Science and Civilisation in China, Part 6, Medicine

A further volume in Joseph Needham's magisterial revelation on China which introduces the history of medicine.

Joseph Needham (Author), Lu Gwei-Djen (With), Nathan Sivin (Edited by)

9780521632621, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 13 April 2000

280 pages, 10 b/w illus. 3 tables
25.5 x 19.5 x 2.3 cm, 0.754 kg

"Perhaps the greatest single act of historical synthesis and intercultural communication ever attempted by one man."
Laurence Picken, Cambridge University

The latest volume in Joseph Needham's magisterial review of China's premodern scientific and technological traditions introduces the history of medicine. Following the deaths of Joseph Needham and Lu Gwei-Djen, a considerable amount of written material on the development of Chinese medicine awaited publication. This material has been gathered together by the editor, Nathan Sivin, in the five essays contained in this volume. They offer a broad and readable account of medicine in culture, including hygiene and preventive medicine, forensic medicine and immunology, and the examinations taken by some Chinese physicians for more than a thousand years. Professor Sivin has edited the essays, expanding them where appropriate and incorporating the results of recent research. His extensive introduction discusses the contributions of Needham and Lu, placing the essays in context, and surveys recent scholarship from China, Japan, Europe and the United States.

Editor's introduction
a. Medicine in Chinese culture
b. Hygiene and preventive medicine
c. Qualifying examinations
d. The origins of immunology
e. Forensic medicine.

Subject Areas: History of science [PDX]