ABSTRACT
Ironically, apart from in the work of one or two of the very few highly engaged scholars, the subject of medical prohibitions in China has been almost a taboo itself, or at least a highly neglected subject. Yet, both medical literature and everyday life in China is brimful of maxims about what not to do and when not to do it. In fact, there is almost as much literature on restraining medical and dietary cultures, as there is on theory and therapeutic strategies. This chapter is a preliminary attempt to bring some order into what often seems a bewildering array of categories of prohibition.
