Pulse Diagnosis in Early Chinese Medicine: The Telling Touch: 68 (University of Cambridge Oriental Publications, Series Number 68)

This is a study of the earliest extensive account of Chinese pulse diagnosis, or more accurately, the examination of mai. Dr Hsu focuses on a biography of Chunyu Yi, a doctor of the early Han, and presents the first complete translation into English of the Memoir in the Historical Records by Sima Qian (d. ca 86 BCE). This Memoir contains biographies of the physician, medical case histories and interviews, and constitutes a document of enormous importance to the history of medicine in China. The analysis covers the first ten medical cases and their rich vocabulary on touch, as used in Chinese pulse diagnosis. The patients treated were mostly nobility of the kingdom of Qi in Eastern China, who suffered from the indulgences of court life and were treated with early forms of decoction, fomentation, fumigation, acupuncture and moxibustion. To date there is no book on early China of its kind. Framing the field. -- Introduction ; The questions ; Diagnosis and medicine in the Warring States and the early Han ; conceptions of the body in the Warring States and the early Han ; Discussion -- The memoir of Chunyu Yi in Shi ji 105. Outline of the memoir (Canggong zhuan) ; Translation of the memoir of Chunyu Yi ; Commentators and commentaries to the memoir ; Map of Chunyu Yi's itineraries -- Translation and interpretation of the medical case histories 1-10 in the memoir of Chunyu Yi. Text structure semantics ; -- Case 1 : coagulated blood in the liver ; -- Case 2 : qi trapped in the chest ; -- Case 3 : cold waters congealing into a mass ; -- Case 4 : hot waters dispersing as sweat pearls ; -- Case 5 : the queen dowager's overexposure to yang ; -- Case 6 : a body form in dissolution, delirium and death ; -- Case 7 : a lethal constipation ; -- Case 8 : a deadly diarrhoea ; -- Case 9 : the king of Jibei's overabsorption of yin ; -- Case 10 : -- two cases in one : qi went into the abdomen ;-- Discussion of the medical case histories 1-10. This is a study of the earliest extensive account of Chinese pulse diagnosis, or more accurately, the examination of mai. Dr Hsu focuses on Chunyu Yi, a doctor of the early Han, and presents the first complete translation into English of his Memoir which appears in The Records of the Historian by Sima Qian (d. ca 86 BCE). This Memoir contains twenty-five medical case histories, and constitutes a document of enormous importance to the history of medicine in China