IsisCB Explore

Article ID: CBB001202429

Healing and Ritual Imagination in Chinese Medicine: The Multiple Interpretations of Zhuyou (2014)

Cho, Philip S. (Author)

East Asian Science, Technology, and Medicine
Volume: 38
Pages: 71-112

Outside Links

PubMed

WorldCat

Google Scholar

JSTOR

Rituals Medicine and culture Medicine, Chinese traditional Medicine and religion Philosophy of medicine Song Dynasty (China, 960-1279) China

In the Chinese medical corpus, ritual healing largely fell under the rubric of zhuyou 祝由 to uncover and expel the unknown, imperceptible, and occult causes of illness. Often dealing with uncertain or incurable cases, zhuyou remained at the cutting-edge of contemporary medicine. For a rising medical elite after the Northern Song, zhuyou was the branch of medicine to flexibly incorporate and critique the variety of ritual therapies into orthodox practice. Zhuyou employed prayer, incantations, talismans, gestures, and drugs in a nuanced clinical encounter to reveal the hidden root of disorder ranging from a blockage of qi, spirit possession, emotional imbalance, or loss of virtue. These rituals opened an imaginative space for therapeutic play where patients and healers could use spiritual proxies and props to address difficult emotions or issues that were often the hidden cause of affliction. The development of zhuyou also reflected the changing role of ritual in the history of Chinese medicine and the exchanges among physicians, Daoist priests, and other ritual healers. The significance of ritual in Chinese medical history has largely remained unclear as most editions of medical classics republished since the early twentieth century excise relevant chapters and zhuyou manuscripts, until recently, were uncatalogued.

...More

Citation URI

http://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001202429/

Citations Indexes

Similar Citations

Article Furth, Charlotte; (2006)
The Physician as Philosopher of the Way: Zhu Zhenheng (1282--1358) (/isis/citation/CBB001031149/)

Article Harrison, Henrietta; (2012)
Rethinking Missionaries and Medicine in China: The Miracles of Assunta Pallotta, 1905--2005 (/isis/citation/CBB001202139/)

Chapter Deutsch, Yaacov; (2013)
Religious Rituals and Ethnographic Knowledge: Sixteenth-Century Descriptions of Circumcision (/isis/citation/CBB001201683/)

Book Brown, Miranda; (2015)
The Art of Medicine in Early China: The Ancient and Medieval Origins of a Modern Archive (/isis/citation/CBB001422618/)

Article Goldschmidt, Asaf; (2013)
Three Case Histories on Cold Damage Disorders from Ninety Discussions on Cold Damage Disorders by Xu Shuwei (1080--1154) (/isis/citation/CBB001510508/)

Thesis Hinrichs, T. J.; (2003)
The Medical Transforming of Governance and Southern Customs in Song Dynasty China (960--1279 C.E.) (/isis/citation/CBB001561979/)

Article Han, Jishao; (2008)
External Alchemy and the Science of the TCM Formula in the Song Dynasty (/isis/citation/CBB000933534/)

Book Goldschmidt, Asaf Moshe; (2009)
The Evolution of Chinese Medicine: Song Dynasty, 960--1200 (/isis/citation/CBB001221365/)

Article Liu, Shu-fen; (2006)
Between self-cultivation and the monastic code: tea and medicinal soup during the Tang and Song Dynasties (/isis/citation/CBB000701136/)

Article Zhang, Hanmo; (2013)
Enchantment, Charming, and the Notion of the Femme Fatalein Early Chinese Historiography (/isis/citation/CBB001510502/)

Thesis Stephen Boyanton; (2015)
The "Treatise on Cold Damage" and the Formation of Literati Medicine: Social, Epidemiological, and Medical Change in China, 1000–1400 (/isis/citation/CBB950363838/)

Article Jia-Chen Fu; (2017)
Artemisinin and Chinese Medicine as Tu Science (/isis/citation/CBB128236614/)

Article Po-Huei, Hsieh; (2012)
Wang Shuhe Maijue (the Pulse-Diagnostic Song of Wang Shuhe) Controversy and the Construction of Scholarly Medical Knowledge in Late Imperial China (/isis/citation/CBB001213714/)

Book Strickmann, Michel; Faure, Bernard; (2002)
Chinese Magical Medicine (/isis/citation/CBB000201949/)

Article Jo, J.; (2015)
A Study on the Awareness of Chinese Medicine by Medical Missionaries: Focused on The China Medical Missionary Journal (1887--1932) (/isis/citation/CBB001422436/)

Book Boddice, Rob; (2014)
Pain and Emotion in Modern History (/isis/citation/CBB001202301/)

Book He Bian; (2020)
Know Your Remedies: Pharmacy and Culture in Early Modern China (/isis/citation/CBB874111290/)

Article Alter, Joseph S.; (2008)
Rethinking the History of Medicine in Asia: Hakim Mohammed Said and the Society for the Promotion of Eastern Medicine (/isis/citation/CBB001031012/)

Book Shail, Andrew; Howie, Gillian; (2005)
Menstruation: A Cultural History (/isis/citation/CBB000930580/)

Article Huang, Longxiang; (2005)
Breakthrough in and Reflection on the Study of the Bronze Acupuncture Statue in Toyko's National Museum of Japan (/isis/citation/CBB000502035/)