Sabine Wilms   

Sabine Wilms, Ph.D.

Research, Lectures, Translation 

LECTURES

If you want to know more about my teaching philosophy, please read this description: 

Sabine Wilms Teaching Philosophy

If you want to know more about my research interests, please read this description:

Sabine Wilms Research Interests

The following titles present a sample of my lectures. To arrange a speaking engagement or attend a scheduled lecture, please check my calendar and contact me for availability and rates. I am happy to teach anything from 1-hour lectures to weekend seminars or full courses, in either English or German. I will always tailor my presentations to the audience, as for example in terms of incorporating Chinese textual examples or going over basic Chinese cosmology or medical concepts. In general, I require a minimum of six months to plan ahead. By clicking on most of the titles below, you will be able to access a brief description.

First taught as a 6-hr lecture in May 2008 at the 39th International TCM Congress in Rothenburg, Germany.

This course was first taught  in May 2008 at the 39th International TCM Congress in Rothenburg, Germany, as a 3-hr lecture but can easily be expanded.

(Die Bedeuting Sun Simiao's fur die heutige TCM)

The complete text of my 10-minute plenary lecture, given in both English and German at the 39th International TCM Congress in Rothenburg, Germany, which was dedicated to Sun Simiao.

To get a better sense of my contributions to this TCM conference, please click on the link below to read an account written IN GERMAN by a participant in my courses.

Sabine Wilms in Rothenburg 2008


Although centered around embryology, this lecture touches on much more than the care of the fetus and mother. It is inspired by my article on “The Transmission of Medical Knowledge on ‘Nurturing the Fetus’ in Early China” (in Asian Medicine: Tradition and Modernity 2, 2005) as well as my recent translating and editing work on Chinese Medicine in Fertility Disorders, edited by Andreas Noll and myself and forthcoming in 2009 by Thieme.

1. 

  • Medieval Dietary Therapy

This lecture originated as a text reading at the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine in London, UK. It is based on my translation of the chapter on shi zhi 食治 (dietary therapy) in Sun Simiao's Bei Ji Qian Jin Yao Fang and explores the relevance of this topic in classical Chinese medicine and Daoism After presenting the content of this text, we consider questions such as:

    • What is the difference between “food” 食 and “medicine” 藥 in this text and in other early Chinese texts?
    • How does this evaluation of food (see preface in particular) fit with the categorization of drugs in the materia medica classics?
    • How does this chapter on dietary medicine contribute to our understanding of the practice of medicine in China?
    • How is medicine defined, what does it include, and how are these different aspects valued? 
    • What is the role of the physician and/or the author of medical literature? Are they identical, cooperating with each other, or perhaps in conflict? What effect could this have had on the actual treatment of disease?
    • What notions of health and sickness are reflected in this chapter? How is sickness explained and where is the RESPONSIBILITY for sickness placed? In other words, who is BLAMED when someone gets sick? What explanations of sickness emerge in this chapter?
    • Significance for Modern Practice

For other examples of lectures and presentations that I have given over the years, click this list of past presentations.