Reference on Chinese medicine in the 20th c.

Barbara Ruth Campbell (CAMPBELL@ZODIAC.BITNET)
Sun, 24 Jul 1994 15:11:32 -0400

Dear Anthro-L Colleagues,


The best article I've found so far describing the history of Chinese
and Western medicine in the 20th c. is:


Zhao, Hongjun. (1991). Chinese versus Western medicine: A history
of their relations in the twentieth century. Chinese Science.
Vol. 10, pp. 21-37.

The editor notes that this is based on a Zhao's dissertation:

History of the Modern Controversies over Chinese versus Western Medicine
published under the supervision of Prof. Ma Kanween in 1981. It was
distributed for internal circulation in 1983 by the Hebei branch of the
Society for Research on Synthesis of Chinese and Western Medicine in 1983.


The editor cites Ralph Croizier's 1965 dissertation:

Chinese Medicine in the Twentieth Century Intellectual Revolution: The
Tensions of Cultural Choice (Univ. of Calif., Berkeley)

and

Sivin's Traditional Medicine in Contemporary China (1987)

John McCreery notes that he thinks one needs to be very fluent in
Chinese to write about Chinese medicine. I think Sivin's works (from
what I've read) are thorough, although he didn't give enough credit
to Bernard Read's Chinese Materia Medica in his one article - cites
but doesn't say that most of the article is straight out of Read's
books.

The editor stressed that what makes Zhao's work so impressive is Zhao
had access to and used a lot of primary sources - ancient texts etc.
along with the primary sources written for internal use within China
during the early 20th c. and during the Mao years.


End of Part 3.

Barbara Ruth Campbell
Dissertation in progress

Campbell@Zodiac.Rutgers.Edu