GEC1044 Lecture Three Part 2: Chinese Medicine from Medieval to Late Imperial Period Song Jin Yuan

[Music] there was a profound transformation in medicine that took place during the northern Song Dynasty a transformation in medical discourse theory and practice in fact other FS such as mathematics and architecture Science and Technology underwent similar Transformations during the Norther Song Dynasty this is the reason why although scholars in general agreed that the late Imperial period of Chinese history um is from The 14th Century to 1911 s Dynasty in the 11th century already possessed um the features of El Lite Imperial China especially in its economy by the early 11th century s China was the wealthiest

country in the world with a strong economy and political stability in the early 11th century the S regime was able to embark on a series of cultural production political and social status of The Scholar officiers reach a new height and they were the chief players in this um cultural production there was a renewed interest in ancient classical knowledge the critical evaluation and standardization of this knowledge and the critical integration of O and new um were all characteristics of the s Dynasty in a way it was um a reaction to the encroachment of foreign cultures um

that took place during the Tang period s China was ready um to look to the distant past um to an AG before the tong um to the Joe and Han periods when Chinese cult culture was considered um at its um purest classic texts from those um Early times were collected and studied intensively many texts that were lost in history and only existed as incomplete Parts um collected in other texts were reassembled annotated and published it was during the song that all the intellectual habits of what is now uh thought of as traditional Chinese medicine assumed

their mature form some medical official produced The Definitive version of canonical text from the classical periods of Joe and Han some Physicians expanded drug therapy by basing it on classical cosmological and physiological doctrines similar to the older Traditions prescribed in um such classic as the inner classic of the yellow Emperor most importantly they created new models of medical legitimacy based on the scholarly study of medical Classics now what do I mean by medical legitimacy before the Song Dynasty e um medon was but one of many healing techniques and certainly not uh a prominent one remember

that there was um also demonic medson DWI influence medicine with their incantations Buddhist medicine with the focus on meditation so and so forth um during the northern song e was to take Center Stage as e was represented by rationality Logic cosmology conversion and DS philos philosophies um not the religion but the philosophies Chinese medicine became the focus of political intellectual and professional efforts to raise the status of medson and doctors and to expand their therapeutic Authority mson was considered a lowly Craft um in the past and medical practitioners did not enjoy the same status as

Scholars now during the northern Zone um this change mson had be a leading arena for scholarly inquiry and an important tool of a benevolent government Chinese medicine at the end of the 12th century was strikingly different from Chinese medicine of the late 10th century and that was you know the beginning of the S Dynasty during the intervening two centuries a profound transformation had reshaped medical Theory medical practice and even the status of medson and the practitioners now how did medon become a field of Interest among the uh literate um Elite and the government official during

the S to answer the above question we have to First Look at um the upper echelons of the S Society unlike other times in Chinese history members of the S Imperial family um and the scholar official Elite Class took personal interest in medicine compounded medical Tris um and even took practice um in treating patients now prior to this time prior to the dynasty Elite families simply did not consider mson um a desirable career for their sons the most sought after job was to serve as an official in the government scholarship was narrowly defined as the

study of the confusion Classics and other text on state craft so that Scholars could pass the Civil examinations the great Tong scholar hanu grouped together Physicians Spirit mediums and musicians um so you can see how um lowly was um you know the Physicians being taught of by the elites the official new history of the Tang Dynasty or sang grouped um astronomist um divers physion uh and Physicians together under one category perceptions of mson changed during the song the founding emperor of the Song Dynasty Chang um better known by his um postumus title umu was um

fond of mson he evidently Pro uh possessed therapeutic skills and in fact it was recorded that the emperor treated his brother during um um the early um part of his reain um by using the technique of M Sebastian the second Emperor ta seems to have been fond of drug therapy he collected many local medicinal formula while serving as a governor of some of the remotest regions in China his private collection of over 1,000 formula eventually found its way into a government sponsored formulary uh the Imp P Grace formulary that was published in the year 992

the fourth s Emperor Ren uh was according to surviving records proficient in both um acupuncture and Moxy bashian therapy and drug therapy renung was also the Emperor who implemented the first step of Reviving classical Medicine by ordering the revision and printing of its ancient cannons the inner classic of the yellow Emperor and uh the classic of problems last emperor of the northern song emperor who wrote a preface to the most comprehensive medical formulary to that date um it's called the medical encyclopedia a seually baction of the her rain period or her and stresses the importance

of mson as well as his personal interest in the in the field um the emperor Hong chose to put himself at level with two of the most famous doctors in Chinese history J J of the L Han Dynasty and Sun of um the tong Dynasty the emperor did it to to stress the importance of medson and to entice The Scholar official gentleman to become involved with medicine and Medical Practice to um Emperor as to many of the northern s Elite the art of medicon went beyond um prescribing drugs based on um standard formula according to

him the emperor uh to attain the thought of medicine the right way of Medical Practice Physicians have to understand the doctrines found in um the classic medical text that is Physicians must assimilate both cosmological and medical doctrines and incorporate them with clinical drug therapy um till they become the second nature besides the rulers of the northern Sone scholar official also deferred um from their Tong predecessors consider considerably during the transition from the tong to um the Song Dynasty the elite in China transformed from man of good birth to man of um merits and culture now

allow me to explain during the tong Dynasty members of the great Clans made up the state sponsored aristocracy these great Clans could trace their lineages to um as far as the great land owning families of the northern and southern dynasties um and some even as far as the late hun these landowning families were so powerful that they had their own um retainers which were like private armies if you know your Three Kingdoms history well uh you probably know who is um sunen Sunan actually belonged to one of those um powerful landowning families and so by

the tong Dynasty the royal family required the support of these prestigious Clans and in return members of these families of these clans were granted um positions in the government their sons populated the ranks of official them many via recommendation th making uh genealogy Superior to Merit the written civil examination um were designed to sort out the candidates within this aristocratic cohort and R permitted entrance to the official them to others who had no connection whatsoever during the S the official Dom changed as the Imperial examinations have become the primary means of entering the bureaucracy for

men of both Noble and Bas families making it much more meritocratic and emphasizing learning and knowledge during the early years of the Song Dynasty um the process of obtaining an official post was not very different from that of the Tang Dynasty however within the first few Decades of the so the social environment change radically peace and prosperity um very fast urbanization and an increase of the availability of books all played a role in the creation of the new Mar ocratic um Elite so too did um the new role of the examination system the S Empress

saw education um and the examination system as instruments of reordering society and transforming the elite they expanded and applied the system to new users um namely choosing the best candidates based on uh their talent and their merits by the early 11th century an imperial education and examination system was um in place to educate and select the worthy candidates this newly created Elite began to also create a new culture that was driven by um scholarship and philosophies that adopted um dawis and Buddhist Concepts into confusion ism resulting in um all the varieties that later were bunded

under the the THM uh the term neocon fusionism of the 11th century um it was a culture that looked to the Past for inspiration or um saving the ancient culture while Reinventing this past for the future similar Trends could be found in medicine once the government commission The Collection revision and printing of ancient Cannons of medicine this saving of culture brought about a reinvention of the uh Orthodoxy by intergrating earlier medical genres and using them to explain contemporary practice consequently mson slowly became an important field of knowledge worthy of the scholar official investment of their

time and energy V counselor Fong Yen um one of the most influential scholar officials of his era commented that if you cannot be a good minister at least be a good physician that's certainly a far cry from uh hanu comments about Physicians um during the Tang Dynasty many distinguished officials such as um f Yen and um suang medicine was used as a metaphor when discussing the correct way to rule the Empire the combination of moral and ethical dimensions of State craft with those of Medical Practice helped to propel The Prestige of medson Scholars and official

began to see Medical Practice as something um of Great Value uh and social Prestige scholar official influen mson by um taking leading roles in collecting collecting revising and printing engine medical text they were the ones who made the choice of which books to revise and print thus having great impact on the ca of the production of medical knowledge um since their selections did not always align with uh contemporary physician-based medical theory and practice however professional Physicians increasingly viewed themselves um as members as part of the litery elite and they were happy to go along um

with u the intention of the literary um in other words scholar official in SN in no small way shaped the medical environments in which Physicians studied and practice knowledge production must be um followed by knowledge dissemination luckily the S medical thinkers and Scholars were able to standardize medical knowledge by providing easy access to this knowledge with the help of innovation in printing technology although the technology of wood block printing was invented during the tong it was only in the Song Dynasty that it became the basis of a large publishing industry the ability to rapidly produce

large numbers of books drove um the price of books down making literacy and book ownership affordable to a larger segment of the population than ever before the S Dynasty book Market generated a wide range of books from expensive additions that uh were considered among the finest examples of printing ever produced um to cheap additions uh of poor quality books were published on a wide variety of topics um and that included medical books of many types in addition to increasing the availability of books printing uh also allowed the circulation of text in identical additions um in

the past um copying texts by hand um hand tended to introduce errors and when working with B scripts it was um a standard practice to compare several copies and produce a new addition for one's own use now this process meant that for all but the most common text any two copies U Were unlikely to be identical Mass printing created the possibility of readers widely separated in space or time working from truly identical additions the large scale implementation of print technology um led to the um the democratization of medical knowledge the sun government capitalized on this

possibility in one of its most Innovative um interventions in medicine the large scale government sponsored medical publishing before the S Dynasty it was rare for the court to um commission Medical taxt a total of only five medical texts were produced for the court prior to the S Dynasty now from its Inception the S Dynasty broke with this um precedent and the state continued to produce and distribute medical books throughout the northern s the height of the S government medical publishing occurred between 10 57 and uh 1069 when the government established the Bureau for editing medical

tax or um um the court was concerned that the most significant medical Texs were in limited circulation in additions that were often um uh erroneous um The Bureau was tasked with with um correcting this problem by editing and Publishing accurate editions of these books it was the first and almost the only time in um Chinese history that a Chinese caught used medical publication as a means of um benefiting the people uh by improving medical practice at the same time there was an increase in the number of recorded epidemics uh mostly originated from southern part of

China during the Norther Sun Dynasty the government undertook uh to promote medical knowledge that was believed to explain uh the pathology and treatment of epidemics the government presumed that by publishing medical books it could provide better means to handle um the problem the official editors of the Bureau for revising medical text according to their own testimony search for medical text that could address these um problems these epidemics um or Cod damage disorders as they Define them the bureau's leading editors were likely familiar with um J uh C damage disorders or sh which was written 800

years ago in um Han Dynasty to address the medical problem of epidemics it is not surprising that they chose to Revis and print this particular medical classic um that was incomplete and almost totally forgotten by um by the S Dynasty as its doctrines and practices were not ly known among uh the Physicians the publication of this um new edition of the treates significantly affected the S medical scene the new medical literature that the bureau published challenge Physicians um and Scholar officiers alike to cope with new conceptions of disease this led to a transformation that reshaped

medical Theory practic and training during um the course of this era over the course of 12 Years the bureau produced 15 books the last eight of which rapidly um became among the most widely cited medical tax in Chinese history medical TX produced by the government certainly carry a type of prestige that other medical Texs lack the government saw to it that its um tax were widely distributed and private reprints actually helped to spread them even further formularies used in drug therapy also underwent profound changes during the early 12th century as a result of government effort

in 1122 the sun government under the emperor quong published a second Grand formulary s benaur of the rain period or a Sly Banu faction of the turn her rain period consisted of 200 chapters and recorded over 20,000 formula the biggest innovation of this formulary um um was the fact that throughout the text classical doctrines um are interent with the discussion of formula this formulary included information collected from practitioners as well as from contemporary and ancient medical Texs the contents of the book um are divided into 66 categories of General manifestation types or patterns um known

as J in Chinese which does not differ from earlier formularies but instead of just providing the reader with the specific formula designed to alleviate um the symptom which with limited elaboration on how and why the medical encyclopedia adds to the discussion of the formula a thorough theoretical explanation serving as um background to better understand the treatment for example phrases such as treating deficient heart t or treating original deficiency in the Spen occur with much greater frequency than in um the earlier song formulary the St standardization in formul took longer and occurred due to an external

trigger in 1076 the S government established um the Imperial Pharmacy initially to regulate the drug market and later to benefit the people by supplying a wide range of drugs at a subsidized price and once the formularies were printed and circulated freely in the Imperial Pharmacy they actually helped to standardize drug therapy as um people could now have access to not just cheap material Medic or ya but also save prescriptions that they could rely on for treatment of their unisis another significant change is that the number of drugs recorded in um material medical literature uh known

as BS how D during the northern s Dynasty the Tang um material Meda or Tang Bena also known as the newly revised material medic s compiled in 659 recorded 850 drugs but by the S Dynasty with the publication of CH herin newly reved material medical for Urgent use classified and verified from the classics and histories um that was compiled in 1116 the number of material medical increased to um 1,748 these text help to increase The Prestige of drug therapy by making it more accessible to Physicians who traditionally relied on acupuncture and other um methods of

treatment the movable typ printing technology invented in the northern s helped facilitate large scale book printing that led to inter lecture exchange um both among Physicians um and between Physicians and Scholars making medicine and increasingly scholarly pursued The Bureau for editing medical text Publications um were part of an e effort by the Imperial government to encourage more Elite um men to become Physicians and effort which the bureau's members and an increasing number of litery supported although the transformation of mson into an elite occupation was um still in complete um during the song increasing numbers of

liter became Physicians springing with them their assumptions um about learning reading and writing by the end of s song intellectual understanding psychological and spiritual cultivation um all this uh are required for Effective Medical Practice The Physician was no longer um any healer but a cultured scholar who had um moral and social respons responsibility Scholars practiced medicine because it was an extension of um NE confusion ideas um the investigation of things um for the Battlement of the world this led to the EST lishment of medical education and examination system in the Z after a number of

decades this system evolved um to um to include two medical schools since carrying for the people was one of the major tasks of the confusion scholar uh officials throughout history and especially during the northern Sun Dynasty they promoted policies concerning and enhancement of Public Health prior to the S Dynasty there were a few offices in the Imperial bureaucracy that will link um directly to any aspect of medison besides education on maintaining the health of um the Imperial family government institutions throughout Chinese history did uh provide relief when um disasters struck the empire in the form

of epidemics [Music] um um the government did provide relief but this type of relief was um intermittent at best other organizations mostly religious um fill this void by establishing charity institutions for the poor we find that institution stepping in during the litan uh Dynasty and mostly Buddhist once replacing them from the fth century through the Tang Dynasty all the way to the S these religious Charities would provide basic health care uh instead of the government because of the medical reforms of um s Dynasty the Imperial government began to view Public Health Care as um its

moral responsibility and also its um policy charity institutions such as public pharmacies and hospitals were set up to provide um Healthcare to the poor The Bureau for benefiting the people oring provided the sick with simple formula and prescription drugs and Imperial farmers was set up to regulate the prices and distribution of drugs especially during times of emergency throughout East Asia the word for pharmacy um actually means literally bu of pharmaceutics um it's a legacy of the s pharmacy service the publications of the Bureau for editing medical treat um treatises remain um our main sources for

preone medicon the interest in uh cold damage or shangan medson spawn by the Brewers Revival of uh CH Jong Jing's work remains strong in later centuries and and gendering a major stream of um the medical tradition both government and private imprints um of medical tax circulated widely and were reprinted quoted and adapted to local medical practices all over East Asia in summary changes that occurred during um the 11th century transformed the medical environment for Physicians compelling them to rethink and begin um reformulating medson into a more comp apprehensively integrated system of Doctrine and practices the

northern s dynasty was um eventually defeated by the churchin Jing Dynasty uh which took over North China in 1127 um the emperor hon was uh abducted and he died in Exile um when the remnants of the royal family retreated to the South and established the southern Zone Dynasty the political uh geopolitical social um economic and intellectual contexts during the late 12th and the 13th centries are all radically different Chinese medicine continued to advance despite the um political instability of um that period there was a differentiation of Medical Practice into a more focused and narrow approaches

so while regimes were changing and people were suffering and even dying of violence the number of scholar physician continued to increase um during the sun transition as medical knowledge were much more accessible than ever before um thanks to the effort of um the S government ironically it was during this um uh very difficult period um chaotic period that Chinese medicine saw its greatest development and evolution classical medical literature continued to be reevaluated reinterpreted and adapted to contemporary medical concerns a trend that started earlier in so um one of the results of this development and innovation

of medical theories um was that the diagnostic Focus shifted away from single pathogenic or single ethological approach factors um such as wind or coal and descriptions of specific medical disorders p towards a new focus on the Dynamics of T transformation and how the breakdown of this transformation Express itself in distinctive presentations um also known as um CH now let me explain this in um plain language so when you are sick you might feel nauseous you might experience um headache or or even feel like vomiting now all these are symptoms or G of your medical disorders

your medical disorder or being is um what caused this symptoms you could be suffering from a cold or migraine so cold and migraine are your medical disorders that's not very different um conceptually to Western biom medicine however in Chinese medicine there is also the additional patterns are known as T I do know the difference between this and the and the symptoms in Chinese the of different uh Chinese characters although although they sound the same now patterns help to identify the root cause of a particular medical disorder patterns are about the causes to bodily disharmony which

is a central Concept in Chinese medicine to explain units and they are generally describe in terms of um eight major parameters in and yang external and internal hot and coal and excess and deficiency additional systems such as tea blood and body fluid differentiation and zangu organs differentiation are also used patterns is a more complex but necessary way to understand a patient's units it is determined by various factors such as body constitution of the patient um the environment and the stages of the medical disorder patent gen um is the characteristic profile of all clinical manifestations that

can be identified by a Chinese medical practitioner when examining a patient um pattern or turn differentiation at the stage of diagnosis is is the essential guide um to treatment in Chinese medicine scholar Physicians During the jingen period challenged the S orientation towards um established formula um it's part of the state sponsored Healthcare and universally Define disorders by focusing on local disease processes aming fixed formula based on identification of a patient's disease was simple even effective as quick fixes But ultimately insufficient if one wanted to understand uness in individuals instead prescriptions should be carefully tailored to

the individual patient and the patients um relationship to their immediate environment the new scholar Physicians um living in The Zing and periods appreciated the fact that the causes of unus were much more complex a new way of thinking was necessary if they wish to better understand the human body and unit for scholar Physicians that lived during this period whose combined ideas would revolutionize Chinese medicine to such an extent that it became a much more coherent body of knowledge although all of them were using the medical Classics as the Foundation of their medical thoughts they managed

to gain new insights that greatly influence Chinese medicine up to the present day together they were known as the four Great masters of the Jing Yen period [Music] um in Chinese um first we have umu who lived during uh the northern s to um Zing transition we know little of his life and only through unverified anecdotes supposedly Le um decided to study medicine after his mother died of Unice because he failed to find a doctor um like because he was too poor to engage one living in the conflict Zone during the S Jing Wars Li

had firsthand experienced of epidemic as the bodies of those who di in the epidemic were frequently um bured Leo suspected that the burning was causing all kinds of heat induced units he would spend the rest of his life trying to prove his theory of heat disorders Le regarded the theory of the five phases and uh six climatic Chi uh or influence as the basis of all healing this was the classic theory of in his work the original forms of Unice in the obscurity of the Seward uh or which contains his views on the classic test

he wrote The Following if we consider medical practitioners we find that in the diagnosis and treatment of unisis they consider only whether the Affliction belongs to the in or Yang category or whether a symptom of deficiency or empty or excess or solid exis the sole correct procedure however for achieving understanding about unisis is as follows only when the influencers or t that give rise to unit have been investigated as to the changes in the normal cost of the five uh circulatory phases and six climatic T can the nature of Unis and its treatment be perceived

clearly Le argued that normal progression of secary phases and climatic T is possible without pathogenic consequen for men only Cosmic deviations from the normal progression of events or the failure of men to adjust to this progression cause Unice in other words Le believe that unus came um from the outside of the human body according to him out of the five faes of circulation fall were um onedimensional while the Fe um was associated with fire and was subdivided into ruler Chun and Minister Chen and thus um constitutes a point of special emphasis Li also determined that

among the six climatic influences um that that are um wind dryness dampness cold summer heat and fire the first four each possess independent and unmistakable attributes while some heat and fire ultimately form an integral entity Leo came to the conclusion that fire and heat must have an extraordinary significance in the origin of Unice all pathogenic factors regardless of their origin eventually manifest as pathogenic f fire the principle behind the treatment of fire heat disorders is to make sure that fire um be dissipated while water should be replenished um so I believe many of us here

will be quite familiar with this concept this led to the theory of fire and heat or horor lud which in turn influenc his theory of acupuncture and drug therapy Li wansu became the founder of the school of cooling uh hanang in Chinese medicine as his therapy focus on the draining of heart fire while nourishing kidney water like many Physicians of his time Le um was critical of the formulate approach of therapy by having a one-size spits all um prescription he believed strongly that diagnosis and treatment must take into account environmental and climatic condition conditions as

well as the patients um constitutional uh predispositions or um better known as body constitutions teach the next master position uh was CH who has a Cy name of uh so um he was born during um the time when half of China was root by the non-chinese Jans um who established the Zing Dynasty and like Li Wu CH ascribed a deci iive significance to the pathogenic potential of climatic tea influences but his deliberations led to a Marly different conclusion Jang stressed the distinction between those tea normally uh present in the body and those that must be

considered pathogenic which are therefore designated with the classical THM uh c e or C uh Gest according to J like leanu before him humans forsake because of external pathogenic te Chang directed his therapeutic efforts to the decisive exposion of these pathogens or SE through uh Doris uh excessive sweating um emesis vitting and pation the evacuation of the Bowers treatments found in Jong Jin um Shang treaties on C damage so what exactly are these external pathogens that invade our bodies according to uh junk uh wind C some heit dness dryness and fire um as potentially harmful

U te or harmful influences of Heaven the fog due rain Hill ice and M as potentially malevolent um influences of the earth sour Sweet Bitter sharply seasoned spicy and salty as possible harmful influences in food and drink humans foric because of the accumulation of um exogenous pathogenic factors and improper food intake internally generated uh pathologies due to the emotions of constitutional weakness are not considered as important uh J preferred to employ dietry stratagems rather than Pharmaceuticals when supplementation um was indicated because CH directed his therapeutic efforts not to the establishment of a state of equilibrium

in the body but to the decisive exposion of harmful influences his theory led to the founding of the school of attack and pration um if someone has fallen you um there's no other choice according to Jung but to eliminate the responsible foreign influences from the body immediately while um J advocated the purging of exogenous pathogens from the body and did not regard the tonifying of the organs as um important a physician thought otherwise um legal the third Master of the Jin period was one of the few um medical practitioners of that era whose biography can

um be found is in official histories in accordance with um the confusion ideal Lial had not learned medicine to earn um money to make a living or even to treat his fellowman but rather to help his um you mother uh since it was not particularly flattering for a confusion scholar to be called a physician Outsiders according to the official history not there refer to him uh as one or ask for his uh assistance this tells us that the prejudice against medical practitioner was alive and well despite um the earlier s government's effort in improving the

social status of the profession uh Le offers um to help in cases where the therapy of others had proven ineffective was spontaneous and not professionally motivated this helped him to gain the admiration of the liter Elite and cemented his reputation as a scholar and physician that could perhaps explain why Lia was inducted into the official history of the Y Dynasty the confusion editors of dynastic histories loved this sort of thing in general uh leal's major contribution to Chinese medicine was his theory on the spleen and starmach being the basis of the body's T he wrote

that when the digestive system and stomach in the body sustain damage all kinds of unises can occur legal reason that human life is made possible by the Yang influence or Yi of having absorbed by the body this Yi must accumulate in the stomach and digestive region at the same time the development of man is made possible by the in of the earth that flows um to the body this in or in influence must undergo a transformation in the stomach and digestive region that renders them useful to the organism for nourishment the human body absorbs Yi

which are then collected in the stomach and digestive region through ink Essence uh uhing the human body achieves longevity in as has its origin in the stomach and digestive region where it is formed from tea absorbed from external sources should unus occur in the stomach or digestive area their ability to assimilate accumulate transform and distribute is impaired and the preservation of a normal state in the body is threatened legal stress three factors that can lead to such developments um irregular consumption of food and drink damages the stomach first if the stomach is affected it is

unable to supply the digestive system with the requisite substances finest influences or primordial Chi yeni and the finest matter or uhin uh which arise from water and Grain in the organism no longer flow through the body resulting in depletions excessive exhaustion of the body prevents the Yang te uh normally radiated by the digestive region from reaching the four extremities the results are drowsiness and the need to sleep excessive emotions um such as Joy anger sorrow and fear cause the fire associated iated with the heart thato to Flat in accordance with the doctrine of um self

Genesis um um among the five faces fire is seceded by Earth which is associated with the stomach and digestive region since the splin and the um stomach are fundamental to Good Health they must be nourished through replenishing and tonifying uh or Po in Chinese a concept that is still relevant to today legal discussion of the splin and starmar uh pway L was highly influential to later writers um and thinkers and possibly to every single Chinese mother since it's publication the last master that um we are going to look at is uh Jen hung who lived

during uh the time when China was ruled by the Mongols during the Yen Dynasty jjan Hun's medical theories um formed the Pinnacle of jingen medical thought and he was possibly the greatest of the four Masters Tren hun was more like a philosopher physician whose medical thought was um a synthesis of Chinese medical traditions and the neocon fusionism of trusi Drew's iconic stature as a medical intellectual helped to legitimize medical Innovation from uh the zone to the end of the Imperial period like many of his medical compass rots uh Drew was an outspoken critic of formularies

and the simplified cold damage concept uh which um was of course from the Han Dynasty um he believed that the flaring of the ministerial fire or S the fiery aspect of T that actually drove the physiological activity of the body as the central cause of disease ministerial fire as an active young gave rise to human Desir uh which is of course motions and physiological functions uh excessive belongings and emotions particularly of um a sexual nature cause ministerial fire to uh to become uh pathological as in and blood are impaired so how do we treat um

the over flaring of ministerial fire one method is um the nourishment of kidney ink to control the ensuing symptoms of fire uh we call it in nourishing or in in Chinese um another influential medical concept widely accepted today so why do we need to nourish the kidney instead of dealing with the heart directly uh this is because the kidney corresponds to water in uh the usin in the five faes and water supposed to um control and restrain fire when we nourish or or tonify um the kidneys they will produce enough water to extinguish or put

out the minister real fire in um the heart the for masters of the jingen period were able to innovate and share their ideas because of um the general intellectual climate as determined by ideological which is neocon fusionism and uh social structures of the S dasty although there were frequent Wars and violence due to the conflict between uh the superpowers of the time there was um nonetheless a sense of creative freedom that was afforded by the wealth uh and um relative stability created by the S um commercialization even though the medical thinkers and theoreticians had to

work within the constraints of medical traditions and canonical texts they were still able to sh shape the direction of Medical Science in a highly personal manner while at the same time uh forging a unifying theoretical framework for future generations of Chinese Physicians oh [Music]