Chinese Medical

History: Earliest
Times to the Han

Earliest Times to 206 BCE

 Studying Chinese History
• Learning to Pronounce Pinyin, http://mandarin.about.com
o Wade-Giles romanization, http://www.pinyin.info/
romanization/wadegiles/basic.html
• Chinese Names
• Dates: CE (AD) and BCE (BC)
• Letting go of “The Eternal China”
• What is a dynasty?
o How Useful are Dynasties Historically?
• Avoiding reading the present into the past
o Anachronism
o Whig History
• Why the exotic is really a reflection of yourself
 Studying Medical History
• Dangerous Assumptions
o Biomedicine is the truth to which other medical
systems were aspiring
o Non-Western people would have developed
biomedical ideas (germ theory, chemical medicines,
etc.) if they had access to the scientific tools
(microscopes, chemical analysis, etc.)
o Illnesses in the past were the same as today
• Restrospective diagnosis
o Traditional medical systems preserve the wisdom of
the past unchanged
o Medical terms meant the same thing in the past as
they do today
 Studying Chinese

Medical History
• Ideas to let go of:
o Chinese medicine is alternative
o Chinese medicine is holistic or natural or whatever
other positive adjective you want to use
o Chinese medicine has remained unchanged for (insert
long period of time)
o Chinese medicine is Daoist (Taoist)
o Chinese medicine is shamanic
o “I already know what (insert famous physician)’s
ideas were about.”
The Structure of this Course
• For each class:
o General history of the period
• Social, intellectual, economic, and political
o Important developments in medicine
• Broad changes in the theory, practice, or social
context of medicine
• Emphasizing how these were seen at that time
o Specific developments of great importance
• Those authors, texts, and ideas which had the
greatest impact on Chinese medicine as we practice
it nowadays
 Major Chinese Dynasties
Xia ?ca. 1900-ca. 1350 BCE?
Shang ca. 1600- ca. 1045 BCE
Zhou ca. 1045-221 BCE
Warring States ca. 475-221 BCE
Qin 221-206 BCE
Han 206 BCE-220 CE
Period of Division 220-589
Sui 589-618
Tang 618-907
5 Dynasties and 10 Kingdoms 907-680
Song 960-1279
Jin 1115-1234
Yuan 1271-1368
Ming 1368-1644
Qing 1644-1911
What is China?
Legendary Beginnings
 The Sage-Emperors of
Antiquity
• What is a sage (sheng 聖)?
o A human
o A human who understands the patterns and principles of
the world—i.e. the Way (Dao 道)
o A human who understands the Way and lives in accord
with it
• What is a sage-emperor (di 帝), a.k.a. “thearch”
o A sage who is also the ruler
o A founder of civilized life
o A culture-hero (about whom many stories are told)
• The “Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors (sanwang wudi 三
皇五帝)”
 Fuxi 伏羲 and Nüwa ⼥女媧
• Brother and sister who
repopulated the world after
a great flood, form humans
out of clay—in addition to
more natural methods
• Nüwa repairs heaven after
it is damaged
• Fuxi invents hunting,
fishing, and cooking
• Fuxi creates the eight
trigrams (bagua ⼋八卦)
Shennong 神農
• The “Divine Farmer”
• Inventor of agriculture
• Founder of Chinese herbal
medicine
o “Shennong tasted the
hundred herbs 神農嘗百
草.”
o Hence, the Classic of
Materia Medica of the Divine
Farmer (Shennong bencao
jing 神農本草經)
 The Yellow Emperor ⿈黃帝
• a.k.a. the Yellow Thearch, the
Yellow Lord
• Invented the state and many
other things
• Became very popular in the late
Warring States and early Han
dynasty
o Hence the Yellow Emperor’s
Inner Classic (Huangdi neijing
⿈黃帝內經)
• Later presented as a heavenly
immortal who flew into heaven
on the back of a dragon (some
stories say along with his whole
clan and imperial retinue)
 Yao 堯 and Shun 舜
• Yao was a good emperor who cared for the people and
decided to cede his throne to Shun—who was not part of
the imperial family—because Yao was convinced that
Shun was the most virtuous and capable man at the time.
• The two became a symbol of meritocracy (selecting those
who rule by their good qualities) and virtuous rule.
• For Confucius, Shun was the paragon of a good ruler,
whose virtue (de 德) was so great that it transformed and
pacified the people without Shun taking any action: “If
there was a ruler who achieved order without taking any
action, it was, perhaps, Shun. What was there to do but to
hold himself in a respectful posture and to face due
south?” (Analects 15.5)
Yu the Great ⼤大禹
• Under the reign of Yao, Yu’s father, Gun
鯀, was ordered to control the floods
ravaging the empire. Gun built many
dikes to hold the water back, but could
not stop the floods.
• Yu chose a different method. He created
waterways to allow the floodwaters safe
access to the sea, draining the
floodwaters. In gratitude, the people
made him the next emperor, and he
became the founding emperor of the Xia
dynasty.
• Yu’s regulating of the waters later
became a metaphor for the way
acupuncture regulates the flow of qi in
the body.
The Xia Dynasty

夏朝
ca. 1900-ca. 1350
 The Xia Dynasty
• The first official history of China, Records of the Historian
(Shiji 史記, ca. 90 BCE), lists the rulers of both the Xia and
the Shang dynasties and the periods of their reigns. For
years, scholars doubted the existence of either dynasty.
• Recent archaeological research and investigation of oracle
bones (more on those soon) has confirmed that the list of
Shang rulers in the Shiji is almost completely accurate.
This has caused scholars to question if the list of Xia
rulers might also be accurate.
• An archaeological site in Henan province, Erlitou ⼆二⾥里頭,
is now suspected of being the site of the Xia dynasty’s
captial
• What did the Xia actually control?
The Shang Dynasty

商朝
ca. 1600-ca. 1045
 The Shang Dynasty
• The first historically verified dynasty
o Beginning of writing in China
• Shang political and religious structure
o A king responsible for mediation between the spiritual
world and the human world
o A hierarchy of deities ranging from near royal
ancestors, to distant royal ancestors, to nature spirits, to
Di 帝, the supreme, but very remote, being
• The nature of Shang rule
o A roving “capital” moving in a circle about 400 miles in
diameter
o Subordinate power centers paid tribute when the
Shang king visited
o Peasantry were probably little impacted unless the
Shang kings needed laborers
The Shang Dynasty
 The Shang Dynasty
Oracle Bones
• Longgu and the discovery of
oracle bones
• The discovery at Anyang
• The abundance of oracle bones
o Over 200,000 known
• How oracle bones were made
o Tortoise plastrons or cow
scapulae
o Placing of heated metal rod
on specific places to make
cracks
o Reading the cracks and
recording the answer and
sometimes the result
 The Shang Dynasty
Oracle Bones
• Divination required asking a question in the positive and
the negative
• The name of the diviner was usually recorded, and there
were a limited number of diviners
• Questions were asked about many topics including
warfare, weather, travel, and health and illness
• The answer usually involved performing a sacrifice—
usually with the help of a spirit-medium (wu 巫)—to an
ancestor to either appease them or gain their assistance
• The same oracle bone was used for several divinations
• Once the oracle bone was full and the divinations
recorded on it, it was stored—for what purpose?
 The Shang Dynasty
Oracle Bones
• An example of oracle-bone divination:
[Preface] Crack-making on jiashen, Que divined:
[Charge] Lady Hao’s childbearing will be good.
[Prognostication] The king read the cracks and said, “If it be on
a ding day that she give birth, it will be good. If it be on a geng
day that she give birth, there will be prolonged luck.”
[Verification] After thirty-one days, on jiayin, she gave birth. It
was not good. It was a girl.

[Preface] Crack-making on jiashen. Que divined:

[Charge] Lady Hao will give birth and it may not be good
[Verification] After thirty-one days, on jiayin, she gave birth. It
really was not good. It was a girl.
[Translated in Valerie Hansen, The Open Empire (New York: Norton, 2000), 26-27.]
 The Shang Dynasty
The Shang’s Neighbors
• There were other powerful, centralized polities in Shang
times, but few of them have left extensive archaeological
records and none have left written records
• One of the more striking is the civilization centered in
what is now southwest China, whose archaeological
remnants were discovered at a site known as Sanxingdui
三星堆 in what is now Sichuan province
• Although they left no written records, the people of
Sanxing dui created beautiful and intricate metalwork
and jadework
• They are most famous for the large bronze masks they
produced, many of which have been found
The Zhou Dynasty

周朝
ca. 1045-256 BCE
 The Zhou Dynasty
Zhou Chronology
Western Zhou ca. 1045-770 BCE
Eastern Zhou 770-256 BCE
Spring and Autumn 770-481 BCE
Confucius 551- 479 BCE (trad.)
Warring States 481-221 BCE
Daode jing 4th c. BCE
Mencius ca. 382-289 BCE
Zhuangzi ca. 355-275 BCE
Xunzi ca. 310-ca. 210 BCE
The Zhou Dynasty

Image (C) Hugo Lopez 26

 The Zhou Dynasty
The Western Zhou (ca. 1045-770 BCE)
• The origins of the Zhou
• The Zhou conquest of the Shang
o The Mandate of Heaven (tianming 天命)
• The Zhou feudal structure
o Central kingdoms reserved for close relatives
o More distant domains for distant relatives or non-
relatives
• The Duke of Zhou
o Rushed to the capital to protect the infant King Cheng
from usurpers
o Yielded the throne willingly when Cheng came of age
o A model for the loyal minister
 The Zhou Dynasty
The Eastern Zhou (770-256 BCE)
• The shift to the eastern capital, Luoyang
• The decline in the Zhou royal house’s military power
o But the continuation of its ritual significance
o The hegemon (ba 霸) system
• The unraveling of the social order
o The transformation of the shi ⼠士 from “knights” to
“officials”
• Confucius’ attempt to fix things, to restore the Way (dao 道)
o A conservative reaction?
o Confucius’ redefinition of old terms
• ren 仁: “nobility” to “humaneness”
• li 禮: “ritual” to “correct behavior/propriety”
o The Analects
 The Zhou Dynasty
The Teachings of Confucius
“To learn something and at times put it into practice, is it
not a pleasure? To have friends come from afar, is it not a
joy? To [have one’s virtues] remain unrecognized by other
people and harbor no resentment, is [such a person] not a
gentleman?” (Analects 1.1)

“Studying without thinking is stultifying; thinking without

studying is dangerous.” (Analects 2.15)

“Once I went without food all day and without sleep in

order to think, but it did me no good. It would have been
better [to spend the time] studying.” (Analects 15.30)
 The Zhou Dynasty
The Teachings of Confucius
“The stables caught fire. Returning from the court, the
Master asked, ‘Was anyone hurt?’ He did not ask about the
horses.” (Analects 10.17)

“Jilu asked about serving the spirits of the dead and the
gods. The Master said, ‘You are not yet able to serve people.
How can you serve the dead?’
‘May I ask about death?’”
‘You do not yet understand life. How can you
understand death?’ (Analects 11.12)
 The Zhou Dynasty
The Teachings of Confucius
“Zigong asked, ‘Is there a single word which one can practice
all of one’s life?’ The Master replied ‘Perhaps, it is
consideration [for others] (shu 恕). That which you do not
desire, do not impose upon others.’” (Analects 15.24)

“To overcome oneself and return to proper behavior/the rites

(li 禮) is humaneness (ren 仁).” (Analects 12.1)

“Zigong asked, ‘What do you think of me?’ The Master said,

‘You are a utensil.’
‘What kind of utensil?’
‘A sacrificial vessel made of jade.’” (Analects 5.4)
 The Zhou Dynasty
The Warring States (481-221 BCE)
• Changes in warfare
o The decline of chariots and the growth of infantry
o The increasing size of armies
o The increasing numbers of casualties
• Changes in government and society
o Erosion or destruction of the traditional nobility
o The rise of autocratic states
o The increasing status—and government management
–of the peasantry as suppliers for armies
• The thinkers of the “hundred schools”
• 344 BCE, first ruler of a subordinate state claims the title
“king (wang ⺩王)” previously reserved for Zhou kings
• 256 BCE, the state of Qin conquers Zhou
 The Zhou Dynasty
Mencius 孟⼦子 (ca. 382-289) and Xunzi 荀⼦子 (ca. 310-ca. 210)
• The debate over human nature
o Mencius: “Human nature is originally good 性本善.”
o Xunzi: “Human nature is originally bad 性本惡.”
• So what should we do?
o Mencius: Educate. Without education a person’s good
nature will not be realized, just like a sapling that doesn’t
get enough light will grow into a stunted and twisted tree.
o Xunzi: Educate. Only proper education can restrain the
negative desires that are natural in a human.
• So this is really a debate about what we mean by human
nature.
• But are there any real-world consequences?
 The Zhou Dynasty
Laozi ⽼老⼦子 and the Classic of the Way and Virtue (Daode
jing 道德經)
• Was there a historical Laozi?
• Dating the Daode jing, better known as the Laozi
• The style and structure of the text
• What are dao 道 and de 德?
• Some of its historical uses
o Earliest commentary, by Heshang gong (河上公, Han
dynasty) reads it as a guide to the parallel practices of
nourishing life and governing the state
o The most famous commentary, by Wang Bi (⺩王弼,
226-249) reads it as a philosophical document
o The earliest Daoists, in the 3rd c. CE, read it as a
morality text
• A note on translations of the Daode jing
 The Zhou Dynasty
The Teachings of Laozi
“The Way that can be spoken of, is not the constant Way,
The name that can be named, is not the constant name.”
(Laozi 1)

“There was something formed in confusion, generated before

heaven and earth.
Soundless! Formless! It stands alone and does not change.
It travels everywhere and is not wearied; it is can be taken as the
mother of [all] under heaven.
I do not know its name; I style it the Way.” (Laozi 25)

“The Way gave generated the one, the one generated the two, the
two generated the three, the three generated the ten
thousand things.” (Laozi 42)
 The Zhou Dynasty
The Teachings of Laozi
“The Way always does nothing, yet there is nothing it does not
do.
If the lords and kings are able to hold fast to this, the ten
thousand things will of themselves be
transformed.” (Laozi 37)

“To generate [things] but not possess [them], to act but not
cling [to your actions], to nourish [things] but not rule
over [them], this is called obscure virtue.” (Laozi 10)
 The Zhou Dynasty
The Teachings of Laozi
“… the sage says: I do nothing and the people of themselves
are transformed; I love tranquility, and the people of
themselves are correct; I have no affairs [of
government] and the people of themselves are rich; I
have no desires, and the people of themselves are
[simple and authentic like] uncarved wood

“… the governance of the sage empties their minds and fills

their bellies, weakens their will and strengthens their
bones.” (Laozi 3)

• So what is this text really about?

 The Zhou Dynasty
Zhuangzi 莊⼦子 (355-275 BCE) and his Book
• Unlike Laozi, Zhuangzi is a known historical figure, Zhuang
Zhou 莊周
• His book, the Zhuangzi is traditionally divided into three
parts
o The “Inner Chapters (neipian 內篇),” which he is believed
to have written
o The “Outer Chapters (waipian 外篇),” which are though to
have been written by his students
o The “Miscellaneous Chapters (zapian 雜篇),” which
contain a mixture of bits and pieces some of which may
have been written by Zhuangzi or his studetns, some of
which came from other sources entirely
• The inner chapters convey a strong sense of personality
 The Zhou Dynasty
Zhuangzi as a Person
“Zhuangzi was fishing in the Pu river. The King of Chu sent two
grandees to approach him with the message: ‘I have a gift to tie
you. My whole state.”
Zhuangzi intent on the fishing-rod did not turn his head:
‘I hear that in Chu there is a sacred tortoise,’ he said, ‘which has
been dead for three thousand years. His Majesty keeps it
wrapped up in a box at the top of the hall in the shrine of his
ancestors. Would this tortoise rather be dead, to be honored as
preserved bones? Or would it rather be alive and dragging its
tail in the mud?’
‘It would rather be alive and dragging its tail in the mud.’
‘Away with you! I’ll drag my tail in the mud.’” (Zhuangzi
17)
[Translation adapted from A.C. Graham, Disputers of the Tao (La Salle: Open Court, 1989),
174.]
 The Zhou Dynasty
Zhuangzi as a Person
“Zhuangzi, among the mourners in a funeral procession was
passing by the grave of Hui Shi [his friend]. He turned round and
said to his attendants: ‘There was a man of Ying who, when he got
a smear of plaster n o thicker than a fly’s wings on the tip of his
nose, would make Carpenter Shi slice it off. Carpenter Shi would
raise the wind whirling his hatchet, wait the moment and slice it;
every speck of the plaster would be gone without hurt to the nose,
while the man of Ying stood there perfectly composed.
‘Lord Yuan of Song heard about it, summoned Carpenter Shi
and said, “Let me see you do it.” “As for my side of the act,” said
Carpenter Shi, “I did use to be able to slice it. However, my partner
has been dead for a long time.”
‘Since the Master [Hui Shi] died, I have no one to use as a
partner, no one with whom to talk about things.’” (Zhuangzi 24)
[Translation adapted from A.C. Graham, Disputers of the Tao (La Salle: Open Court, 1989), 175.]
 The Zhou Dynasty
The Teachings of Zhuangzi
“[A sage was asked:] ‘would you know something about which
things agreed ‘It is this?’
‘How would I know it?’
‘Do you know what you do not know?’
‘How would I know it?’
‘Then does nothing know anything?’
‘How would I know it? However, let me try to say it:
How can I know that what I call knowing is not ignorance?
How can I know that what I call ignorance is not
knowing?’” (Zhuangzi 2)

“Zhuangzi said to Hui Shi: “Confucius, by the age of sixty, had

sixty times changed his mind; whenever he began by judging,
‘It’s this,’ he ended by judging, ‘It’s not.’ We do not yet know of
anything we now affirm that we will not [later] deny 59 times
over. (Zhuangzi 27)
[Trans. adapted from A.C. Graham, Disputers of the Tao (La Salle: Open Court, 1989), 181-183.]
 The Zhou Dynasty
The Teachings of Zhuangzi
“Zhuangzi said, ‘If archers who hit what they havent
previously specified as the target were to be called good
archers, everyone in the world would be as great an archer
as Yi—allowable?’
‘Allowable,’ said Huishi.
‘If the world has no common “it” for “That’s it,” and
each of us treats as “it” what is “it” for him, everyone in the
world is as great a sage as Yao—allowable?’
‘Allowable.’
‘Then of the four doctrines of the Confucians,
Mohists, Yang, and Ping, which with your own make five,
which is really “it?”’”
[Translation adapted from A.C. Graham, Chuang-tzu: The Inner Chapters (Indianapolis:
Hackett, 1989), 101.]
 The Zhou Dynsaty
The Teachings of Zhuangzi
“Liezi now, he journeyed with the winds as his chariot.—a
fine sight he must have been!—and did not come back to the
ground for fifteen days … [but] even if he did save himself
the trouble of going about on foot, he still depended on
something to carry his weight. But if one mounts the
regularity of heaven and earth and takes the changes of the
six qi as your chariot, to wander in the boundless, one what
does such a person depend?”
[Translation adapted from A.C. Graham, Chuang-tzu: The Inner Chapters (Indianapolis:
Hackett, 1989), 44]
 The Zhou Dynasty
The Teachings of Zhuangzi
“Cook Ding was carving an Ox for Lord Wenhui … the
brandished blade as it sliced never missed the rhythm …
‘Oh excellent!’ said Lord Wenhui. ‘That skill should
attain such heights!”
‘What your servant cares about is the Way. I have left
skill behind me. When I first began to carve oxen, I saw
nothing but oxen wherever I looked. Three years more and I
never saw an ox as a whole. Nowadays, I am in touch through
the daemonic [i.e., spirit (shen 神)] in me and do not look with
the eye … I rely on Heaven’s structuring, cleave along the
main seams, let myself be guided by the main cavities, go by
what is inherently so. A ligament or tendon I never touch, not
to mention solid bone
 The Zhou Dynasty
The Teachings of Zhuangzi
“’A good cook changes his chopper once a year, because he
hacks. A common cook changes his chopper once a month,
because he smashes. Now I have had this chopper for nineteen
years, and have taken apart several thousand oxen, but the
edge is as though it were fresh from the grindstone …
‘However, when I come to something intricate, I see
where it will be hard to handle and cautiously prepare myself.
My gaze settles on it; action slows down for it; you scarcely see
the flick of the chopper—and at one stroke, the tangle has been
unraveled …’
‘Excellent!’ said King Wenhui. ‘Listening to the words of
Cook Ding, I have learned from them how to nurture
life.’” (Zhuangzi 3)
[Translatoin adapted from A.C. Graham, Chuang-tzu: The Inner Chapters (Indianapolis: Hackett,
1989), 63-65.]
 The Zhou Dynasty
• But, although these are the authors later generations
venerated, during the Warring States period, none of them was
influential
• What was interesting to the educated and wealthy of the
warring states was a group of texts that discussed issues like
divining auspicious and inauspicious days, divining the
cause of an illness and how to cure it, rituals and recipes for
cultivating one’s life, and practices which promised god-like
powers to their adepts
• A new view of the universe led to two important changes
which drove this trend
o Changing ideas and practices of divination
o Changing conceptions of divinity and the self
• Both of these changes were expressed in written books and
represented a break with the tradition of spirit-mediums
associated with oracle-bone divination
 The Zhou Dynasty
New Techniques of Divination
• Although the old techniques of oracle-bone divination
remained in use, new techniques based on astrological
and calendrical calculations became increasingly
prevalent
• These techniques assumed an orderly universe in which
the same forces worked within the cosmos, the state, and
individual’s lives
• These forces could be understood, predicted, and to a
certain degree controlled, for each arena of human
activity, there was a specialized set of techniques which,
as it were, quantified the Way
• It was in this milieu that the concepts of yin-yang, the
five phases, and the other components of correlative
cosmology were developed
 The Zhou Dynasty
New Conceptions of Divinity and the Self
• Prior to the Warring States period, the term “spirit (shen
神) referred to deities like the nature spirits or Di of the
Shang dynsaty
• In the 4th c. BCE, the division between deities/spirits and
humans began to be broken down as the notion of qi
emerged
• In the “Inner Training (Neiye 內業, 4th c. BCE) chapter of
the Guanzi 管⼦子, qi is presented as the fundamental stuff
from which everything, including deities, are made.
• Refined qi is called “essence (jing 精)” or “spirit (shen 神).
By refining one’s qi into spirit, once can obtain powers
previously associated with deities.
 The Zhou Dynasty
The Foundations of Correlative Cosmology
• The individual parts of Han-dynasty correlative cosmology
as seen in the Huangdi neijing—qi, yin and yang, and the five
phases—were in existence by the 4th c. BCE, but they were not
yet linked together
• The terms yin 陰 and yang 陽 existed, but did not refer to a
system of dualistic correlations
• The five phases (wuxing 五⾏行) existed, but referred to five
fundamental substances and the processes or movements
associated with them: “Of Water one says that it wets and
descends; of Fire that it flames and rises; of Wood that it
bends and straightens; of Metal that it conforms to change;
Soil is sown and harvested.” (Hongfan 洪範 chapter of the
Guanzic) [Translated in Donald Harper, “Warring States Natural Philosophy and Occult
Thought,” in The Cambridge History of Ancient China, ed. Michael Loewe and Edward
Shaughnessy (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999), 863.]
 The Zhou Dynasty
Medicine in the Early Warring States
• We know very little about early Warring States medicine, but
a few interesting sources exist
• Although spirit-mediums (wu 巫) continued to be involved
in healing, physicians (yi 醫) formed a separate group. They
based their practice on textual knowledge and calling a
physician a spirit-medium was an accusation of
incompetence or malpractice.
• The Zuo zhuan, an important Confucian historical text from
ca. 400 BCE, records a dialogue by one Physician He (Yi He
醫和): “Heaven has six qi they descend to generate the five
tastes; radiate to make the five colors, are called forth to
make the five sounds, and in excess produce the five
illnesses. The six qi are yin and yang, wind and rain, dark
and bright.” [Trans. adapted from Donald Harper, “Warring States Natural
Philosophy and Occult Thought,” in The Cambridge History of Ancient China, ed. Michael
Loewe and Edward Shaughnessy (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999), 862.]
The Qin Dynasty
221-207 BCE
 The Qin Dynasty
Legalism (Fajia 法家)
• One of the “hundred schools,” Legalism started from the
premise that the purpose of the state, the people, and
ministers was to serve the ruler—at any cost
• Like the Daode jing the Legalists argued that the ruler
should have as little direct involvement with governance
as possible, this was their understanding of non-action
(wuwei 無為)
• But in the Legalist version, this was accomplished by
means of laws, rewards, and (often harsh) punishments
• The ruler set up the system and then it ran without
interference, everyone except the ruler being subject to
the working of the laws
 The Qin Dynasty
The State of Qin
• The state of Qin was located in the northwest of the area
the Zhou ruled
• The people of Qin had only recently affiliated themselves
with the “Central States” and were seen by most other
states as almost barbarians
• Under the influence of Legalist teachings, the rulers of
Qin restructured their government to bring their entire
population under firm control and to mobilize that
population as armies
• They also developed a number of important
administrative innovations which proved more efficient
than traditional means of government
 The Qin Dynasty
The Qin Unification of China
• Bit by bit the Qin conquered and absorbed other states
until they were finally able to unify all of the Central
States
• The Qin ruler who accomplished this declared the
founding of the Qin dynasty and took the title “First
Emperor of Qin (Qin shihuangdi 秦始皇帝 usually
shortened to Qin shihuang 秦始皇)”
• The title “emperor” in Chinese “huangdi 皇帝” literally
means “August Di” a reference to the legendary sage-
kings of antiquity
 The Qin Dynasty
The Qin Unification of China
• Under Qin rule, the power of the traditional nobility was
broken. Officials chosen by the government on the basis
of ability administered the empire as part of a vast
bureaucracy and the territories of the old states were
divided into new administrative units.
• The Chinese script—which had previously had many
local variants—was standardized, as were weights and
measures, the length of the axels of carts, etc.
• Following Legalist advice, the First Emperor was largely
unseen by the people, but, in his quest for immortality, he
announced himself to the spirits of important sacred
mountains by having carved stelae placed on them
announcing his lordship of spirits as well as humans
 The Qin Dynasty
The First Emperor’s Tomb
 The Qin Dynasty
The Fall of the Qin Dynasty
• The traditional picture later Chinese sources paint of the
Qin is of a brutal regime, recently discovered records of
criminal proceedings seem to suggest that this may be an
exaggeration
• Regardless, following Qin shihuang’s death in 210 BCE,
his son and successor lacked the skill and strength to
hold the empire together
• As rebellions grew in frequency and number, the empire
fell apart and was then reconquered by a peasant turned
rebel, Liu Bang 劉邦, founder of the Han dynasty, and
one of only two peasants to ever succeed in becoming
emperor
 The Big Picture
• Early in Chinese history, illness appears to have been
conceived of primarily as the result of ancestors or spirits
afflicting an individual (justly or not), treatment was by
propitiatory sacrifices
• In the Warring States period, a number of new concepts and
ways of understanding the universe and humanities place in
it appeared which gave rise to new, more naturalistic, ideas
about the origins of illness and treatment
• These ideas were contained in texts which literate specialists
in various occult practices produced and used
• Among these ideas were the pieces of the correlative
cosmology that would, in the Han dynasty, become the
dominant conceptual framework of all Chinese science—in
particular medicine
 Keep Informed by Following us on the Xinglin Institute's
Facebook Page and the Facebook Page for this Class:
Chinese Medical History at the Xinglin Institute

Thank you for Attending

On Sunday, October 5th, Noon to 1 PM Eastern Time
A Discussion Session will be Held for This Class

The Next Class will be Held in November

More Details to Come

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