuan scholar Dai Liang 戴良 (1317—1383) explicitly mentioned in his writings. The Ming physicians who discussed medical regionalism mostly asserted, however, the opposite; namely their own impartiality as medical authorities for all of China. Nevertheless, their essays on regionalism reveal considerable tensions, fissures, and conflicts in the literate sector of Ming medicine. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Asian Medicine Brill

Northern Purgatives, Southern Restoratives: Ming Medical Regionalism

Asian Medicine , Volume 2 (2): 56 – Jul 16, 2006

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Publisher
Brill
Copyright
Copyright © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
ISSN
1573-420X
eISSN
1573-4218
DOI
10.1163/157342106780684657
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Physicians during the Ming dynasty (1368—1644) understood that the Chinese empire was geographically diverse. They observed that their patients were corporeally and physiologically heterogeneous. They interpreted this ecological and human diversity within the reunited Ming Empire according to both an ancient northwest-southeast axis and a new emphasis on north versus south. The geographic distinctions—northern and southern (nanbei 南北) as well as northwestern (xibei 西北) and southeastern (dongnan 東南)—similarly helped explain doctrinal and therapeutic divergences within the literate sector of Chinese medicine. They thought about ecological, climatic, and human variation within the framework of a uniquely Chinese northwest-southeast polarity with roots in Chinese mythology and the Inner Canon ef the Yellow Emperor. They also thought in terms of a north-em and southern split in medicine, which the Yuan scholar Dai Liang 戴良 (1317—1383) explicitly mentioned in his writings. The Ming physicians who discussed medical regionalism mostly asserted, however, the opposite; namely their own impartiality as medical authorities for all of China. Nevertheless, their essays on regionalism reveal considerable tensions, fissures, and conflicts in the literate sector of Ming medicine.

Journal

Asian MedicineBrill

Published: Jul 16, 2006

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