This brief discourse is an introduction to the historical development of medicine in China, whose influence on Korea, Japan and Southeast Asia was profound and even reached far west into the Islamic world. The authors wish to make the interested reader aware of China's rich contribution to the world growth of the medical sciences. Too often the view has been taken that the history of medicine began with the discoveries of the Greeks and those ancient nations from whom they learnt. The authors want to redress this view and acquaint readers with a glimpse of the concepts and history of Chinese medicine and hope that they will feel encouraged to delve deeper.

This brief discourse is an introduction to the historical development of medicine in China, whose influence on Korea, Japan and Southeast Asia was profound and even reached far west into the Islamic world. The authors wish to make the interested reader aware of China's rich contribution to the world growth of the medical sciences. Too often the view has been taken that the history of medicine began with the discoveries of the Greeks and those ancient nations from whom they learnt. The authors want to redress this view and acquaint readers with a glimpse of the concepts and history of Chinese medicine and hope that they will feel encouraged to delve deeper. ... this volume is a compact, tantalizing excursion through centuries of medical tradition, in a range of cultures ... it does make a long, complex and fascinating history accessible to medical professionals and students of Chinese history who may be tempted to delve further into this rich and interesting field. American Journal of Chinese Medicine If you want a concise, easy-to-read, easy-to-absorb summary of events and trends from the 29th century BC to the present, this compact book will comfortably and quickly answer many questions. American Journal of Acupuncture Concepts of Chinese Science and Traditional Healing Arts gives an especially useful account of the historical achievements of Chinese medicine. Far Eastern Economic Review

In covering the subject of Chinese medicine, this book addresses topics such as oracle bones, the treatment of women, fertility and childbirth, nutrition, acupuncture, and Qi as well as examining Chinese medicine as practiced globally in places such as Africa, Australia, Vietnam, Korea, and the United States.

An innovative, deeply researched history of Chinese medicine in America and the surprising interplay between Eastern and Western medical practice Chinese medicine has a long history in the United States, with written records dating back to the American colonial period. In this intricately crafted history, Tamara Venit Shelton chronicles the dynamic systems of knowledge, therapies, and materia medica crossing between China and the United States from the eighteenth century to the present. Chinese medicine, she argues, has played an important and often unacknowledged role in both facilitating and undermining the consolidation of medical authority among formally trained biomedical scientists in the United States. Practitioners of Chinese medicine, as racial embodiments of “irregular” medicine, became useful foils for Western physicians struggling to assert their superiority of practice. At the same time, Chinese doctors often embraced and successfully employed Orientalist stereotypes to sell their services to non-Chinese patients skeptical of modern biomedicine. What results is a story of racial constructions, immigration politics, cross-cultural medical history, and the lived experiences of Asian Americans in American history.

This book offers a comprehensive overview of the crucial second stage in the evolution of Chinese medicine by examining the changes during the pivotal era of the Song dynasty.

A Brief History of Qi takes the reader through the mysterious terrain of Chinese Medicine, Chinese language, Chinese martial arts and Qi Gong - a truly evocative guide to virtually all the traditional Chinese arts and sciences. This book is devoted to a topic represented by a single Chinese character, Qi. When presented with the concept of Qi, students of Chinese culture, Chinese medicine, Chinese martial arts and a wide range of Chinese traditional arts and sciences face one of the most perplexing challenges of their tenure. The book begins with an examination of Qi's linguistic and literary roots, stretching back through the shadowy mists of Chinese pre-civilisation. The authors then trace the development of the concept of Qi through a number of related traditional Chinese disciplines including painting, poetry, medicine and martial arts. The book concludes with an examination of the depth and breadth of Qi as manifested in life's cycles.

Medical care in nineteenth-century China was spectacularly pluralistic: herbalists, shamans, bone-setters, midwives, priests, and a few medical missionaries from the West all competed for patients. This book examines the dichotomy between "Western" and "Chinese" medicine, showing how it has been greatly exaggerated. As missionaries went to lengths to make their medicine more acceptable to Chinese patients, modernizers of Chinese medicine worked to become more "scientific" by eradicating superstition and creating modern institutions. Andrews challenges the supposed superiority of Western medicine in China while showing how "traditional" Chinese medicine was deliberately created in the image of a modern scientific practice.