Chinese Science: Explorations of an Ancient Tradition

185 Pages·1973·6.67 MB·English

by  Shigeru Nakayama, Nathan Sivin

Compiled in honor of the seventieth birthday of Joseph
Needham, F.R.S., F.B.A.
Chinese Science
M.I.T. East Asian Science Series
Explorations of an Ancient Tradition
Nathan Sivin, general editor
Volume II
Edited by
Shigeru Nakayama and
Nathan Sivin
The MIT Press
Cambridge, Massachusetts, and London, England
Contents
The M.I.T. East Asian Science Series ix
Contributors and Areas of Study x
Preface xi
The Historian of Science as Ecumenical Man:
A Meditation in the Shingon Temple of
Kongdsammai-in U Koyasan 1
Joseph Needham
Copyright © 1973 by
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology
1
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by Joseph Needham and the Science of China 9
any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by Derek J. de Solla Price
any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from
the publisher.
2
This book was set in Monotype Baskerville, Joseph Needham, Organic Philosopher 23
printed on Warren’s Old Style Offset Shigeru Nakayama
by The Maple Press Company
and bound by The Maple Press Company
in the United States of America. 3
China, Europe, and the Origins of Modern Science:
Jacket illustration is a diagram showing the phases of the moon, from Yuan
Needham’s The Grand Titration 45
t'ien t'u shuo (illustrated explication of the heavens, 1819).
A. C. Graham
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Main entry under title:
4
Chinese science. The Chinese Concept of Nature 71
Mitukuni Yosida
(M.I.T. East Asian science series, v. 2)
“Compiled in honor of the seventieth birthday of Joseph Needham, F.R.S.,
5
F.B.A.”
CONTENTS: The historian of science as ecumenical man: a meditation in Chinese Astronomy: Development and Limiting
the Shingon temple of Kongosammai-in on Koyasan, by J. Needham.—Joseph Factors 91
Needham and the science of China, by D. J. de Solla Price.—Joseph Needham,
Kiyosi Yabuuti
organic philosopher, by S. Nakayama. [etc.]
1. Science—History—China—Addresses, essays, lectures. I. Needham, Joseph,
1900- . II. Nakayama, Shigeru, 1928— , ed. III. Sivin, Nathan, ed. 6
IV. Series: Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
A Systematic Approach to the Mohist Optics
M.I.T. East Asian science series, v.2.
Q 127. C5C555 509'.51 72-5577 (ca. 300B.C.) 105
ISBN 0-262-14011-X A. C. Graham and Nathan Sivin
The M.I.T. East Asian Science Series
7 One of the most interesting developments in historical scholar­
Elixir Plants: The Ch’un-yang Lii Chen-jen yao ship over the past two decades has been a growing realization
shih chih (Pharmaceutical of the strength and importance of science and technology in
Manual of the Adept Lii Ch’un-yang) 153 ancient Asian culture. Joseph Needham’s monumental ex­
Ho Peng Yoke, Beda Lim, and Francis Morsingh ploratory survey, Science and Civilisation in China, has brought
the Chinese tradition to the attention of educated people
8 throughout the Occident. The level of our understanding is
Man as a Medicine: Pharmacological and Ritual steadily deepening as new investigations are carried out in East
Aspects of Traditional Therapy Using Drugs Asia, Europe, and the United States.
Derived from the Human Body 203 The publication of general books and monographs in this
William C. Cooper and Nathan Sivin field, because of its interdisciplinary character, presents special
difficulties with which not every publisher is fully prepared to
9 deal. The aim of the M.I.T. East Asian Science Series, under
A Neglected Source for the Early History of the general editorship of Nathan Sivin, is to identify and make
Anesthesia in China and Japan 273 available books which are based on original research in the
Saburo Miyasita Oriental sources and which combine the high methodological
standards of Asian studies with those of technical history. This
An Introductory Bibliography of Traditional series will also bring special editorial and production skills to
Chinese Science: Books and Articles in Western bear on the problems which arise when scientific equations and
Languages 279 Chinese characters must appear in close proximity, and when
Nathan Sivin ideas from both worlds of discourse are interwoven. Most books
in the series will deal with science and technology before
Index 315 modern times in China and related Far Eastern cultures, but
manuscripts concerned with contemporary scientific develop­
ments or with the survival and adaptation of traditional
techniques in China, Japan, and their neighbors today will
also be welcomed.
Volumes in the Series
Ulrich Libbrecht, Chinese Mathematics in the Thirteenth Century:
The Shu-shu chiu-chang of Ch’in Chiu-shao
Shigeru Nakayama and Nathan Sivin (eds.), Chinese Science:
Explorations of an Ancient Tradition
Manfred Porkert, The Theoretical Foundations of Chinese Medicine:
Systems of Correspondence
Sang-woon Jeon, Science and Technology in Korea: Traditional
Instruments and Techniques
Contributors and Areas of Study Preface
William C. Cooper, M. D., Director of Clinical Research, This book is meant to help its readers learn about, and think
Ross Laboratories, University of Ohio (clinical medicine) critically about, the development of science in traditional
China. Some readers will be drawn to it by the idea that hu­
A. C. Graham, Professor of Chinese, School of Oriental and manity has evolved more than one tradition of natural science
African Studies, London University (Chinese philosophy,
that deserves to be taken seriously. Some will be curious that a
logic, grammar, and poetry)
civilization with such deep aesthetic and spiritual roots should
have had a strong scientific dimension. Others will wish to ex­
Ho Peng Yoke (Ping-yu), Professor of Chinese Studies, Uni­
plore the possibility that by reconstructing and imaginatively
versity of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur (history of science in China)
adopting the viewpoint of such a different scientific tradition,
they might become more critical in judging what aspects of the
Beda Lim, University Librarian, University of Malaya (library
West’s Scientific Revolution grew out of local pressures and
development)
prejudices rather than out of the inner necessities of science
itself. It is not in our power to offer ready-made solutions, but
Saburo Miyasita, Librarian, Takeda Chemical Industries,
we hope that everyone who brings his or her curiosity to this
Osaka (early East Asian materia medica and medical biblio­
graphy) book will find at least something of use in it.
This volume falls naturally into two parts, which we believe
are complementary. The first part provides the reader with
Francis Morsingh, Professor of Phytochemistry, University of
perspectives on the work of Joseph Needham, whose monu­
Malaya (alkaloid synthesis)
mental survey of the Chinese technical traditions, Science and
Civilisation in China, is largely responsible for the growing aware­
Shigeru Nakayama, Lecturer, College of General Education,
ness on the part of inquiring people everywhere that these
Tokyo University (history of Far Eastern and Occidental
traditions reached a high level, and that the birth of modern
science, modernization)
science and technology owes a great deal to them. Ponderous
Derek J. de Solla Price, Avalon Professor of the History of disquisitions on why China had to get along without anything
Science, Yale University (physics, history of science and that could be called scientific thought, and with only primitive
technology, science policy studies) technology, are much less common now that Needham has
shown with massive documentation in volume after volume that
Nathan Sivin, Associate Professor of the History of Science, their premises are based on garden-variety ignorance. His work
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Chinese scientific is not, despite its large scale, a definitive summary, but a pre­
thought) liminary exploration, a first synthesis of three centuries of piece­
meal research bound together with original discoveries and bold
Kiyosi Yabuuti, Professpr Emeritus, Kyoto University; Pro­ but largely tentative hypotheses of his own. The “Meditation”
fessor, Ryukoku University (history of exact sciences in China that precedes Chapter 1 of this volume is one of the clearest
and Japan; transmission of scientific ideas and techniques) expressions I have seen of the motive forces and ideals behind
his life’s work—of which the historical study of Chinese science
Mitukuni Yosida, Assistant Professor, Research Institute for has been only one part. Chapters 1 through 3 are meant as aids
Humanistic Studies, Kyoto (history of science and technology in to reading Science and Civilisation in China critically, to being
Japan and China) aware of it not only as finished historical narrative but also as
xii Preface xiii Preface
which the men who thought them lived (Graham). One can
an act of creating both intelligible history and hypotheses about
leave the plane of historical interpretation and look at the
scientific change. Price’s article provides basic information
documents themselves (Ho, Lim, and Morsingh). Finally one
about the series, its author, its genesis, and evolution; Graham
can define the direction of one’s own exploration with the aid of
looks closely at Needham’s central concern with the effect of
the critical bibliography that ends the book.
social and economic factors upon the rate of scientific and
In the remainder of this preface I shall try to formulate some
technological change; and Nakayama demonstrates how great­
rather fundamental ideas about what traditional Chinese sci­
ly Needham’s own intellectual encounter with Chinese science
ence was, about fruitful approaches to comprehending it, and
was shaped by the original approach to the philosophy of sci­
about what influence it is likely to have, once we have learned
ence that he worked out as a young biochemist.
to take it seriously, on thinking about science as a worldwide
In the rest of the book we have gathered a sample, as rep­
phenomenon with many local variants. This last point seems
resentative as possible, of the kinds of exploration now pro­
obvious enough, but its implications are very different from
ceeding at the various frontiers of Chinese science. Our canvass
those of considering the Occidental tradition as a distinct entity
has been restricted to scholars who are bringing high intellectual
that alone had the potential for evolving modern science, and
and critical standards to their study of the primary documents.
thinking of other traditions as merely flawed imitations that
Since we have cast our net in the direction of such a small
remained fixed at a primitive stage. I shall argue that, since the
school of fish, it is not surprising that the catch is small. We
theoretical and practical approaches to nature seem in tradi­
regret the lack of attention, for instance, to technology and to
tional societies everywhere to have formed a unity with the
mathematics.1 We particularly regret our lack of success in
social, political, and spiritual aspects of life, the reader can en­
soliciting contributions from the many able specialists in China.
rich his understanding of the latter to the extent that he is
Despite these limits we can claim that in a small compass most
aware of the former. Finally I shall attempt to summarize the
contemporary approaches to exploration of the Chinese tech­
contributions of Chapters 4 through 9 of this book, and to
nical traditions are represented. We have attained, perhaps for
explain briefly its genesis.
the first time in a Western publication, something like a balance
between Occidental and Japanese scholarship. The reader can
The Sciences of Traditional China
compare sharply focused philological analysis (Graham and
There are two obvious ways of defining traditional Chinese
Sivin) with synthesis that relies on a broad historic sense honed
science. One takes as its subject matter all systematic abstract
by intimate acquaintance with the sources (Yosida). One can
thought about nature.
weigh an approach that measures particular achievements by
“Abstract” may have the sense not only of defining concepts
the yardstick of modern science (Yabuuti, Miyasita) against the
on a more general plane than that of concrete sensual ex­
attempt to reconstruct the inner unity of ancient science by
perience, but also that of seeking objective driving forces of
restoring what seems to be superstition and what seems to be
change within nature itself rather than, like religion and magic,
anticipation of a modern position to their unity and coherence
looking for explanations in terms of conscious will or emotion.
in the ancient Chinese thinker’s mind (Cooper and Sivin). One
The scientist takes as one of his basic rules of reasoning that,
can consider ideas mainly in relation to other ideas (Yosida) or
other things being equal, the simpler of two hypotheses is more
see them as conditioned by (and conditioning) the society in
likely to be worth taking seriously. As Galileo learned at great
cost, this notion can become highly offensive to the institutional
1 The latter omission is perhaps redeemed by the first volume in this series.
xiv Preface
Preface
XV
protectors of revealed religion, who see it quite accurately as
East, such books seldom reach print.2 The point of view that
setting limits upon Providence.
identifies ancient science simply as what preceded modern sci­
The second definition is apparently much more straight­
ence and has survived in it is based on analogies that often
forward. It takes as scientific any idea, discovery, or method
become less solid and less pertinent the closer we look at them.
that also plays a role in modern science. Modern science is
These two ways of defining early science even imply very
necessarily defined as the state of science today, since some
different modes of exploration. Every historian of science uses
aspects of last year’s science are already obsolete and we are
the second (which I shall call the positivistic definition) to locate
not at all certain what will still be valid next year. Ideas, meth­
and identify anticipations of modern knowledge, either because
ods, or discoveries that played a demonstrable role in the
he simply wants to document the time and place of a discovery,
development of today’s science but fell by the wayside tend in
or because he wants to pick out of the immensity of recorded
this view to be classified as protoscience or mistaken science.
knowledge an event or idea the surroundings of which are likely to
The difference between the two need not concern us here.
repay close exploration. One cannot, after all, study everything.
The second definition seems at first glance to differ from the
It is natural to begin by trying to find patterns similar to those!
first only in being somewhat narrower, but actually their re­
already known and understood, at least until one has probed the
lation is nowhere near so simple. What do we mean when we
depths of the new structure and sensed what holds it together.
talk about an anticipation of modern science? When we claim
Finding anticipations is not merely a matter of passive acts of
that the ancient Chinese anticipated modern scientists in pre­
recognition, but rather, as I have suggested, a matter of actively
paring steroid hormones and protein hormones by processing
constructing analogies. Democritus’ speculations used to be
large quantities of urine, or realized the importance of equa-
studied as a precursor of modern atomic theory, until finally
torially mounted astronomical instruments and daily obser­
historians of science noticed that the unsplittable little solid
vations long before Tycho Brahe introduced these innovations
Democritean atoms bouncing off each other in the void had
to Europe, we do not mean that the Chinese were doing exactly
very little in common with the present-day conception of the
the same thing in the same way as scientists today for the same
atom. Now they are likened somewhat more plausibly to the
ends—no more so, in fact, than we mean Tycho was doing the
endlessly colliding molecules of thermodynamics.
same thing in the same way for the same ends as the twentieth-
If, on the other hand, we define early science simply as every­
century astronomer. We are simply making close and at best
thing that was thought systematically, abstractly, and objective­
compelling analogies. I doubt that there is a major publisher
ly about nature, our exploration takes the form of reconstructing
in the United States or Western Europe today who does not
what ideas of that sort developed, how they were related, how
receive at least once a year a manuscript purporting to dem­
their correspondence to reality changed, and which of their
onstrate in minute detail that the essentials of relativistic
2 Of course some such extravagances do reach print. Since writing the above
physics are to be found in the mystical epigrams of the Lao tzu
words I have noticed on pp. 182-183 of Georges Beau, La medecine chinoise
(the book known in English as The Way and Its Power) or the (La Rayon de la Science, Paris, 1965) an announcement—based on a
cosmic commentaries of the Book of Changes. Here it is im­ misinterpretation of a mistranslation of a ludicrously misdated text—that an
advisor of the Yellow Emperor forty-five centuries ago anticipated Einstein
mediately evident that the only common ground is an analogy,
in revealing the identity of energy and matter, asserted the existence of
and a weak one at that. Since the simple notion of relativity of immense forces situated in space, and knew of the planets Neptune and
space and time goes back beyond Einstein practically to the Pluto. The idea that many key concepts of modern science are latent in the
I ching is developed in detail in Z. D. Sung, The Symbols of Ti King or the
beginning of thought about nature in the West as well as the
Symbols of the Chinese Logic of Changes (Shanghai: The China Modern
Education Co., 1934).
XVI Preface xvn Preface
possible consequences actually emerged in the course of time. Still there was no such coherent field within Chinese thought
Only after we have reconstructed these integral systems of as biology or physics.4 We must glean our anticipations of the
ideas, I submit, can we be reasonably sure that in comparing modern science of life from far and wide, from sources that their
the strengths of one scientific tradition with another we are authors would not have agreed had anything significant in
comparing commensurable entities, rather than offering anal­ common. Much of what early Chinese thinkers had to say
ogies that look compelling only so long as what we are anal­ about motion, heat, and light is just as scattered. The basic
ogizing is kept separate from its original context. concepts that they used to explore physical phenomena are
The two definitions lead, for example, to very different divi­ precisely yin-yang, the Five Phases (wu hsing Sfj), the trigram
sions of the fields of science in ancient China. The positivist and hexagram systems of the Book of Changes, and others that
whose main concern is early traces of modern science naturally used to be invoked (even by twentieth-century Chinese thinkers)
classifies what he has found according to today’s rubrics. Sim­ as chiefly responsible for the failure of Chinese to learn how
ple analogy makes Chang Heng, the inventor of the world’s to think scientifically.
first known earthquake-indicating machine in the first century But to place the responsibility there is to commit one of the
b.c., a seismologist. The early evaporators of urine become, by most elementary fallacies of historical explanation, namely to
a subtly more subtle reasoning, early biochemists. At the ex­ present a description of what the world was like before X as
treme of this approach, as I have already noted, Lao-tzu the though it were an explanation of why X happened so late or
legendary mystic becomes a relativistic physicist. failed to happen at all. Since the concepts I have mentioned
The less forced labels of this kind perform several valuable were the vocabulary of early scientific thought, it is as misguided
educational functions. They help to dissuade people whose to call them an impediment to modern science as to consider
real interest is modern science from ignoring ancient science walking an impediment to the invention of the automobile. But
completely. They remind the average educated reader, who that fallacy is a very tempting way out of difficulties into which
has all he can do to cope with the present and who finds most we inevitably fall if we ignore the limitations of positivistic anal­
history good for nothing except entertainment, that modern ogies and take them for full explanations. Needham has given
physics did not spring full-blown from the collective brow of a prominence to anticipations of modern science, and drawn
few Nobel Laureates, and that it is not a solid structure of upon it for his rubrics, because his aim is to demonstrate the
finished truth but a moment’s transitory understanding in an worldwide character of the development of science and technolo­
apparently endless quest for comprehension. They may even gy. But he has consistently probed deeper, and has made sense
help to convince him that modern science has a long way to go of many Chinese concepts and shown their connections for the
before it completely sheds the European parochialisms which first time. Nevertheless all indications are that in the “Chinese
it incorporated during the Scientific Revolution. They have science boom” now gradually taking shape the need for this
also served a useful purpose in reducing the psychic dependence kind of balance will all too often be ignored. Most of the recent
of contemporary Chinese scientists and engineers upon import­ tomes on Chinese medicine are, if occasionally better informed
ed models of research and invention, encouraging them to
been suggested in a most illuminating book by Yamada Keiji
consider carefully what approaches best fit their own circum­ Mirai e no toi: Chugoku no kokoromi (Inquiry into
stances.3 the future: The Chinese experiment; Tokyo: Chikuma Shobo, 1968).
4 I have developed this point in Chinese Alchemy: Preliminary Studies (Harvard
3 The continuity of traditional scientific and technological themes and Monographs in the History of Science, I; Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard
values in present-day China, and their role in the Cultural Revolution, has University Press, 1968), pp. 7-8.
xix Preface
xviii Preface
culture will draw the boundaries of medicine more or less simi­
than their predecessors, no more critical, disciplined, or con­
larly. Actually this is far from true. One can find no consensus
scious of the vast gaps between the elementary assumptions and
even among modern physicians in the wealthy countries as to
definitions of the Oriental science and those of modern anat­
how seriously emotional factors must be weighed when treating
omy, physiology, and pathology.
somatic disease, and vice versa.6 The student of intellectual
If we use the first definition of science as systematic ab­
issues can distinguish various schools of thought, and the an­
stract thought—which might be called “anthropological,”
thropologist can locate conventional views among those who
since it lets the Chinese theoretical encounter with nature define
prefer not to think too deeply about these questions, although
its own boundaries—the structure of knowledge looks very
even the cliches have changed drastically over the past century.
different indeed from that of modern science. It becomes as
But the decisive mutual interaction of emotional and somatic
individual, in fact, as the map of scientific thought in ancient
states has been one of the most constant doctrines of Chinese
Greece or medieval Europe.
medicine. In fact we find intricately developed theories in areas
Although every culture must experience much the same phys­
that lie almost completely outside the intellectual horizons of
ical world, each breaks it up into manageable segments in very
the modern doctor. There was, for instance, a strict correlation
distinct ways. To make a long story short, at the most general
of variations in the body’s energetic functions with the cosmic
level of science (natural philosophy, it used to be called) certain
cycles of the day and the yearly seasons. Beginning in the T’ang
basic concepts became established because of their very general
it was further elaborated in theyun ch’i 3®^ theory to take into
usefulness in making nature comprehensible. In Europe after
consideration in diagnosis the effects of unseasonable variations
Aristotle’s time among the most important of these notions were
in climate and weather.7
the Four Elements of Empedocles and the qualitative idea of a
Then what fields of science did the Chinese themselves or­
proper place that was part of the definition of each thing. In
ganize in the course of conceptualizing the phenomenal .world ?
ancient China the most common tools of abstract thought were
I would propose more or less the following list of major disci­
the yin-yang and Five Phases concepts, implying as they did a
plines :
dynamic harmony compounded out of the cyclical alternation
1. Medicine (i ft ), which included theoretical studies of
of complementary energies. Today scientists use a much wider
health and disease (i ching ff|g, and so on), therapeutics (i
range of well-defined concepts, embracing space, time, mass,
fang H;?7, and so on), macrobiotics (yang sheng or the
energy, and information.
theory and practice of longevity techniques, sexual hygiene
Thus the fields of science in a given culture are determined by
(fang chung H41, on the whole an aspect of macrobiotics),
the application of these general concepts, suitably refined, re­
pharmacognosy (pen-ts’ao ^Jpi), and veterinary medicine (shou
interpreted if necessary, and supplemented by more special
i j§£g§). Pharmacognosy, the study of materia medica, incor­
concepts, to various fields of experience, demarked as the cul­
porated a large part of early knowledge of natural history as
ture chooses for intrinsic and extrinsic reasons to demark them.5
well as approaches to biological classification; Needham and
It is natural to expect that, given roughly the same body and
his collaborator Lu Gwei-djen generally refer to it as “phar­
much the same range of malfunctions likely to befall it, every
maceutical natural history.” Acupuncture, which has recently
5 One remembers the puzzlement of a great European historian of China
6 See Chapter 8.
when he discovered that the Five Phases system in medicine did not quite
7 See the third volume in this series, Manfred Porkert, The Theoretical
correspond to that in astronomy. The difference is quite comprehensible
Foundations of Chinese Medicine.
in terms of the specialization of concepts.
XX Preface
xxi Preface
been seized upon by the mass media in their endless quest for
passed down in the literature. Drugs were assigned to functional
novel misinformation, was (and still is) on the whole only a
categories that corresponded to the Five Phases system. Their
minor branch of therapeutics.
combined use in prescriptions, their dosage, and the time and
Many of the proponents of Chinese medicine have sought to
conditions of their administration were often either determined
raise its status by portraying it as a purely empirical art or as a
or accounted for by theoretical considerations. The effectiveness
purely rational theoretical science—or both, despite the con­
of curative agents was explained in terms of action upon the
tradiction between an inductive structure, which grows out of
various functional systems of the body. Although in the larger
clinical experience, and a deductive one, which depends upon
and more pragmatically oriented therapeutic compendia these
the interrelations of ideas. To measure the strengths and weak­
considerations were often not spelled out, every educated phy­
nesses of Chinese medicine by the criteria of the completely
sician knew how to apply them. They were, in fact, his normal
different system that developed in the West gives an extremely
form of discourse. The intimate but extremely complex ac­
distorted view of what it was about—as distorted a view as if a
comodation between theory and practice seems in the light of
Chinese doctor were to praise European medicine only for
our very limited knowledge to have had very little in common
those conceptions and methods that are also found in his own
with that of modern medicine.
tradition. We need to make valid comparisons, but they must
I would respectfully suggest that any modern physician
be derived from an objective and systematic description of
who finds it easy to think of traditional Chinese medicine as
Chinese medicine based on broad and deep acquaintance with
merely a local variant of his own inductive science has not been
it.8 So far we can only begin to glimpse the outlines of a remark­
looking at the Art of the Yellow Emperor closely enough. A
ably abstract and comprehensive system of concepts describing
Paracelsian physician of the seventeenth century might perhaps
the relations of the body, the mind, the immediate physical
have been more entitled to the shock of recognition.
surroundings of the body, and the cosmos. Chinese doctors com­
2. Alchemy (fu-lien and so on), the science of immortali­
manded a great diversity of therapies and techniques, which
ty, which overlapped greatly in practice with medical macro­
they generally used in combination. Their classical tradition
biotics. Immortality was thought of, in fact, as the highest kind
seems to have been more open to contributions from folk med­
of health. The two major divisions were “external alchemy”
icine than the written tradition of pre-Renaissance Europe
(wai tan ^fff) and “internal alchemy” (nei tan p3f^). In the
(see Chapter 8). But every cure had to be integrated into the
former, immortality drugs were prepared by techniques largely
theoretical structure, in principle at least, before it could be
based on the natural processes by which minerals and metals
were believed to mature within the earth, but in the laboratory
8 Although no such general description exists for ancient medicine, tradi­
tional medicine as it was understood and practiced just before the Cultural they were carried out on a telescoped scale of time. A year of
Revolution is extremely well laid out in a volume compiled by the Nanking
cyclical treatment by the alchemist might correspond to a
College of Chinese Medicine, Chung-i-hsueh kai lun outline
cosmic cycle of 4320 years. In internal alchemy, by a different
of Chinese medicine; Peking: People’s Hygiene Press, 1958). The collapse
of traditional values over the past century has made contemporary practice sort of analogy the interior of the adept’s body became the
an utterly unreliable guide to the mainstream of early medicine, but critical laboratory and the “cyclical maturation of the elixir” was
study of this book, with its limitations kept in mind, is possibly the best
carried out by meditation, concentration, breath control, or
available preparation for historical study of the documents. It avoids much
more successfully than most publications from Taiwan, Hong Kong, and sexual disciplines.
Europe the temptation to make offhand and ludicrous analogies with External alchemy, as I have shown elsewhere, was on the
modern scientific medicine.
whole, despite the employment of a great deal of miscellaneous