Xinglin Institute for Early East Asian Medicine Research and Scholarship
杏林東亞經典醫學研究所
Apricot Grove Lecture Series
June 8th, 2014
The Song Dynasty (960-1279)
A Watershed in Chinese Medical History
Stephen Boyanton MPhil MS LAc
Major Chinese Dynasties
Shang
Zhou
ca. 1600- ca. 1045 BCE
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
The Northern Song (960-1127)
The Southern Song (1127-1279)
The Song as a Watershed
in Chinese History
Three Major Areas of Change:
Society
• 
• 
• 
Epidemiology
Elite Society • 
Commerce
• 
Printing
Southward
Migration
Population
Growth
Medicine
• 
• 
• 
Government
Medical Printing
The Shanghan lun
Literati Medicine
The Chinese Elite in the
Song Dynasty
•  The traditional, idealized four strata of
Chinese society:
o  Scholars (shi 士)
o  Farmers (nong 農)
o  Artisans (gong 工)
o  Merchants (shang 商)
•  From the Qin dynasty (221-206 BCE)
onward, the scholars were the social group
that aided in running the empire by
serving as government officials, shi 士 is
often translated as “literati”
Song Dynasty Society
The Chinese Elite in the
Song Dynasty
The Transformation of the Scholar Strata:
•  Tang Dynasty (618-907): National Aristocracy
•  Northern Song (960-1127): National Bureaucratic Elite
•  Southern Song (1127-1279): Local Gentry
What Defines the Scholars in the Song?:
•  Participating in the Civil Service Exams
•  Local Leadership
•  Conspicuous Cultural Consumption
The Chinese Elite in the
Song Dynasty
The Learning of the Way (Daoxue 道學, aka
Neo-Confucianism) and the New Scholars:
•  If you can’t obtain a government position, how do you
justify yourself as an elite man?
o  Learning
o  Personal Moral and Spiritual Cultivation
o  Local Philanthropy and Activism
•  Neo-Confucianism as Exam Orthodoxy from the Yuan
dynasty (1271-1368) Onward
Commerce in the Song
Dynasty
Commerce in the Song
Dynasty
•  Improved farming techniques increased surplus
production
•  Improved technologies increased the output of iron and
other raw materials
•  Increase in population and urbanization creates larger
markets
•  The population shift south allows the use of waterways
for more efficient transport of goods
•  A vast increase in the use of money as opposed to barter
facilitates trade over long distances
Commerce in the Song
Dynasty
•  The Song was the most
monetized period in
Chinese imperial history.
•  Sophisticated
understanding of money
•  Development of paper
currency
Printing in the Song
Dynasty
Printing in the Song
Dynasty
Printing in the Song
Dynasty
Printing in the Song
Dynasty
Oldest known printed
advertisement, dating to
the Northern Song and
produced by a metal
engraving.
The top line reads, “Jinan
Li Family’s Needle Shop.
The sides of he picture
tell the location of the
shop and the bottom
praises the quality of the
needles they make.
The Song Populace’s
Epidemiological Burden
Crossing Epidemiological
Frontiers in the Song
Geographical Frontiers:
•  The Southward Migration
Demographic Frontiers:
•  A Rising Population
Epidemiological Consequences:
•  A Population Able to Sustain Repeated Large-Scale
Epidemics
Medicine in the Song
Dynasty
Medicine in the Song
Dynasty
The Healthcare Marketplace in the Song Dynasty
Medicine in the Song
Dynasty
Common Physicians (shiyi 世醫):
•  The typical practitioner of literate medicine in and before
the Song dynasty
•  Literate, but not as educated as the scholar-elites and not
part of their social circles
•  Generally despised by the Song elite who saw them as
incompetent and a threat to the health and stability of
society
Medicine in the Song
Dynasty
The Imperial Medical School:
•  Established in 1043
•  Meant to attract elite men to the practice of medicine
•  Originally small but later grew quite large
Less Formal Medical Education in the
Provinces:
•  Each prefecture was supposed to have a medical teacher
to give lectures and evaluate local physicians
Medicine in the Song
Dynasty
The Imperial Pharmacies:
•  Established in 1076
•  At first designed to control fluctuations in the cost of raw
single medicinals
•  Later expanded to distribute prepared medicinal
formulae at low cost
•  The Taiping huimin hejiju fang (太平惠民和劑局方,
Formulae of the Imperial Pharmacy for the Era of Great Peace)
Medicine in the Song
Dynasty
The Bureau for Editing Medical Texts
(Jiaozheng yishu ju 校正醫書局):
•  Formed in 1057 to edit and publish authoritative editions
of the most important medical texts
•  The emperor gave them a list of texts he wanted
published, which the Bureau largely ignored
•  Every pre-Song medical text which is commonly used
today is an edition edited and published by this Bureau
•  The Bureau was thus responsible for forming the
Chinese medical canon as we know it
Publications of the Bureau for Editing Medical Texts:
1.  Jiayou bencao (嘉祐本草, Jiayou Materia Medica), 1062
2.  Bencao tujing (本草圖經, Illustrated Classic of Materia Medica), 1063
3.  Shanghan lun (傷寒論, Treatise on Cold Damage), 1065
4.  Jingui yaolue (金匱要略, Essentials of the Golden Coffer), 1066
5.  Jingui yuhan jing (金匱玉函經, Classic of the Golden Coffer and Jade
Case), 1066
6.  Qianjin yaofang (千金要方, Essential Formulae Worth a Thousand
Gold), 1066
7.  Huangdi neijing Suwen (黃帝內經素問, Yellow Emperor’s Inner
Classic: Questions on the Plain), 1067
8.  Zhenjiu jiayijing (針灸甲乙經, Systematic Classic of Acumoxa), 1069
9.  Maijing (脈經, Classic of the Pulse), 1069
10. Waitai miyao (外台秘要, Secret Essentials from the Outer Terrace),
1069
Medicine in the Song
Dynasty
The Importance of the Shanghan lun:
•  The Shanghan lun and cold damage before the Song
•  The explosion of writing on the Shanghan lun after 1065
Why was the Shanghan lun so Important:
•  The rising number of epidemics
•  Its usefulness in creating a literati style of medicine
Medicine in the Song
Dynasty
Characteristics of Literati Medicine:
Literati physicians vs. scholar physicians (ruyi 儒醫)
The importance of reading and writing books
The medical classics
Literati moral and ethical values
Concern about the diversity and mutability of illness
Emphasis on individually differentiating every
particular case of illness
•  Central position of the Shanghan lun
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
Medicine in the Song
Dynasty
Continuity of Literati Medicine:
•  Though there have been many changes in Chinese
literate medicine since the Song, many things have
remained the same
o  The concern for the variability of illness
o  The emphasis on individualizing treatment
o  The medical cannon produced by the Bureau for
Editing Medical Texts
o  The central place of the Shanghan lun
•  Modern Chinese medicine as literati medicine’s
descendent
Thank You for Attending
www.xinglininstitute.org
www.facebook.com/xinglininstitute
sboyanton@ChineseHealingEducation.com
I will be giving a free 3-hour class on the Shanghan lun,
“Introduction to the Shanghan lun and its History”
on June 22nd, from 2-5 PM EDT.
To register go to:
xinglininstitute.moodlehub.com