Abstract
The setting of this case is unique, since Xu is called to a military garrison far from his home. A member of the patient’s family is on the scene, and intervenes in the clinical process. In this case the patient’s age plays a role. Xu wants to use a laxative, but the relative objects on the basis that this treatment is dangerous due to the patient’s age. In Xu’s reply, he makes the commonsensical observation that in this case he needs to treat based on the patient’s disorder, not on his age or appearance. The relative does not administer Xu’s drugs to the patient, as Xu realizes following a second inspection. This description is revealing about the clinical setting and the complications physicians of the time faced when treating patients. Family members who were not physicians argued with their diagnoses, and even failed to administer medications they trusted. Xu mentions that based on his life-long experience this formula should be administered only once, in a single dose, since overuse will harm the patient.
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Notes
- 1.
Xuanhua Township [宣化鎮] in Zhen prefecture 真州 is on the north bank of the Yangzi River opposite to present-day Nanjing (see Tan Qixiang 1982, vol. 6, map 22–23). It is not Xuanhua County in Hebei.
- 2.
Namely, the patient experiences hot sensations.
- 3.
Xia 下 is a treatment strategy that I translate literally as ‘to drain downward’. It refers to purging with a laxative.
- 4.
Note that a seventy-years-old man is still serving in the military. This is probably due to the turbulent times when the Jurchen conquered north China and the Song military enlisted whoever wanted or could serve to the military.
- 5.
The Chinese term is “the person in charge of the patient” 主病者. The person who has accompanied the patient was not necessarily the head of his household; if he is very old, it may be someone younger.
- 6.
See Scheid et al. 2009, pp. 63–66.
- 7.
In translating this I relied on a note from Liu and Li 2006, p. 58.
- 8.
In ancient China, the day was divided into twelve two-hour periods. The periods were enumerated by the twelve earthly branches. Xu’s case says literally “half of a two-hour period [半時間],” meaning “after one hour.”
- 9.
Here zhong han 中汗 means a moderate level of sweating.
Bibliography
Other Sources:
Scheid, Volker, Dan Bensky, Andrew Ellis, and Randall Barolet. 2009. Chinese Herbal Medicine: Formulas and Strategies. Seattle: Eastland Press.
———. 2015. Health Care in Eleventh-Century China. New York: Springer Media.
Tan, Qixiang 譚其驤, chief editor. 1982. Zhongguo lishi di tu ji 中國歷史地圖集 (Collection of Chinese historical maps), 8 volumes. Nanjing: Zhongguo di tu chuban she.
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Goldschmidt, A. (2019). Case Number 6. In: Medical Practice in Twelfth-century China – A Translation of Xu Shuwei’s Ninety Discussions [Cases] on Cold Damage Disorders. Archimedes, vol 54. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-06103-6_7
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