Knife, Plaster And Decoction:Chinese External Medicine In Qing Dynasty

This paper explores the evolution of the academic features and the inheritance patterns of traditional Chinese external medicine in Qing Dynasty, and indicates its dynamics. The external medicine is a branch of traditional Chinese medicine concerned with the body’s surface, such as carbuncles, sores, wounds and ulcers. Besides the pulse diagnosis and the oral medications which the internal medicine mainly relies on, the inspection and palpation examinations and the external applications which involve handwork are of high value in external medicine. As the literati get involved in medicine from Song Dynasty onwards, mainstream medicine preferences academic medicine than technical medicine. In this context, the status of external medicine declined, meanwhile the external medicine has an academic turn and Qing Dynasty is no exception.First in the academic system of the external medicine in Qing Dynasty, the theories of the external medicine have been increasingly enriched and deepened. The holistic view of external diseases lie in the internal body and thus treatment should cover internal areas has been a common view. The examination techniques and therapies have been enriched and completed. The external medicine in Qing Dynasty experienced the rise of pulse examination and internal medicine especially the decoction, moreover the cry against the abuse of acupotomology has been much louder. Thus the academic features of external medicine have been enhanced and those medicine techniques which rely on handwork have been marginalized. However, in the diagonosis of external diseases the inspection and palpation examinations are still very important, and in reality the inspection is likely the most important. Besides, the external medicine is still very important and has been further developed. The mainstream of the external diseases treatment is still the combination of both internal and external therapies. Although the idea of the acupotomology should not be abused has become mainstream, besides which the tradition of putting high value of acupotomology therapies remains, some physicians even reflect and rectify the overly conservative views on acupotomology. On the whole, the acupotomology therapies were used in a more cautious and safe way in Qing Dynasty, while there were also development in acupotomology techniques and its instruments. The inspection and palpation examinations and the external applications which are more technical medicines have been academicalized. In addition, the healing style of external medicine in Qing Dynasty has been much more moderate.Besides the mainstream of academic tradition, external medicine also has a folk tradition. Though some physicians of the lower class apply the pulse examination in the diagnosis of external diseases, most of them rely on the inspection and palpation examinations without pulse examinations. The physicians of lower class indeed use oral medicines more frequently, but external medicine remains much more popular. Besides, the incantation therapies have been widely used among the people.Compare with the internal medicine, the external medicine values the impartment while the text plays a rising role in Qing Dynasty as the books on external medicine have been proliferated. The mainstream physicians were enthusiastic about reading, writing and publishing external medicine books and take it as a tool to devide themselves from those vulgar physicians.The academic trend of the external medicine from Song to Qing Dynasty relate to the development of the mecical knowledge. But it should be mainly due to the scholars’involvement in the external medicine and bring the scholarship to the medicine which manifest as putting high value on the theories and texts and prefering more to the academic medicine such as the pulse diagnosis and internal therapies rather than the technical medicine which takes handwork. Moreover, the open medical market which allows the external physicians and internal physicians competing with each other, the actively involvment of patient in the medical pratice and the shift of the medicine center to the south of China all have been shape the external medicine in Qing Dynasty.In the author’s point of view, During the Qing dynasty, the external medicine did not retrogress, instead it advanced all-around. The ideas of external diseases lies in the internal body and thus its treatment should apply internal therapies are of high value. At the same time, the academic trend generates some negative affects that some phyicians ignored the external applications especially the acupotomology therapies.