Pulse Diagnosis in Early Chinese Medicine
The Telling Touch

A study of the earliest extensive account of Chinese pulse diagnosis, focusing on a biography of Chunyu Yi.

Elisabeth Hsu (Author)

9781108468633, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 2 August 2018

420 pages
23 x 15.3 x 2.3 cm, 0.65 kg

'… Elisabeth Hsu's original study, and complete translation, of The Memoir of Chunyu Yi is beyond doubt an important contribution to the anthropology of medicine and the anthropology of sensory experience.' Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute

This is a study of the earliest extensive account of Chinese pulse diagnosis, or more accurately, the examination of mai. Dr Hsu focuses on a biography of Chunyu Yi, a doctor of the early Han, and presents the first complete translation into English of the Memoir in the Historical Records by Sima Qian (d. ca 86 BCE). This Memoir contains biographies of the physician, medical case histories and interviews, and constitutes a document of enormous importance to the history of medicine in China. The analysis covers the first ten medical cases and their rich vocabulary on touch, as used in Chinese pulse diagnosis. The patients treated were mostly nobility of the kingdom of Qi in Eastern China, who suffered from the indulgences of court life and were treated with early forms of decoction, fomentation, fumigation, acupuncture and moxibustion. To date there is no book on early China of its kind.

Part I. Framing the Field: Introduction
The questions
Diagnosis and medicine in the warring states and early Han
Conceptions of the body in the warring states and early Han
Discussion
Part II. Shi Ji 105.2 - The Memoir of Chunyu Yi: Outline of the memoir
Text structure semantics
Part III. Translation and Interpretation of Cases 1-10 in the Memoir of Chunyu Yi: Case 1
Case 2
Case 3
Case 4
Case 5
Case 6
Case 7
Case 8
Case 9
Case 10
Discussion
Part IV. Appendices.

Subject Areas: Chinese medicine & acupuncture [VXHT1], History of medicine [MBX], Asian history [HBJF]