Tactility and the Body in Early Chinese Medicine

Abstract

ArgumentIf visual inspection of corpses was central to the development of anatomy in modern Europe, one may ask which of the senses was important for the emergence of the predominant currents of scholarly medical knowledge and practice in third- and second-century B.C.E. China? This article argues that it was tactile perception prompted by a tactile exploration of living bodies. The evidence, derived from a close reading of the Mawangdui medical manuscripts, the 105th chapter of the Records of the Historian (Shi ji), and selected passages from the Huang Di's Inner Canon (Huang Di nei jing), points to three important trends: first, the tactile exploration of the extremities led to a rich vocabulary of compound words for pain (tong) as localized in specific body parts; second, the tactile exploration of the mai (vessels/pulses) gave rise to an even richer vocabulary on qualities of touch in pulse diagnostics; and third, the tactile exploration of the abdomen led to the assessment of the quality of the internal viscera (zang) with words that generally were used for describing the tactile quality of skin and flesh. This finding may appear surprising in the light of later developments during the dynastic history of Chinese medicine where tactile exploration of abdomen and extremities would appear unseemly. The author suggests that extensive tactile explorations of the body were possible before Confucius' teachings became a predominant aspect of state ideology.

Was acupuncture developed by Han Dynasty Chinese anatomists?

“…Taken in conjunction with previous work, which argues that the points and meridian sharing the character 沖/衝 chong (surging/gushing) form a description of the extent of the vascular system (Shaw, ), a pattern is beginning to emerge of a medical culture focussed on the importance of blood‐ both its physical anatomical properties as it courses through the body, and its metaphysical properties as the carrier of the life force ( Qi ) which travels with it. This is exemplified in the importance of pulse taking which forms the cornerstone of diagnosis in Chinese medicine (Keiji, ; Wang, ; Kuriyama, ; Hsu, ).…”

“You Can Learn Merely by Listening to the Way a Patient Walks through the Door”: The Transmission of Sensory Medical Knowledge

“…Studies on nonvisual senses in medical training have focused on the enskillment of novices and the role of sensory skills in the production, transmission, and acquisition of medical knowledge (Harris ; Harris and van Drie ; Hsu ; Maslen ; Prentice ; Pritzker ; Rice ; Rose ; van Drie ). While I embrace the focus of this literature on Western settings of medical education and on the process of knowledge transfer, the discussion also offers distinctive contributions to former studies.…”

“…In the context of science, the gaze has been interpreted as a mechanism used to create a perceptual distance so that an entity can be examined objectively; in other words, “A capacity to make external and concrete, and hence situate as perceptually ‘objective’” (Rice , 294). The objectifying gaze is especially relevant to the realm of medicine, which has been associated with visual processes considered essential in the creation and reproduction of (objective) medical knowledge of the body (Draper , 776; Foucault , 107; Howes‐Mischel , 194; Hsu , 7; Maslen , 54; Prentice , 6; Rice , 295; Sieler , 328; Throop , 424; van Drie , 171) . The case study discussed here allows questioning this visual dominancy in medical training, examining the role of nonvisual practices including auditory, tactile, and kinesthetic sensations within the teaching and learning of medical knowledge…”

Acupuncture Adverse Events in China: A Glimpse of Historical and Contextual Aspects

“…Discussions of anatomical studies to decide needling depths for the meridians of acupuncture can be found in the Neijing (circa 100 bce), [2][3][4][5] with generally shallow needling recommended compared to more recent periods. [6][7][8][9] In the Neijing, there are many descriptions of needling techniques, including the application of deep needling with rather thick needles.…”