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Conveying Chinese Medicine to Seventeenth-Century Europe

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Science between Europe and Asia

Part of the book series: Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science ((BSPS,volume 275))

Abstract

Several hitorian have recently drawn our attention to the importance of the search for useful medicines by Portuguese, Spanish, English, and Dutch investigators. Less well-known, however, are European publications about medical ideas and practies they encountered elsewhere. The first European Publications of and commentaries on Chinese medical texts appeared in France and Germany in the 1670s and 1680s: Les secrets de la Médecine des Chinois, (1671), the specimen Medicinæ sinicæ (1682), the Clavis Medica and Chinarum Doctrinam de Pulsibus (1686). The projects that resulted in the publications of the 1680s were in effect a sometimes fractious but collaborative effort between the Jesuits in China and the Dutch and German medical employees of the VOC in Asia, and thei local informants, over a period of at least two decades. The story of how two works on Chinese medicine came to appear in Germany, in Latin, in the 1680s, therefore reflects the aims and efforts of multiple people and groups.

I would like to thank Sharon Messenger and Caroline Overy for tracking down some of the references for me, and the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton and the Descartes Centre in Utrecht for the time away from other duties that allowed me to undertake much of the research for this paper.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    For these episodes, see H. J. Cook, Matters of Exchange: Commerce, Medicine and Science in the Dutch Golden Age. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007.

  2. 2.

    B. R. Ortiz de Montellano, Aztec Medicine, Health, and Nutrition. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1990; S. Varey, R. Chabrán, and D. B. Weiner, eds., Searching for the Secrets of Nature: The Life and Works of Dr. Francisco Hernández. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2000; A. Barrera-Osorio, Experiencing Nature: The Spanish American Empire and the Early Scientific Revolution. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2006; and esp. D. Bleichmar, P. De Vos, K. Huffine, and K. Sheehan, eds., Science in the Spanish and Portugese Empires, 1500–1800. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2009.

  3. 3.

    W. Frazer, “Histoire Monastique d’Irelande, by Louis Augustin Alemand,” Notes and Queries, 5th S., III, June 5, 1875, p. 456.

  4. 4.

    On Bayer and Rémusat, see M. D. Grmek, “Les Reflets de la Sphygmologie Chinoise dans la Médecine Occidentale,” Biologie Médicale, Numéro hors série, 51 (1962), pp. 1–129, quotation from pp. 66–68; E. Kraft, “Christian Mentzel, Philippe Couplet, Andreas Cleyer und die chinesische Medizin: Notizen aus Handschriften des 17. jahrhunderts,” in Fernöstliche Kultur: Wolf Haenisch zugeeignet von seinem Marburger Studienkreis. Marburg: N.G. Elwert, 1975, pp. 159–161, 187.

  5. 5.

    Robert Chabrié, Michel Boym: Jésuit Polonias et la Fin des Ming en Chine (1646–1662). Paris: Pierre Bossuet, 1933, p. 236.

  6. 6.

    B. Szczesniak, “The Writings of Michael Boym,” Monumenta Serica: Journal of Oriental Studies, 14 (1949): 481–538.

  7. 7.

    E. Kajdański, “Michael Boym’s Medicus Sinicus,” T’oung Pao 73 (1987): 161–189, quotation from p. 169.

  8. 8.

    R. Chabrié, Michel Boym, p. 237.

  9. 9.

    P. Pelliot, “Michel Boym,” T’oung Pao, 31 (1935): 95–151; M. D. Grmek, “Les Reflets de la Sphygmologie Chinoise,” pp. 1–120; E. Kraft, “Christian Mentzel et al.,” pp. 158–196.

  10. 10.

    The best study of Cleyer remains F. de Haan, “Uit Oude Notarispapieren, II: Andries Cleyer,” Tijdschrift voor Indische taal-, land- en volkenkunde, 46 (1903): 423–468.

  11. 11.

    R. Chabrié, Boym, pp. 70–72; P. Pelliot, “Michel Boym,” p. 96.

  12. 12.

    The literature on the early Jesuit mission is very large, but for recent views see esp. L. M. Brockey, Journey to the East: The Jesuit Mission to China, 1579–1724. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2007; J. Gernet, China and the Christian Impact: A Conflict of Cultures, transl. by J. Lloyd, Cambridge; Paris: Cambridge University Press; Editions de la Maison des Sciences de l’Homme, 1985; L. M. Jensen, Manufacturing Confucianism: Chinese Traditions and Universal Civilization (Durham: Duke University Press, 1997); D. E. Mungello, The Great Encounter of China and the West, 1500–1800. Lanhamm, NY: Rowman and Littlefield, 1999; Erik Zürcher, “Jesuit Accomodation and the Chinese Cultural Imperative,” in D. E. Mungello ed., The Chinese Rites Controversy: Its History and Meaning. Nettetal: Steyler Verlag, 1994, pp. 31–64.

  13. 13.

    M. Lackner, “Jesuit Figurism,” in T. H. C. Lee, ed., China and Europe: Images and Influences in Sixteenth to Eighteenth Centuries. Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press, 1991, pp. 129–149; J. Israel, “Admiration of China and Classical Chinese Thought in the Radical Enlightenment (1685–1740),” Taiwan Journal of East Asian Studies, 4 (2007): 1–25; and on the prisca theologia, the classic works remain F. A. Yates, Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition (New York: Vintage Books, 1969) and D. P. Walker, The Ancient Theology: Studies in Christian Platonism from the Fifteenth to the Eighteenth Century (London: Duckworth, 1972).

  14. 14.

    See esp. L. M. Jensen, Manufacturing Confucianism; T. H. C. Lee, “Christianity and Chinese Intellectuals: From the Chinese Point of View,” in T. H. C. Lee ed., China and Europe: Images and Influences in Sixteenth to Eighteenth Centuries. Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press, 1991, pp. 1–27; D. E. Mungello, Curious Land: Jesuit Accommodation and the Origins of Sinology. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1985; N. Standaert, Yang Tingyun, Confucian and Christian in Late Ming China: His Life and Thought. Leiden: Brill, 1988; Q. Zhang, “About God, Demons, and Miracles: The Jesuit Discourse on the Supernatural in Late Ming China,” Early Science and Medicine, 4 (1998): 1–36; E. Zürcher, “Confucian and Christian Religiosity in Late Ming China,” The Catholic Historical Review, 83 (1997): 614–653.

  15. 15.

    The details of Boym’s life are taken from P. Pelliot, “Michel Boym,” and R. Chabrié, Boym, preferring Pelliot to Chabrié where there are differences of detail.

  16. 16.

    The letters are published in two different English translations: E. H. Parker, “Letters from a Chinese Empress and a Chinese Eunuch to the Pope in the Year 1650,” The Contemporary Review 101 (1912): 79–83, and I. Ying-Ki, “The Last Emperor of the Ming Dynasty and Catholicity,” Bulletin of the Catholic University of Peking, 1 (1926): 23–28.

  17. 17.

    M. Boym, Briefve Relation de la Notable Conversion des Personnes Royales, & de l’estat de la Religion Chrestienne en la Chine … & recitée par luy-mesme dans l’Eglise de Smyrne, le 29 Septembre de l’an 1652. Paris: Sebastian Cramoisy, Imprimeur ordinaire du Roy & de la Reyne, & Gabriel Cramoisy, 1654. Cramoisy’s list is mispaginated at the end as pp. 72–75, but is six pages long.

  18. 18.

    M. Boym, Flora Sinensis. Vienne: Matthæi Rictii, 1656. On the Nestorian monument, see Mungello, Curious Land, pp. 164–165; L. M. Brockey, Journey to the East, p. 80.

  19. 19.

    B. Szczesniak, “The Atlas and Geographical Description of China: A Manuscript of Michael Boym (1612–1659),” Journal of the American Oriental Society, 73 (1953): 65–77; B. Szczesniak, “The Mappa Imperii Sinarum of Michael Boym,” Imago Mundi, 19 (1965): 113–115.

  20. 20.

    W. Simon, “The Attribution to Michael Boym of Two Early Achievements of Western Sinology,” Asia Major, 7 (1959): 165–169. On Kircher, see P. Findlen ed., Athanasius Kircher: The Last Man Who Knew Everything. New York, London: Routledge, 2004.

  21. 21.

    L. M. Brockey, Journey to the East, quotations from pp. 359, 399.

  22. 22.

    P. Huard, “La Diffusion de l’Anatomie Européenne dans Quelques Secteurs de L’Asie,” Archives Internationales d’Histoire des Sciences, 32 (1953): 269–270; Hsing-Chun Fan, “La Médecine Occidentale en Chine vers la Fin des Ming (1644),” Bulletin de l’Université l’Aurore, S.III, 5, (1944): 677.

  23. 23.

    P. Pelliot, “Boym,” pp. 129–132.

  24. 24.

    N. Golvers, “Philippe Couplet, S.J. (1623–1693) and the Authorship of Specimen Medicinae Sinensis and Some Other Western Writings on Chinese Medicine,” Medizin Historisches Journal, 35 (2000): 175–182; Noël Golvers, “Ignatius Hartoghvelt, S.J. (1628 Amsterdam – 1658 Ayutthaya), un missionaire qui ne parvint jamais en Chine,” Courrier Verbiest, 11 (1999): 4–6.

  25. 25.

    Account from the Dagh-Register of Bort, quoted in E. Kraft, “Christian Mentzel et al.,” pp. 185–186.

  26. 26.

    “Miseram illius librum e regno Siami in novam Bataviam A. 1658 ut in Europam mitteretur. Sed quod offensi fuissent ob repulsum et successum insperatum legationis, quam in aulam Pekinensem adornaverant, attribuentque id P. Adamo Schall.” Quoted from E. Kraft, ibid., p. 187. For an account of the 1655 embassy and the Dutch version of its failure due to Schall, see J. Nieuhof, An Embassy from the East India Company of the United Provinces to the Grand Tartar Cham Emperor of China, transl. by J. Ogilby, facs. of 1669 edition, Menston and Harrogate: Scholar Press and Palmyra Press, 1972, pp. 25–146.

  27. 27.

    N. Golvers, François de Rougement, S.J., Missionary in Ch’ang-Shu (Chiang-Nan): A Study of the Account Book (1674–1676) and the Elogium. Leuven: Leuven University Press, Ferdinand Verbiest Foundation, 1999, pp. 530–531.

  28. 28.

    J. R. Shepherd, Statecraft and Political Economy on the Taiwan Frontier, 1600–1800. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1993.

  29. 29.

    J. E. Wills, Jr., Pepper, Guns, and Parleys: The Dutch East India Company and China 1622–1681. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1974, pp. 25–104.

  30. 30.

    For what little is known of his early life, see F. de Haan, “Uit Oude Notarispapieren, II: Andries Cleyer,” Tijdschrift voor Indische taal-, land- en volkenkunde, 46 (1903), and Eva S. Kraft, Andreas Cleyer Tagebuch Des Kontors Zu Nagasaki Auf Der Insel Deschima. Bonner Zeitschrift Für Japanologie, Band 6 (Bonn: 1985), p. 35.

  31. 31.

    F. S. Gaastra, J. R. Bruijn, and I. Schöffer, eds., with assistance of and E. E. van Eyckvan Heslinga, Dutch-Asiatic Shipping in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, Vol. II: Outward-Bound Voyages From the Netherlands to Asia and the Cape (1595–1794). Rijks Gescheidkundige Publicatiën: Groote Ser., Vol. 166, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1979, voyage 0957.1.

  32. 32.

    P. Demaerel, “Couplet and the Dutch,” in J. Heyndrickx, ed., Philippe Couplet, S.J. (1623–1693): The Man Who Brought China to Europe, Nettetal: Steyler Verlag, 1990, p. 102.

  33. 33.

    For a recent account of this period, L. M. Brockey, Journey to the East, pp. 125–136.

  34. 34.

    Nationaal Archief, Den Haag, VOC archives, 1.04.02.1243 and 1.04.02.1244.

  35. 35.

    J. Bartens, “Hollandse Kooplieden Op Bezoek Bij Concilievaders,” Archief voor de Geschiedenis van de Katholieke Kern in Nederland, 12 (1970): 75–120; E. Kraft, “Christian Mentzel et al.,” p. 179.

  36. 36.

    Les Secrets de la Médecine des Chinois, Consistent en la Parfaite Connaissance du Pouls, Envoyez de la Chine par un François, Homme de grand merite. Grenoble: Philippes Charuys, Marchand Librarire, en la Place de Mal-Conseil, 1671. The most extensive comment on Les Secrets is in M. D. Grmek, “Les Reflets De La Sphygmologie Chinoise,” pp. 59–64.

  37. 37.

    F. de Haan, “Uit Oude Notarispapieren,” and E. Kraft, Andreas Cleyer Tagebuch, p. 35.

  38. 38.

    See H. J. Cook, Matters of Exchange, pp. 305–309.

  39. 39.

    P. Begheyn, “A Letter from Andries Cleyer, Head Surgeon of the United East India Company at Batavia, to Father Philips Couplet, S.J., Missionary in China, 1669,” Lias, 20 (1993): 245–249; P. Demaerel, “Couplet and the Dutch,” p. 108.

  40. 40.

    P. Demaerel, “Couplet and the Dutch,” pp. 111–112.

  41. 41.

    On the mixed community of Batavia, see J. G. Taylor, The Social World of Batavia: European and Eurasian in Dutch Asia. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1983, and L. Blussé, Strange Company: Chinese Settlers, Mestizo Women and the Dutch in Voc Batavia, Verhandelingen KITLV 122, Dordrecht/Riverton: Foris, 1986.

  42. 42.

    E. Kraft, “Christian Mentzel, et al., ” pp. 192, 168.

  43. 43.

    F. M. Barnett, Medical Authority and Princely Patronage: The Academia Naturae Curiosorum, 1652-1693. m PhD dissertation, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1995.

  44. 44.

    Ibid., pp. 163-167.

  45. 45.

    For this section on Ten Rhijne, I rely on information published in H. J. Cook, Matters of Exchange.

  46. 46.

    J. M. H. van Dorssen, “Willem Ten Rhijne,” Geneeskunde Tijdschrift voor Nederlands Indië, 51 (1911): 150–152.

  47. 47.

    R. W. Carrubba and J. Z. Bowers, “The Western World’s First Detailed Treatise on Acupuncture: Willem Ten Rhijne’s De Acupunctura,” Journal of the History of Medicine, 29 (1974), p. 376.

  48. 48.

    Ibid., pp. 376–378.

  49. 49.

    See, for example, the comment about how this is “no small puzzle” in G-D. Lu and J. Needham, Celestial Lancets: A History and Rationale of Acupuncture and Moxa. With new intro. by V. Lo, London: Routledge Curzon, 2002, pp. 271–276.

  50. 50.

    Sloane MS. 2729 fol. 73, Ten Rhijne to Sibellius, 25 March 1681.

  51. 51.

    M. B. Valentini, India Literata, 2nd ed., Frankfurt am Main: Prostat apud Haeredes Zunnerianos, 1716, pp. 432–433, which prints an undated letter of Cleyer to Scheffer; also see Szczesniak, “The Writings of Michael Boym,” pp. 516–517.

  52. 52.

    21 March 1682/3: letter of Ten Rhijne to Joannes Groenevelt, excerpted in English in Letter books of the Royal Society, LBC.8, fols. 447–448.

  53. 53.

    Sloane 2729, fols. 130–131, Ten Rhyne to Sibellius, 25 February 1683.

  54. 54.

    Letter of 25 August 1683: Royal Society, LBC.9, fol. 374.

  55. 55.

    Th. N. Foss, “The European Sojourn of Philippe Couplet and Michael Shen Fuzong, 1683–1692,” in J. Heyndrickx ed., Philippe Couplet, S.J. (1623–1693): The Man Who Brought China to Europe. Nettetal: Steyler Verlag, 1990, pp. 121–140; D. E. Mungello, “An Introduction to the Chinese Rites Controversy,” in D. E. Mungello ed., The Chinese Rites Controversy: Its History and Meaning. Nettetal: Steyler Verlag, 1994, pp. 3–14.

  56. 56.

    For the evidence and Kraft’s interpretation of them, which was written without knowledge of Ten Rhijne’s letters but is otherwise in close agreement, E. Kraft, “Christian Mentzel et al.,” pp. 181–188. Also see P. Demaerel, “Couplet and the Dutch,” p. 117.

  57. 57.

    P. Demaerel, “Couplet and the Dutch,” p. 117–118.

  58. 58.

    D. E. Mungello, “The Seventeenth-Century Jesuit Translation Project of the Confucian Four Books,” in Ch. E. Ronan, East Meets West: The Jesuits in China, 1582–1773. Bonnie B. C. Oh ed., Chicago: Loyola University Press, 1988, pp. 252–272.

  59. 59.

    Willem ten Rhijne, Dissertatio De Arthritide. London: R. Chiswell, 1683.

  60. 60.

    M. D. Grmek, Reflects de la Sphygmologie, 74; the quotation is given in English in Lu and Needham, Celestial Lancets, 286.

  61. 61.

    S. Kuriyama, The Expressiveness of the Body and the Divergence of Greek and Chinese Medicine. New York: Zone Books, 1999, pp. 21–22.

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  1. John F. Nickoll Professor, History Department, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA

    Harold J. Cook

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  1. Dept. History of Science, Istanbul University, Eminönü, Istanbul, 34134, Turkey

    Feza Günergun

  2. School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, 110067, India

    Dhruv Raina

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Cook, H.J. (2011). Conveying Chinese Medicine to Seventeenth-Century Europe. In: Günergun, F., Raina, D. (eds) Science between Europe and Asia. Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science, vol 275. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-9968-6_14

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