This book discusses the medical knowledge system in the pre-Qin period and its specific development during the Han Dynasty, drawing on related accounts in non-medical literature as background evidence and analyzing in detail the texts of the current edition of Huangdis Internal Classic (including two independent works Plain Questions and Miraculous Pivot) and ancient medical texts written on bamboo and silk. It even includes detailed evidence that Bian Ques medical theory was incorporated in the current version of Huangdis Internal Classic.
This book uses textual research on the current edition of Huangdis Internal Classic as its point of departure, instead of the eponymous work recoded in the Yiwenzhi of the Book of Han. Therefore, it departs from the previous definition and throws off the shackling assumption that the time of the formation of Huangdis Internal Classic cannot be later than that of the Seven Summaries, a book completed in the late Western Han. Beginning with the study (1984) of dosage form originating from the Qin and Han Dynasties, it takes nearly 30 years to complete the reconstruction of the development of medicine in the Qin and Han Dynasties on the basis of many elaborate case studies. In turn, this book clarifies that there was no advanced medical development in the pre-Qin period, and that medicine became more innovative as the culture of the Han Dynasty became prosperous. Many developments and changes in medical theory in the Eastern Han Dynasty are closer to the traditional Chinese medicine we know today. Given its unique scope, this book appeals to a broad range of researchers and general readers.
Almost nothing: Unimaginably sluggish development of medicine in the Han
Dynasty.- The Qin Dynasty having excellent doctors and the Han Dynasty
inheriting Qins medical system.- Differences between the East and South in
Ancient China: the Inheritance of Medical Knowledge from Six States.-
Innovation and Development: Various Forms of Medical Development in Different
Periods of the Han Dynasty.- Analysis of the Motivation behind the Medical
Development in the Pre-Qin Period and the Han Dynasty.- The Influence of
Foreign Culture.- From the Monographic Study to the Construction of the Whole
Medical System.- Study of the Current Version of Huangdis Internal Classic.-
Study of Bian Ques Sphygmology.- Time Characteristics of the Medical Theory
in Classic of Difficulties.- Before and After the Establishment of Materia
Medica Study.- Old Theory of Cold Damage and New Study of Warm Diease.-
Relationship between the Establishment of Basic Theory and Morphological
Cognition (Anatomy).- Physiology of Circulation and Respiration.- The Theory
of Yin and Yang.- Development and Evolution of Pulse Diagnosis Methods.-
Establishment of the Theory of Acupuncture-moxibustion Therapy in the Qin and
Han Dynasties.- Doctrine of the Five Circuit Phases and Six Atmospheric
Influences.- Study of Classic of Yin-yang Eleven Pulse.- Research on Newly
Unearthed Medical Literature: Incantation Therapy.- Prescriptions for
Fifty-two Diseases and Dosage Form of Early Medicine for Oral
Administration.- The Relationship between Taoist Thoughts and Health
Preservation.- Conclusion.
Yuqun Liao is a research fellow (Level 2) of Natural Science History with the Chinese Academy of Sciences and former director of the Academys Institute of Natural Science History. He is a prominent expert in medical history, recognized both in China and abroad. He has been engaged in the study of Chinese medical history, as well as Japanese and Indian medical history, for many years, and has published more than ten academic books. History of Chinese Science and TechnologyMedicine (Science Press, 1998) has since been translated into Korean, while Traditional Chinese Medicine (Wuzhou Communication Publishing House, 2006) has been translated into English, Japanese, French, and Arabic.
