Know your remedies : pharmacy and culture in early modern China / He Bian

A cultural history of the concept of pharmacy, both the material nature of drugs and the trade in medicine, in early modern China Know Your Remedies presents a panoramic inquiry into China's early modern cultural transformation through the lens of pharmacy. In the history of science and civilization in China, pharmacy-as a commercial enterprise and as a branch of classical medicine-resists easy characterization. While China's long tradition of documenting the natural world through state-commissioned pharmacopeias, known as bencao, dwindled after the sixteenth century, the ubiquitous presence of Chinese pharmacy shops around the world today testifies to the vitality of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Rejecting narratives of intellectual stagnation or an unchanging folk culture, He Bian argues that pharmacy's history in early modern China can best be understood as a dynamic interplay between elite and popular culture.Beginning with decentralizing trends in book culture and fiscal policy in the sixteenth century, Bian reveals pharmacy's central role in late Ming public discourse. Fueled by factional politics in the early 1600s, amateur investigation into pharmacology reached peak popularity among the literati on the eve of the Qing conquest in the mid-seventeenth century. The eighteenth century witnessed a systematic reclassification of knowledge, as the Qing court turned away from pharmacopeia in favor of a demedicalized natural history. Throughout this time, growth in long-distance trade enabled the rise of urban pharmacy shops, generating new knowledge about the natural world.Bringing together a wealth of primary sources, Know Your Remedies makes an essential contribution to the study of Chinese history and the history of medicine.

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- PART I -- PART II -- Epilogue -- Appendixes -- Chinese Character Glossary -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index.

Medienart:

E-Book

Erscheinungsjahr:

[2020]

Erschienen:

Princeton Oxford: Princeton University Press ; 2020

Weitere Ausgaben:

Erscheint auch als Druck-Ausgabe: Know your remedies

Sprache:

Englisch

In English

WorkTitle:

Assembling the cure [Bian, He, 1984-]

Beteiligte Personen:

Bian, He, 1984- [VerfasserIn]

Hochschulschrift:

Dissertation, Harvard University, 2014

Links:

www.degruyter.com [lizenzpflichtig]
Cover

ISBN:

978-0-691-18904-8

BKL:

15.79 / China

44.40 / Pharmazie / Pharmazeutika

44.01 / Geschichte der Medizin

Themen:

Arzneibuch
Arzneimittel
China
Chinesische Medizin
HISTORY / Asia / China
Hochschulschrift
Medicine, Chinese
Pharmacopoeias
Pharmacy
Pharmazie
Transmission of texts

RVK:

RVK Klassifikation

Anmerkungen:

Revision of author's dissertation, Assembling the cure: Materia Medica and the culture of healing in late imperial China--Harvard University, 2014

Beschreibung:

Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.

Umfang:

1 Online-Ressource (xiv, 246 Seiten) ; Illustrationen

doi:

10.1515/9780691189048

funding:

Förderinstitution / Projekttitel:

PPN (Katalog-ID):

1696098327