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.
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.
송대 옹저는 일상생활에서 계층에 상관없이 누구나 걸릴 수 있는 질병이었다. 이 논문은 송대 옹저에 대해 당시 사람들이 발병 원인을 어떻게 설명하고 또 이를 치료하기 위해 어떤 시도와 노력을 했는지 옹저를 직접 앓았던 병자와 가족들의 투병 경험을 중심으로 살펴보았다. 지금까지 송대 질병사 관련 연구는 상한병에 대한 연구가 주로 이루어져 왔고 그 외에 남쪽 ...지역의 풍토병 또는 온역 등 전염병과 관련된 연구가 주를 이루었다. 이러한 경향 속에 어디서나 누구든 겪을 수 있는 일상의 질병으로서 옹저에 대한 주목은 의미 있어 보이며, 더구나 병자의 시각에서 그들의 경험을 복원하는 것은 기존 연구에서 크게 시도되지 못했던 부분이라 더욱 의미 있다.
이 논문은 송대인의 투병 경험을 복원하기 위해 홍매 『이견지』의 옹저 관련 60여 건의 일화를 분석하였다. 이들 일화는 대략 12세기 전후반에 걸친 사례이며, 병자의 신분은 사대부이거나 사대부의 가족인 경우가 다수를 이루었다.
이들 일화는 모두 옹저와 관련이 있지만 내용상 크게 두 가지 상이한 경향을 띠었다. 하나는 옹저의 발병 경위에 대한 서사가 중심인 일화로서 발병의 원인을 주로 병자의 평소 생활 속 잘못에서 찾는 경향을 보였다. 이는 아마도 옹저의 발병 원인을 명확히 알 수 없는 상황에서 당시 사람들의 옹저에 대한 은유의 방식을 보여준다. 그들은 신에 대한 모독, 직분에서의 과실과 잘못, 살생을 저지른 것 등에 대한 징벌 등으로 옹저의 발병을 이해하는 정형화된 인식(stereotype)을 하였다. 옹저의 발병 경위에 대해 병자의 평소 행실에서 옹저의 발병 사유를 찾는 이러한 정형화된 경향은 사대부 계층에서도 분명하게 나타났다. 특히, 사인의 경우 과도한 법의 집행이나 수탈 및 살생이 주로 거론되었다. 이외에 일반 민의 경우 슬(虱)로 인한, 사인의 경우 단사(丹砂)의 중독으로 인한 사례가 많았다. 정사 열전 자료에서 주로 보이는, 옹저의 발병을 ‘우환(걱정)과 울분(억울함)’ 때문으로 보는 서사 전통은 이견지 등 필기 자료에서는 보이지 않았던 것도 흥미롭다. 또한 외형상의 유사성을 상세히 설명하여 옹저를 음계(陰界)의 처벌 흔적으로 묘사하는 서사적 특징은 이러한 정형화된 인식을 더욱 견고하게 하였고, 관련 일화를 알려 세상 사람들이 경계(警戒) 삼게 해야 한다는 사인들의 생각은 이러한 인식을 확산하는 데 기여했다.
또 다른 하나의 경향은 옹저의 치료 과정에 대한 서사가 중심을 이루었는데, 옹저의 발병 원인과 경위를 은유적으로 사유했던 것과는 다르게 치료에 있어서 그들은 주로 ‘의사’를 찾았다. 옹저를 앓게 되면 대체로 외과의, 양의, 도인 및 옹저 치료에 이름난 이들을 찾아 치료를 받으려고 하였다. 지역에는 신에게서 옹저 관련 비책을 받아 의술이 뛰어난 자, 신묘한 옹저치료약을 보유하고 있는 자, 대대로 돌침을 찔러 옹저를 치료하는 데 유명한 자들이 활동하고 있었고, 이러한 정보가 지역 사회에서는 공유되고 있었다. 이들의 치료는 대체로 옹저를 찢고 고름을 짜내는 외과적 시술이 주를 이루었는데, 병자들은 치료 과정에서 엄청난 고통을 호소했다. 옹저의 치료에서도 사대부 계층은 역시 지역의 이름난 외과의 및 옹저 전문의를 찾아 외과적 치료를 받은 경우가 다수였다. 중국 의학사에서 진맥 중심의 내과적이고 학술사적 의학의 발전에 영향을 미쳤다고 하는 사대부... 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 ca... KCI Citation Count: 0
During the Song period, abscesses 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 and infectious diseases , 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 written by Hong Mai. These cases span across the mid to late 12th century, with a majority of the patients being from the literati () 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 () 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, 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 , 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 over religious methods in their treatment, reflecting a characteristic of the local medical culture surrounding abscesses during the Song period.
