Where is the truth in traditional Chinese medicine?

[Guest guest]

All,

 

I am reading a PhD dissertation by Sabine Wilms of

the University of Arizona entitled, THE FEMAILE

BODY IN MEDIEVAL CHINA. As far as I know it is

not yet generally available, which is a deficiency

that I hope will be remedied sooner rather than

later. Although I have only read several dozen

pages so far, I find it to be one of the clearest

and most insightful pieces of English language

prose on the subject of medicine in medieval

China that I've read to date. The gist of the

dissertation is a translation of the three

gynecology scrolls of Sun Si Miao's Bei Ji

Qian Jing Yao Fang, accompanied by an introduction

and several appendicies that put in the reader's

hands material that serves as tools to help

read and understand the Tang dynasty text. On

p. 22 of the copy I have, I find the following

sentence:

 

" In order to understand and evaluate the content

of the text translated in the central part of this

dissertation, we must first contextualize it by

assessing the background out of which it originated. "

 

I want to pose some questions to those in this

group who care about such things:

 

1) Is Ms. Wilms' statement true? And if so, does

it apply generally to Chinese medical texts? Or

can it somehow be that it is true with respect

to Sun Si Miao and not to other writers and

texts? Does it apply to contemporary as well

as ancient writing?

 

2) As Nigel suggested recently, there really

is no need to be parsimonious in our considerations

of what it means to be educated in traditional

Chinese medicine. Setting aside the world of

concerns constellated about curriculua and

training programs, licensing requirements and

the like, what should be included in a list of

topics that provides an adequate contextualization

of the study of Chinese medical texts so that,

if Ms. Wilms is correct, we can understand and

evaluate their content?

 

I hope to avoid yet another discussion as to

whether or not it is morally, practically,

economically, or merely rhetorically right or

wrong to agree or disagree with Ms. Wilms. I

would like to discuss here with any who are

interested, what it means to understand a

Chinese medical text, i.e., where is the

truth in traditional Chinese medicine?

 

Here is another tasty tidbit from THE FEMALE

BODY IN MEDIEVAL CHINA:

 

" Sun equates the physician's act of harmonizing

the human body with the constancies of the universe

by employing herbal prescriptions, needles and

stones in the quest for health and longevity, with

the sage-king's exercise of political rulership

by patterning the affairs of human society after

the heaven cycles. " (p. 27)

 

Ken