ABSTRACT
A historical enquiry into the Chinese fight against disease, as seen through archaeological remains, oracle-bone inscriptions, excavated manuscripts, extant medical texts and so forth, enables a richer understanding of health and medicine in human history. Early Chinese ideas about aetiology and treatment often involved divination, spirits and rituals. Daoist and Buddhist religious perceptions of diseases were similar. They contradict present-day biomedical knowledge but necessitate historical and cultural contextualisation. From the Han dynasty onwards, physicians tended increasingly to associate medicinal substances, acumoxa and other therapeutic measures with the theories of qi, yin-yang, the five agents, viscera and organs, and channels, further acculturating disease and cures into classical Chinese medicine. The first comprehensive Chinese monograph on aetiology and the symptoms of disease came out in the Sui dynasty. The outbreak of epidemics, in particular, resulted in human tragedies, while also prompting medical innovations in relation to the exploration of etiological mechanisms and related medical treatments.
