Traditional Chinese Medicine: Heritage and Adaptation

184 Pages·2018·2.66 MB·English

by  Paul U. Unschuld

TRADI T IONAL
CHINESE MEDICINE
HERITAGE AND ADAPTATION
PAUL U. UNSCHULD
TRADITIONAL CHINESE MEDICINE

TRADITIONAL
CHINESE MEDICINE
Heritage and Adaptation
PAUL U. UNSCHULD
Translated by Bridie J. Andrews
Columbia University Press
New York
Columbia University Press gratefully acknowledges the generous support for this book
provided by Publisher’s Circle member Josephine Chiu-Duke.
Columbia University Press
Publishers Since 1893
New York Chichester, West Sussex
cup .columbia .edu
Copyright © Verlag C.H. Beck oHG, München 2013
Translation copyright © 2018 Columbia University Press
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Unschuld, Paul U. (Paul Ulrich), 1943- author.
Title: Traditional Chinese medicine : heritage and adaptation / Paul U. Unschuld ;
translated by Bridie J. Andrews.
Other titles: Traditionelle Chinesische Medizin. English
Description: New York : Columbia University Press, [2018] | Includes bibliographical references
and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017021548 (print) | LCCN 2017022197 (ebook) | ISBN 9780231546263
(electronic) | ISBN 9780231175005 (cloth : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780231175012 (pbk. : alk. paper)
Subjects: | MESH: Medicine, Chinese Traditional
Classification: LCC R127.1 (ebook) | LCC R127.1 (print) | NLM WB 55.C4 | DDC 10.951—dc23
LC record available at https:/ /lccn. loc .gov / 2017021548
Columbia University Press books are printed on permanent and durable acid-free paper.
Printed in the United States of America
Cover design: Milenda Nan Ok Lee
Cover art: Chave / Jennings © Getty Images
CONTENTS
Preface to the English Edition ix
Introduction 1
PART I: THE HISTORICAL FOUNDATIONS
1
Origins and Characteristics of Chinese Medicine 9
2
The Lack of Existential Autonomy 12
3
The Longing for Existential Autonomy 16
4
Quotations from the Medical Classics 20
5
The Banality of Violence 24
v
6
The Mawangdui Texts 27
7
Anatomy, Physiology, and Pathology in the New Medicine 30
8
Deficiencies in the Credibility of the New Medicine 38
9
The Alternative Model: The View from Illness 41
10
Radical Healing: Life as a Form of Disease 48
11
Between Antiquity and the Modern Age 54
12
Two Medical Authors of the Ming and Qing Dynasties 65
PART II: MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY TIMES
13
The Confrontation with the Western Way of Life 87
14
The Persuasiveness of Western Medicine 93
15
The Opinions of Intellectuals and Politicians 99
vi CONTENTS
16
The Selection 106
17
The Surprise 115
18
The Creative Reception of Chinese Medicine in the West 118
19
The Objectification of the Discussion:
Opportunity and Challenge 132
Epilogue 142
Notes 153
Index 161
CONTENTS vii

PREFACE TO THE ENGLISH EDITION
This little book was first published in German in 2013 on request
by C. H. Beck. Information on Chinese medicine has been avail-
able to interested Westerners since the seventeenth century. It was
only in the wake of Henry Kissinger’s visit to China in 1971 that the
modernized version of historical Chinese medicine, so-called Tra-
ditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), gained worldwide attention.
Since then, there is hardly a small town, not to speak of major cities,
in Europe or the United States where no TCM is offered. Clinics
have been opened by a most heterogeneous group of practitioners.
These may be Chinese citizens with or without prior health care ex-
perience in their own country; Korean, Vietnamese, and Japanese
migrants; Europeans; or U.S. citizens. They all claim to practice
TCM, and yet their educational backgrounds and their competence
in acupuncture and Chinese pharmaceutics, massage, dietetics, and
other therapeutic approaches differ considerably. Germany, for ex-
ample, has had a rather multicultural therapy system for centuries.
Modern biomedicine may dominate, but Germany’s own histori-
cal therapeutic heritage has remained lively and sought after by
many. Hence it is not a clear-cut antagonism between Western and
Chinese medicine that has emerged since the opening of China.
ix