Through arranging of ancient books and literatures related pressing moxibustion, the history along with origin and development of pressing moxibustion is systematically investigated and analyzed, which provided theoretical basis for the clinical practice of pressing moxibustion. It is found that after 600 years of development and innovation, pressing moxibustion already has complete theoretical system which is reflected in the unitarity of formulating prescription, the diversity of the manipulation the universality of indications. What's more, the functional characteristics and mechanism of pressing moxibustion are initially discussed and its present research status and prospect in the field of modern moxibustion are revealed.
China ; History, 16th Century ; History, 17th Century ; History, 18th Century ; Humans ; Medicine in Literature ; Moxibustion ; history ; methods

Medical doctors in the Chosun Dynasty read Chinese literature of high level in order to take the medical civil service examination, but there are not many extant writings of theirs except some medical books. Middle class people's selections of poems such as Haedongyuju, Sodaepungyo, Pungyosokseon and Pungyosamseon were published, and among the list of the writers, those who were identified as medical doctors were Park Gun, Baek Heung jeon, Shin Myeong hee, Shin Hee myeong, Oh Chang ryeol, Yoo Dong yeok, etc. Even their works are not many, and this suggests that doctors' writing was not active except for medical books. Lee Hyeon yang (1783 1852), the author of Gokcheongsago, was born the only son of Lee Jaewoo (1750 1808), an acupuncturist at the Lee family from Ansan, which was an influential middleclass family. His pen name was changed from Gokcheong to Anrakwa, Yongheon and Gyeongsudang, and for each pen name, he wrote a foreword explaining the origin of the name and his resolution. The Lee family from Ansan produced 20 medical officials through eight generations from Lee Yoon yeong in the 7th generation to Lee Myeong ryun in the 15th generation. He learned medicine, his family occupation, diligently and passed the medical civil service examination in 1803 when he was 21. In addition, he studied Confucian scriptures enthusiastically and left many writing along with medical books. Based on the forewords in his anthology Gokcheongsago, there are eight writings of his as follows in chronological order: Suseongpyeongam(1798), Cheongimiyo(1799), Euihakjeongwon(1801), Gwangjebiyo(five volumes, 1810), Wonbyeonggiyo (1819), Bonchojeongeui(1826), Euiyakcheongji(1838), and Yeonghwaji (1843). He wrote not only medical books but also traditional Chinese texts in different styles. In the 180pages transcription, he as a medical doctor showed various writing styles based on Confucianism including 22 prologues and epilogues, 9 diaries, discussions and opinions, 2 biographies, 5 letters, 10 memorial addresses and condolence messages, and 8 miscellaneous writings. His writing attitude was different among the periods when preparing for the medical civil service examination, when acting as a medical doctor, and when working as a magistrate, and it shows medical doctors' life in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Acupuncture/history ; History, 18th Century ; History, 19th Century ; Korea ; Literature, Modern/*history ; Public Sector/history

Chinese medicine pair (CMP) was frequently applied in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) clinic, and its significance was shown in long-term clinical practices and many accumulated experiences. It is the unique combination of two relatively fixed Chinese medicines in TCM clinic with the basic feature and principle of TCM compatibility, is the most fundamental and the simplest form of TCM formulae with certain theory basis and combinatory reason, which is proven effective. And the unique combination is frequently used for achieving mutual reinforcement or detoxication. CMP is an intermediate point between single herb and many TCM formulae, reflecting the regularity of TCM formulae compatibility and connotation of differential treatment. This paper analyzed and summarized the basic characteristics, development process and research significance of CMP, which aims to lead the modern basic and applied research on compatibility theory of CMP.
Drug Interactions ; History, 16th Century ; History, 17th Century ; History, 18th Century ; History, 19th Century ; History, 20th Century ; History, 21st Century ; History, Ancient ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; history ; methods

In The Logic of Life (1970), Francois Jacob (1920~ ), Nobel Prize laureate in Physiology or Medicine (1965), proclaimed the end of vitalism based on the concept of life. More than two decades before this capital sentence condemning vitalism was pronounced, Georges Canguilhem (1904~1995), a French philosopher of medicine, already acknowledged that eighteenth-century vitalism was scientifically retrograde and politically reactionary or counter-revolutionary insofar as it was rooted in the animism of Georg Ernst Stahl (1660~1734). The negative preconception of the term 'vitalism' came to be established as an orthodox view, since Claude Bernard (1813~1878) unfairly criticized contemporary vitalism in order to propagate his idea of experimental medicine. An eminent evolutionary biologist like Ernst Mayr (1904~2005) still defended similar views in This is Biology (1997), arguing that if vitalists were decisive and convincing in their rejection of the Cartesian model (negative heuristics), however they were equally indecisive and unconvincing in their own explanatory endeavors (positive heuristics). Historically speaking, vitalists came to the forefront for their outstanding criticism of Cartesian mechanism and physicochemical reductionism, while their innovative concepts and theories were underestimated and received much less attention. Is it true that vitalism was merely a pseudo-science, representing a kind of romanticism or mysticism in biomedical science? Did vitalists lack any positive heuristics in their biomedical research? Above all, what was actually the so.called 'vitalism'? This paper aims to reveal the positive heuristics of vitalism defined by Paul.Joseph Barthez (1734~1806) who was the founder of the vitalist school of Montpellier. To this end, his work and idea are introduced with regard to the vying doctrines in physiology and medicine. At the moment when he taught at the medical school of Montpellier, his colleagues advocated the mechanism of Rene Descartes (1596~1650), the iatromechanism of Herman Boerhaave (1668~1738), the iatrochemistry of Jan Baptist van Helmont (1579~1644), the animism of Stahl, and the organicism of Theophile de Bordeu (1722~1776). On the contrary, Barthez devoted himself to synthesize diverse doctrines and his vitalism consequently illustrated an eclectic character. Always taking a skeptical standpoint regarding the capacity of biomedical science, he defined his famous concept of 'vital principle (principe vital)' as the 'x (unknown variable)' of physiology. He argued that the hypothetical concept of vital principle referred to the 'experimental cause (cause experimentale)' verifiable by positive science. Thus, the vital principle was not presupposed as an a priori regulative principle. It was an a posteriori heuristic principle resulting from several experiments. The 'positivist hypothetism' of Barthez demonstrates not only pragmatism but also positivism in his scientific terminology. Furthermore, Barthez established a guideline for clinical practice according to his own methodological principles. It can be characterized as a 'humanist pragmatism' for the reason that all sort of treatments were permitted as far as they were beneficial to the patient. Theoretical incoherence or incommensurability among different treatments did not matter to Barthez. His practical strategy for clinical medicine consisted of three principles: namely, the natural, analytic, and empirical method. This formulation is indebted to the 'analytic method (methode analytique)' of the French empiricist philosopher Etienne Bonnot de Condillac (1714~1780). In conclusion, the eighteenth.century French vitalism conceived by Barthez pursued pragmatism in general, positivism in methodology, and humanism in clinics.
Biology/history ; Evolution ; History, 18th Century ; History, 19th Century ; History, 20th Century ; Humans ; Male ; Nobel Prize ; Philosophy/history ; Vitalism/*history

Sakae Miki said Classified Emergency Materia Medica had been the dominant standard of herbology throughout Joseon Dynasty, and that Compendium of Materia Medica had only been accepted so lately that a few books used herbological result of it in the late Joseon Dynasty. But according to Visiting Old Beijing Diary written by Munjoong Seo in 1690, Compendium of Materia Medica was in fact introduced before the year 1712, the year Miki Sakae argued to be the year Compendium of Materia Medica was accepted to Joseon officially. Now, we can assume that the introducing year of Compendium of Materia Medica was faster than Miki Sakae's opinion by the following reasons; the effort of Joseon government and intellectuals to buy new books of Ming & Ching; the publishing year of the book for living in countryside regarded as the first citing literature of Compendium of Materia Medica. And the True Records of the Joseon Dynasty and many collections written by intellectuals in the 18th century show that the herbological knowledge from Compendium of Materia Medica had already spread to the corners of Joseon Dynasty. Thus we can make the following assumption: Classified Emergency Materia Medica and Compendium of Materia Medica had coexisted in the late Joseon Dynasty. Sakae Miki suggested 6 examples which used Compendium of Materia Medica in the late Joseon Dynasty. I reviewed two of them in this paper, Essentials of Materia Medica & Handbook of Prescriptions from Materia Medica. Essentials of Materia Medica quoted Compendium of Materia Medica briefly focusing clinical use, and Handbook of Prescriptions from Materia Medica also re-compiled Compendium of Materia Medica to practical use according to the form of Treasured Mirror of Eastern Medicine. It means that the results of Compendium of Materia Medica have been used positively, based on the herbology of materia medica from countryside. From this point of view, the hyphothesis there weren't any herbological progress after accepting Compendium of Materia Medica in the late Joseon Dynasty by Sakae Miki can be denied.
History, 18th Century ; History, 19th Century ; Humans ; Materia Medica/*history ; Plants, Medicinal ; Publishing/*history

Anatomy ; history ; France ; General Surgery ; history ; History, 17th Century ; History, 18th Century ; Humans

The understanding and classification of academic systems of acupuncture-moxibustion of GAO Wu can be initially clarified through Keynotes of Acupuncture-Moxibustion. On the base of theoretical system of Neijing (Internal Classic) and Nanjing (Classic on Medical Problems), needling manipulations, treatment, meridians and acupoints were taken as the major knowledge models to construct the framework of the academic system by GAO Wu. The "nine needles" and "manipulations" were taken as the starting point of acupuncture. "Reducing and reinforcing methods" were held as the requirement for advanced skills of acupuncturists. Moreover, syndromes based on the theory of was 12 regular meridians was emphasized to combine the theory and clinical practice tightly. Therefore, it is concluded that GAO Wu's classification of acupuncture-moxibustion academic system enlightened and provided experiences for the modern acupuncture education and academic research.
Acupuncture ; education ; history ; Acupuncture Therapy ; history ; China ; History, 16th Century ; History, 17th Century ; History, 18th Century ; History, 19th Century ; History, 20th Century ; Humans ; Medicine in Literature ; Meridians ; Moxibustion ; history

In the background of the spread of western medicine into the East in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Chinese doctors who had accepted western medicine referred to western medical knowledge and began to use the methods of anatomical observation and demonstrating to explain the objective structure of meridians and collaterals. They tried to adopt the artery and vessel explaining the shape of meridian and the blood circle and pulmonary respiration explaining the circulation of Ying-Wei. When the anatomy structures could not perfectly equal to meridians and collaterals, some doctors put forward the gasification feature of meridian to explain the reason. These results suggest that there are difference between meridians and collaterals and pure anatomy concepts, which serves as significant reference and edification for later generations.
Acupuncture ; history ; China ; History, 16th Century ; History, 17th Century ; History, 18th Century ; Humans ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; history ; Meridians

This article surveys studies focusing on pre-modern Korean medicine, which are both written in English and analyzed primary sources up to 1876. Overall, the history of pre-modern Korean medicine is an unknown filed in Anglophone academia. Yung Sik Kim's, James Palais's, and Carter Ecart's problematization of the nationalist framework of Korean scholarship partially explains the marginality of the field. Addressing these criticisms, this review argues that pre-modern Korean medicine's uneasy task lies in both elaborating Korea's own experience of medicine, while simultaneously avoiding making the "Korean" category itself essential. Korean narratives of premodern medicine need to go beyond the mere territorilalization of Korean medicine against its Chinese, Japanese, or Western counterparts, thereby to tackle the field's own boundary of research objects. The existing scholarship in English responds to this challenge by primarily examining the way in which Korea has shared textual tradition with China. Sirhak scholars' innovation in medicine, visual representation of Tongui bogam, Korean management of epidemics in the eleventh century, and Korean indexing of local botanicals, engages not only native achievements, but also the process of modifying medicine across geographical and political boundaries. More to the point, the emerging native narratives, although written in Korean, are implicitly resonant with those currently present in Anglophone academia. Taking "tension," "intertextuality," and "local traits" as a lens, this article assesses a series of current research in Korea. Aiming to go beyond appeals for a "distinctively" Korean experience of medicine, the future study of Korean pre-modern medicine will further elucidate confluences of different flows, such as "Chinese and Korean," "universal and local," "center and periphery," and "native and foreign," which will eventually articulate a range of Korean techniques of creating a bricolage in medicine.
History, 15th Century ; History, 16th Century ; History, 17th Century ; History, 18th Century ; History, 19th Century ; History, Medieval ; Medicine, Korean Traditional/*history ; Republic of Korea

Western medicine began to be introduced to Japan since late 16th century. Japanese encounter with Western medicine centered on Dejima in Nagasaki in the seventeenth and eighteenth century and the initial process of introduction was gradual and slow. In the mid-nineteenth century, facing threats from Western countries, Tokugawa bakufu asked Dutch naval surgeon, J. L. C. Pompe van Meerdervoort to teach western medicine at the Kaigun Denshujo naval academy in Nagasaki. The government also supported the western medical school in Edo. This paper deals with how modern western medical doctors were developed in Japan from late Edo to early Meiji. The publication of the New Text on Anatomy in 1774 translated by Sugita Genpaku and his colleagues stimulated Japanese doctors and scholars to study western medicine, called Rangaku. During the Edo period, western medicine spread into major cities and countryside in Japan through Rangaku doctors. In 1838, for example, Dr. Ogata Koan established the Rangaku school named Tekijuku and educated many people with western medicine. When smallpox vaccination was introduced in Japan in 1849, Rangaku doctors played an important role in practiving the vaccination in cities and in countryside. After the Edo bakufu and the feudal lords of han(han) actively pursued to introduce western medicine to their hans by sending their Samurai to Edo or Nagasaki or abroad and by establishing medical schools and hospitals until their abolition in 1871. In late Edo and early Meiii military doctors were the main focus of training to meet the urgent need of military doctors in the battle fields of civil wars. The new Meiji government initiated a series of top-down reformations concerning army recruitment, national school system, public health and medical system. In 1874, the government introduced a law on medicine to adopt western medicine only and to launch a national licence system for medical doctors. Issuing supplementary regulations in the following years, the Meiji government settled down a dual-track medical licensing system: one for the graduates from medical schools with certain quality and the other for the graduate from less qualified schools who should take the licensing examination.
Books/history ; Education, Medical/history ; History, 16th Century ; History, 17th Century ; History, 18th Century ; History, 19th Century ; Humans ; Japan ; Physicians/*history ; Schools, Medical/*history