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Article ID: CBB000933518

On the Earliest Chinese Record of 1522 on the Inoculation against Smallpox and the Legends on Its Inventor (2008)

Jiang, Sheng (Author)

Ziran Kexueshi Yanjiu (Studies in the History of Natural Sciences)
Volume: 27
Pages: 123--130

Publication Date: 2008
Edition Details: [Translated title.] In Chinese.
Language: Chinese

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Medicine Smallpox Prevention and control of disease East Asia, civilization and culture Inoculation Ming dynasty (China, 1368-1644) China

Through the study of newly found materials, this paper reveals that the earliest record of artificial inoculation against smallpox in ancient China appeared in the year of 1522 in Zheng Shanfu's correspondence with his friend Ying Nanzhou found in Zheng's collection Shaogu ji, thus negating the conclusion of the Longqing Reign (15671572) made by many Chinese scholars, and the year of 1549 dated by Joseph Needham out of the study of Douzhen xinfa by Wan Quan. Based on a comparative study of newly found materials in some manuscripts including Guangbu tianhua shuo and other relevant classics, the paper checks up on the major logical elements that contribute to naming the inventor of inoculation against smallpox in different legend texts. It also explores the possible cultural drive that produced the very mistake of replacing Emperor Zhen with Emperor Ren, when Wang Dan, the Prime Minister at Emperor Zhen's time was introduced in the story on the origin of inoculation in Douzhen dinglun. Meanwhile, the paper proposes some questions that deserve further explorations.

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