Medicine And Healing In Ancient East Asia

This Element first discusses the creation of transmitted medical canons that are generally dated from early imperial times through the medieval era and then, by way of contrast, provides translations and analyses of non-transmitted texts from the pre-imperial late Shang and Zhou eras, the early imperial Qin and Han eras, and then a brief discussion covering the period through the 11th-c. CE. The Element focuses on the evolution of concepts, illness categories, and diagnostic and treatment methodologies evident in the newly discovered material and reveals a side of medical practice not reflected in the canons. It is both traditions of healing, the canons and the currents of local practice revealed by these texts, that influenced the development of East Asian medicine more broadly. The local practices show there was no real evolution from magical to non-magical medicine. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

In covering the subject of Chinese medicine, this book addresses topics such as oracle bones, the treatment of women, fertility and childbirth, nutrition, acupuncture, and Qi as well as examining Chinese medicine as practiced globally in places such as Africa, Australia, Vietnam, Korea, and the United States.

This brief discourse is an introduction to the historical development of medicine in China, whose influence on Korea, Japan and Southeast Asia was profound and even reached far west into the Islamic world. The authors wish to make the interested reader aware of China's rich contribution to the world growth of the medical sciences. Too often the view has been taken that the history of medicine began with the discoveries of the Greeks and those ancient nations from whom they learnt. The authors want to redress this view and acquaint readers with a glimpse of the concepts and history of Chinese medicine and hope that they will feel encouraged to delve deeper.

What Is Medicine? Western and Eastern Approaches to Healing is the first comparative history of two millennia of Western and Chinese medicine from their beginnings in the centuries BCE through present advances in sciences like molecular biology and in Western adaptations of traditional Chinese medicine. In his revolutionary interpretation of the basic forces that undergird shifts in medical theory, Paul U. Unschuld relates the history of medicine in both Europe and China to changes in politics, economics, and other contextual factors. Drawing on his own extended research of Chinese primary sources as well as his and others' scholarship in European medical history, Unschuld argues against any claims of "truth" in former and current, Eastern and Western models of physiology and pathology. What Is Medicine? makes an eloquent and timely contribution to discussions on health care policies while illuminating the nature of cognitive dynamics in medicine, and it stimulates fresh debate on the essence and interpretation of reality in medicine's attempts to manage the human organism.

"Chinese Medicine and Healing is a comprehensive introduction to a rich array of Chinese healing practices as they have developed through time and across cultures. Contributions from fifty-eight leading international scholars in such fields as Chinese archaeology, history, anthropology, religion, and medicine make this a collaborative work of uncommon intellectual synergy, and a vital new resource for anyone working in East Asian or world history, in medical history and anthropology, and in biomedicine and complementary healing arts. This illustrated history explores the emergence and development of a wide range of health interventions, including propitiation of disease-inflicting spirits, divination, vitality-cultivating meditative disciplines, herbal remedies, pulse diagnosis, and acupuncture. The authors investigate processes that contribute to historical change, such as competition between different types of practitioner—shamans, Daoist priests, Buddhist monks, scholar physicians, and even government officials. Accompanying vignettes and illustrations bring to life such diverse arenas of health care as childbirth in the Tang period, Yuan state-established medical schools, fertility control in the Qing, and the search for sexual potency in the People’s Republic. The two final chapters illustrate Chinese healing modalities across the globe and address the challenges they have posed as alternatives to biomedical standards of training and licensure. The discussion includes such far-reaching examples as Chinese treatments for diphtheria in colonial Australia and malaria in Africa, the invention of ear acupuncture by the French and its worldwide dissemination, and the varying applications of acupuncture from Germany to Argentina and Iraq."

Recent academic and medical initiatives have highlighted the benefits of studying culturally embedded healing traditions that incorporate religious and philosophical viewpoints to better understand local and global healing phenomena. Capitalising on this trend, the present volume looks at the diverse models of healing that interplay with culture and religion in Asia. Cutting across several Asian regions from Hong Kong to mainland China, Tibet, India, and Japan, the book addresses healing from a broader perspective and reflects a fresh new outlook on the complexities of Asian societies and their approaches to health. In exploring the convergences and collisions a society must negotiate, it shows the emerging urgency in promoting multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary research on disease, religion and healing in Asia. Drawing on original fieldwork, contributors present their latest research on diverse local models of healing that occur when disease and religion meet in South and East Asian cultures. Revealing the symbiotic relationship of disease, religion and healing and their colliding values in Asia often undetected in healthcare research, the book draws attention to religious, political and social dynamics, issues of identity and ethics, practical and epistemological transformations, and analogous cultural patterns. It challenges the reader to rethink predominantly long-held Western interpretations of disease management and religion. Making a significant contribution to the field of transcultural medicine, religious studies in Asia as well as to a better understanding of public health in Asia as a whole, it will be of interest to students and scholars of Health Studies, Asian Religions and Philosophy.

Historically, the influence of Chinese medical traditions, thought to be revealed from divine sources, extended East to Korea and Japan and as far South as Indochina, the Malay Peninsula and the Indonesian Archipelago. As the distinct medical traditions of these regions encountered the ancient medicine of mainland China, they absorbed and transformed them based on their own indigenous healing practices, and herbal and plant resources. Providing a panoramic overview of the medical traditions of China, the Malay Peninsula, the Indonesian Archipelago, the Philippines, Indochina (Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia), Korea, and Japan, Dr. Marc Micozzi offers compelling new insights into the influence of the essentially Chinese expression of vital energy (qi) in these traditions, as well as the pull of other cultural traditions, such as those of India and Islam. Dr. Micozzi discusses evidence for the efficacy of these healing practices and their many influences in the West, and explores how a Western reader might consider seeking a practitioner, as well as effective treatments, from one of these traditions. This groundbreaking book will be of interest to practitioners of Chinese and Asian medical traditions, and complementary and alternative health, as well as anyone with an interest in Chinese and Asian approaches to health and wellbeing.