Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
  1. Home
  2. Books
  3. The Transmission of Chinese Medicine
  • Cited by 174
Publisher:
Cambridge University Press
Online publication date:
December 2009
Print publication year:
1999
Online ISBN:
9780511612459
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511612459
Subjects:
Area Studies, Medicine: General Interest, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Asian Studies, Anthropology
Series:
Cambridge Studies in Medical Anthropology (7)
Information

Book description

This is one of the first studies of traditional medical education in an Asian country. Conducting extensive fieldwork in Kunming, the capital of Yunnan Province in the People's Republic of China, Elisabeth Hsu became the disciple of, a Qigong master a scholarly private practitioner, who almost wordlessly conveys esoteric knowledge and techniques; attended seminars given by a senior Chinese doctor, an acupuncturist and masseur, who plunges his followers into the study of arcane medical classics, and studied with students at the Yunnan College of Traditional Chinese Medicine, where the standardised knowledge of official Chinese medicine is inculcated. Dr Hsu compares the theories and practices of these different Chinese medical traditions and shows how the same technical terms may take on different meanings in different contexts. This is a fascinating, insider's account of traditional medical practices, which brings out the way in which the context of instruction shapes knowledge.

Reviews

‘… an excellent blend of ideas, narrative and information … the book is beautifully-written and the ideas are succinctly expressed … Elisabeth Hsu offers thought-provoking insights that are pertinent to anybody who is interested in the education of practitioners and therefore the future of Chinese medicine.’

Source: Journal of Chinese Medicine

‘As the first ethnographic description of a college of traditional Chinese medicine [Hsu's] book opens a whole new area for research in medical anthropology … this book will stimulate new research by other ethnologists, and its talented author will surely continue to expand the reach of medical anthropology.’

Source: The Journal of The Royal Anthropological Institute

Refine List

Actions for selected content:

Select all | Deselect all
  • View selected items
  • Export citations
  • Download PDF (zip)
  • Save to Kindle
  • Save to Dropbox
  • Save to Google Drive

Save Search

You can save your searches here and later view and run them again in "My saved searches".

Please provide a title, maximum of 40 characters.
Cancel
×

Contents

Contents

Metrics

Altmetric attention score

Full text views

Total number of HTML views: 0
Total number of PDF views: 0 *
Loading metrics...

Book summary page views

Total views: 0 *
Loading metrics...

* Views captured on Cambridge Core between #date#. This data will be updated every 24 hours.

Usage data cannot currently be displayed.