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Cosmology, Philosophy, and Medicine Pre-Natal Care in Early Medieval China
Yang tai 养胎 (Nurturing the Fetus) in Medieval Chinese Medical Literature
Medical literature on this topic contains the following elements:
- Creation and development of the fetus
- Effects of pregnancy on the mother: affected channels, organs, other parts
- How to nurture it: prohibitions and recommendations (diet, activities, sights/sounds, emotions…)
- Supplementary, preventative, curative medicinal formulas for specific symptoms in specific month
- Acumoxa advice
Tai Chan Shu 胎产书 (Book of the Fetus and Gestation)
Context of early Han medical literature:
The Mawangdui medical manuscripts and the Tai Chan Shu
- Content: iatromantic drawings, placenta-burial chart, formulas
- Account of ten months of gestation
A discussion covering:
- Significance of knowledge on embryology
- Medical care of pregnancy/childbirth/fertility
- Female body in sexual cultivation
- Female body as “androgynous” in later theoretical classics (Huang Di Nei Jing, etc)
- Female body in formula literature
Xu Zhi Cai Zhu Yue Yang Tai Fang 徐之才逐月养胎方 (Xu Zhicai’s Month-By-Month Formulas for Nurturing the Fetus)
Context of medieval formula literature:
Sun Simiao’s 孙思邈 Bei Ji Qian Jin Yao Fang 备急千金要方
- Development
of gynecology (pathology and therapy) from dai xia (“below the
girdle”/vag. discharge) to e lu (“malign dew, ” lochia) to tiao jing
(regulating the menses)
Xu Zhi Cai Zhu Yue Yang Tai Fang 徐之才逐月养胎方
- History of the source
- Content month by month
- Formula discussion: E Jiao Tang 阿胶汤 (Ass Hide Glue Decoction)
Including; ingredients - reference to the Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing (appendix of my book) preparations, intended effects and modern equivalents
- Comparison with Tai Chan Shu
- Correlative thinking: development of the Five Phases during Han period and connection to the present scheme
- Hua tai yao 滑胎药 (“medicines for making the fetus slippery”), i.e. labor-inducing formulas
- Discussion of Dan Shen Gao (Salvia Paste) including ingredients and clinical efficacy
Ren Shen Mai Tu Yue Jin Fa 姙娠脈圖月禁法 (Charts of the Channels and Methods of Monthly Prohibitions During Pregnancy)
- Context of the text: The Ishimpô (Tamba Yasuyori, 982 CE, Japan), development of medicine and med. literature between the Qianjinfang and tenth century Japan
- Editions of the text, discussion of problematics with authorship and editing
The gynecological sections:- Content overview
- Example: intercourse with ghosts
- The Chan Jing 产经: Textual history and content
- Comparison
of month-by-month account of gestation with the two sources presented
above: What are the differences? What do these mean? What can
they tell us about the development of medical theory and practice in
Han to Tang China?
- Additional elements:
- Discussion of the charts. What do the lines mean? The physiological features? Function? Information conveyed? Clinical use?
- History of drawing the human body, esp. the naked body, in China
- Comparison with drawings in other editions of the Ishimpô
Discussion
- Embryology
- Gynecology
- Medicine (theory and practice)
- Cosmology
- Philosophy in general (Daoism? Confucianism? Buddhism?)
- Early to medieval Chinese notions about the body, women, creation, medicine, health and disease…
- Clinical
applicability of this material in modern US practice? why should you
(or would you want to) learn about early Chinese medical history? How
might what you have learned in this course change your daily practice?
- Answer questions!
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