Huang Di nei jing su wen : nature, knowledge, imagery in an ancient Chinese medical text, with an appendix, the doctrine of the five periods and six qi in the Huang Di nei jing su wen /

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Author / Creator:Unschuld, Paul U. (Paul Ulrich), 1943-
Imprint:Berkeley : University of California Press, 2003.
Description:1 online resource (xii, 520 pages) : illustrations
Language:English
Chinese
Subject:
Format: E-Resource Book
URL for this record:http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/12397675
Hidden Bibliographic Details
ISBN:9780520928497
0520928490
0585468583
9780585468587
0520233220
9780520233225
1282759078
9781282759077
9786612759079
6612759070
1597346659
9781597346658
Digital file characteristics:data file
Notes:Includes bibliographical references (pages 495-502) and index.
Text includes some Chinese words.
Print version record.
Summary:A foundation of Chinese life sciences and medicine, the 'Huang Di Nei Jing Su Wen' is now available in a complete, fully annotated English translation. Also known as 'Su Wen', or 'The Yellow Emperor's Inner Classic', this influential work came into being over a long period reaching from the 2nd century BCE to the 8th century CE.
Other form:Print version: Unschuld, Paul U. (Paul Ulrich), 1943- Huang Di nei jing su wen. Berkeley : University of California Press, 2003 0520233220
Standard no.:10.1525/9780520928497
Description
Summary:The Huang Di nei jing su wen, known familiarly as the Su wen, is a seminal text of ancient Chinese medicine, yet until now there has been no comprehensive, detailed analysis of its development and contents. At last Paul U. Unschuld offers entry into this still-vital artifact of China's cultural and intellectual past.<br> <br> Unschuld traces the history of the Su wen to its origins in the final centuries B.C.E., when numerous authors wrote short medical essays to explain the foundations of human health and illness on the basis of the newly developed vessel theory. He examines the meaning of the title and the way the work has been received throughout Chinese medical history, both before and after the eleventh century when the text as it is known today emerged. Unschuld's survey of the contents includes illuminating discussions of the yin-yang and five-agents doctrines, the perception of the human body and its organs, qi and blood, pathogenic agents, concepts of disease and diagnosis, and a variety of therapies, including the new technique of acupuncture. An extensive appendix, furthermore, offers a detailed introduction to the complicated climatological theories of Wu yun liu qi ("five periods and six qi"), which were added to the Su wen by Wang Bing in the Tang era.<br> <br> In an epilogue, Unschuld writes about the break with tradition and innovative style of thought represented by the Su wen. For the first time, health care took the form of "medicine," in that it focused on environmental conditions, climatic agents, and behavior as causal in the emergence of disease and on the importance of natural laws in explaining illness. Unschuld points out that much of what we surmise about the human organism is simply a projection, reflecting dominant values and social goals, and he constructs a hypothesis to explain the formation and acceptance of basic notions of health and disease in a given society. Reading the Su wen, he says, not only offers a better understanding of the roots of Chinese medicine as an integrated aspect of Chinese civilization; it also provides a much needed starting point for discussions of the differences and parallels between European and Chinese ways of dealing with illness and the risk of early death.
Physical Description:1 online resource (xii, 520 pages) : illustrations
Bibliography:Includes bibliographical references (pages 495-502) and index.
ISBN:9780520928497
0520928490
0585468583
9780585468587
0520233220
9780520233225
1282759078
9781282759077
9786612759079
6612759070
1597346659
9781597346658