During the Song period, abscesses(癰疽) were a disease that could affect anyone regardless of their class. This study examines how people at that time explained the cause of abscesses and their efforts ...to treat them, focusing on the experiences of those who suffered from abscesses and their families. Previous research on disease history during the Song period primarily focused on ailments like colds (傷寒) and infectious diseases (瘟疫), or plagues prevalent in the southern regions of China. On the other hand, examining abscesses as a common everyday illness that could affect anyone and considering them from the perspective of patients’ experiences has remained unexplored in previous studies.To reconstruct the experiences of Song period patients, this study analyzes over sixty anecdotes related to abscesses found in Yi Jian Zhi (夷堅志) written by Hong Mai. These cases span across the mid to late 12th century, with a majority of the patients being from the literati (士人) class or connected to the literati.These anecdotes exhibit two distinct trends. One focuses on narratives surrounding the onset of abscesses, attributing their cause primarily to the patients’ lifestyle. When the cause of the abscesses was unknown, people metaphorically attributed its onset to perceived blasphemy against God, an act of killing, negligence in duties, or other wrongdoings. This trend is evident among the literati class in particular, where abscesses were often linked to factors such as excessive legal executions or exploitation, and even acts of killing people. Except for those cases, in explaining the cause of abscesses in commoners, there were instances caused by a pediculus infestation, while in case of literati, Dansha (丹砂) poisoning was a common cause. It is interesting to note that the narrative tradition, prevalent in official history biographies, which attributes the onset of abscesses to worries and resentment, was not evident in written records such as Yi Jian Zhi. Furthermore, the detailed description of external similarities, portraying abscesses as traces of punishment from the underground realm (陰界), is a narrative characteristic that solidified such stereotypical perceptions. The literati's notion that they should alert people through these related anecdotes contributed to the spread of this perception. Another trend in these anecdotes was centered around narratives of abscess treatment, where the focus shifted primarily to seeking “doctors,” unlike the metaphorical explanations of abscess onset causes and processes. When afflicted with abscesses, people generally sought out those renowned surgeons, known as Yang-yi (瘍醫), and those famous for treating abscesses. In local communities, individuals who had “received the divine secrets of abscesses,” those possessing their own mysterious abscesses cures, and those famous for generations for treating abscesses by using stone acupuncture were active. Such information about them was shared within the local societies. Their treatment predominantly consisted of surgical procedures to lance abscesses and drain pus, which often led patients to endure significant pain during the treatment process. In many cases, such patients sought treatment from well-known local surgeons and abscess specialists who surgically treated them. The literati, who are said to have influenced the development of pulse-centered medical and academic medicine in China, also sought out surgeons for abscess treatment. Medical formularies compiled by the court as well as privately published ones rarely mentioned surgical methods utilizing tools. The fact that surgical techniques were utilized in local regions at that time indicates a disparity between the official medical practices documented in texts and the practical methods employed in local communities.An analysis of approximately sixty anecdotes related to abscesses shows that abscesses were characterized by unknown causes and excruciating pain. Their onset was often attributed to the patient’s lifestyle and wrongdoings, and they were also perceived as punishment for one’s wrongdoings. However, as it was a disease where treatment effects could be relatively easily observed through surgical procedures, there was a proactive utilization of the locally formed treatment environment, preferring surgical interventions over relying on religious powers. Contrary to the medical trends and methods outlined in medical literature, surgical treatments were prevalent as the chosen method of treatment among the population in local communities. It appears that the realities experienced, reasoned, and shared by people in the Song period regarding the perception and response to abscesses did not necessarily align with those of mainstream medical practices. Moreover, despite attributing the onset of abscesses to one’s wrongdoing, there was a preference for seeking surgeons or Yang-yi (瘍醫) over religious methods in their treatment, reflecting a characteristic of the local medical culture surrounding abscesses during the Song period.
Abstract
The present study traces the changing meanings of Su Shi's Qiuchi rock in Song poetry. As an aesthetic artifact, the rock may be gifted and exchanged through literati social interactions. At ...a more personal level, the rock reminds Su of a mysterious dream and symbolizes a place of retreat, described as his homeland in Shu, a Daoist grotto heaven, and a utopia that is superior to Peach Blossom Spring. The rock also serves as Su's most faithful companion in the dark days of his exile to the far south. In the poems of Southern Song poets, who experienced the trauma of the fall of northern China to the Jurchens, the rock turns into a nostalgic object but also prompts acute reflections on petrophilia as a morally and philosophically problematic passion.
Abstract
Along the Grand Canal and in adjacent areas, where the pursuit of livelihoods among literati was most concentrated and visible, were important centers for the creation and dissemination of ...Ming and Qing dynasty novels and operas. To a large extent, the pursuit of livelihoods among literati brought about the birth of a large number of literary works, particularly Ming dynasty and Qing dynasty novels and operas. On the one hand, literati earned a wage through their livelihoods, improved their living environments, and laid a certain economic backdrop for later Ming and Qing novels and operas; on the other hand, through reader acceptance and market feedback, the literati put forward requirements for literary creation that closely aligned with readers and the market, and to a certain degree brought about changes in the subject matter and artistry of novels and operas. It can be said that the fertile Jiangnan region and the Grand Canal gave birth to literary and artistic giants and works that have been passed down through the centuries. The present article is an analysis of the relationship between literati livelihoods and the development of Ming and Qing novels and operas in the Grand Canal region.
In this paper, the modification methods of the Chinese Christian painting created by the missionaries in the late Ming Dynasty (1573–1644) were analyzed with the Chinese Catholic studies of the “Song ...nianzhu guicheng” and the “Tianzhu Jiangsheng Chuxiang Jingjie”. After carefully studying the differences between the Chinese Christian painting and the original European version, the study shows that these Chinese Christian paintings were integrated with the Chinese literati paintings’ elements and literati symbols, which include the “Yudiancun” (raindrop texture stroke), “Pimacun” (hemp-fiber texture stroke), “landscape screen” (painted screens with natural landscapes), and the mark of Chinese famous literati such as Dong Qichang. These adjustments conducted by missionaries aimed to make religious paintings more in line with literati aesthetics, which could build connections between the missionaries and the literati community for proselytization. However, the missionaries neglected that the literati community certainly would not sacrifice the existing social order and the vested interest brought by the current Confucian culture to support new ideas of “liberty” and “equality” in the Catholic doctrine, which caused a huge setback in the missionary work since the Nanjing Teaching Case in 1616. This research makes significant contributions to the understanding of cultural exchanges in the 17th century through a detailed exploration of the adjustments made by missionaries in the visual representations within Chinese Catholic literature.
During the explanation of the origin of ‘prescription (醫方),’ an interesting phenomena in the accumulation and diffusion of medical knowledge in the Song Period is that many prescriptions contain ...narratives with bizarre elements, such as those given by God through dreams, received from ‘strange people (異人),’ or from animals appearing in these dreams. This study features an anecdote called ‘zhiguai (志怪) Medical Cases,’ which contains bizarre elements in the dissemination process of prescription, narrative of the treatment experience, and specific content of prescription, called a ‘zhiguai prescription.’ In previous research, such prescriptions were often called a ‘God-delivered prescription (神授方).’ However, a ‘zhiguai prescription’ appears adequate because it includes a number of factors beyond the ‘God-delivered prescription.’ This study examines the background of the intensive emergence of massive zhiguai medical cases in the Song Period, reviews the characteristics and significance of the zhiguai prescriptions in the context of postwar medical history, and finally investigates the influence of the bizarre narrative by tracing the dissemination of related prescriptions. This study found that the zhiguai prescription experiences were different from the so-called ‘academic’ that was formed in the Song Period, and it was ‘another’ method of medical knowledge dissemination based on their narratives. The emergence of many zhiguai medical cases in the Song Period, especially in the Southern Song period, is related to the activities of the literati official (士大夫). The literati officials of the Song Period frequently witnessed strange or anomalous phenomena in their daily life. They relied on them to relieve the powerlessness of reality and left records. In addition, unlike the authors of the zhiguai genre of the previous era, they maintained an attitude faithful to the facts when recording them. The massive appearance of the zhiguai medical cases in the Song Period was the result of the combination of the intention of the literati official who valued medicine their medical knowledge to spread the awareness, their reliance on the strange or anomalous phenomena, and their attitude that emphasized a realistic narrative. The significance of the zhiguai prescription of the Song Period can be found in the supplementation and diffusion of existing medical knowledge. In previous research, these were collectively described as ‘public experienced methods’; however, various characteristics were found by analyzing the nineteen cases of zhiguai medical cases in Yijianzhi (夷堅志) by comparing them with the related contents of the herbal medicine and prescription books of the time. In the use of herbal medicines for specific diseases, there are cases that are unusual or meaningful when compared with existing herbal medicine or prescription books, and thus, this became a decisive basis for the expansion of herbal knowledge in the later period. Moreover, new treatment methods that were not often seen in medical books at the time were introduced, and they have been continuously transmitted to the medical and herbal medicine books since then. Additionally, this study also found cases that were focused on promoting medical knowledge that was not well-known, and the knowledge that must be known, although they were recorded in the existing medical and herbal medicine books. The record of the zhiguai medical cases evidently had its meanings in supplementing and disseminating existing medical knowledge. Prescriptions in the record of the zhiguai medical cases of the Song Period were subsequently recorded in various medical and herbal medicine books, and they handed down until the Ming and Qing period. Later, when a zhiguai prescription was described in a medical book, its bizarre narrative was not omitted, leaving a trace in the name of the prescription. It can be seen that this bizarre narrative served as a decisive opportunity for the prescription to be transmitted later, considering that existing medical books mentioned the related narratives in Yijianzhi (夷堅志) as the source for these subsequent transmissions. When discussing the characteristics of the Song Period in Chinese medical history, many studies state that a strong academic medical trend was centered on the pulse and internal medicine, referring to the development of printing technology, the literati official’s interest in medicine, and the compilation of medical books. The contents and dissemination of the zhiguai medical cases of the Southern Song confirm ‘another’ tradition of medical knowledge transmission that relied on the bizarre phenomena and its narratives in Chinese medical history. Its transmission to the Ming and Qing period signifies the continuation of this tradition into later times. The fact that the zhiguai medical cases were later recorded in medical books in the Ming and Qing period clearly shows the dynamism of how knowledge of the ‘case’ affects the knowledge expansion of medicine, thereby revealing the power of ‘another’ tradition called the ‘zhiguai’ narratives.
This paper explores the widespread practice of adding multiple inscriptions to a single artwork at different times in the fifteenth to seventeenth centuries China. Such practices became prominent ...when literati painters revisited artworks they had previously created or owned, or when paintings had accumulated a multitude of inscriptions over time. Within the realm of Chinese art discourse, this phenomenon is denoted as “re-inscriptions.” By examining re-inscriptions written on extant paintings and embodied in individual anthologies, this paper demonstrates that these texts transcended the boundaries of art and touched upon the painters’ own lives and the society in which they lived. On the one hand, literati painters engaged in a dialogue with their past selves through re-inscriptions, exploring themes of mortality, aging, and the passage of time – topics seldom addressed in traditional Chinese painting. On the other hand, they utilized re-inscriptions as a means of social interaction, with some re-inscriptions becoming formulaic, adaptable to various artworks to meet different social needs. Furthermore, when faced with preexisting inscriptions on an artwork, artists added new ones for a conversation with their predecessors. Throughout this process, the accumulation of inscriptions transformed the artwork into a layered cultural narrative, and enabled the literati painters in shaping a elite community transcending time and space.
This paper examines the correlation between the form and surface visual narrative of Han bamboo-carved stationery and painting, with the purpose of comprehending how bamboo carving articulates the ...material and cultural universe of the Han people. During the mid-Ming and Qing dynasties, the Han literati possessed a large number of exquisite bamboo-carved stationeries with landscape motifs. The relationship between bamboo carving landscape motifs and landscape painting is a manifestation of the fusion of Confucian religions in the Han literati culture. We combine a discussion of the decorative motifs in bamboo carving work together with the brushstrokes, techniques and composition of landscape painting in order to explore the expression of culture in bamboo carving. Although bamboo carving art mainly represents the interaction between bamboo carving artists and the material pursuit of literati, it also exhibits the development relationship between painting and craftsmanship. The landscape motif theme of bamboo carving is the representative of craftsmanship and innovation across materials. This is also a valid reason for investigating how Han craftsmanship gradually became professionalized and artistic. The paper argues that bamboo carvings as utensils created a new stage for Han literati culture and facilitated contact with the private market.
