Study On Medical Market Of Traditional Chinese Physician In Modern Shanghai

In Shanghai, great changes brought about lots of opportunities for thousands of practitioners in career since 1843. The incoming of modern traffic and communication tools strengthened the connection among all social groups, and made the commodity market and the trading link to each other more widely. People from every group in Shanghai responsed to it, including the object of this article——the traditional Chinese doctors. In traditional intellectual classes, the traditional Chinese doctors regard helping those people in pain as their professional ethics. In the process of China’s transformation to a modern country, continuing social criticism brought unprecedented challenges to the legitimacy of traditional Chinese doctors. Facing to the theory, technology and therapy of western medicine, and the changes of their own career status and market environment, traditional Chinese doctors in Shanghai also made many adjustments, to improve their competitiveness and social influence.Through analysis of the research to the early modern British doctor groups, as well as an overview of the research on modern Chinese medical history, the author found that how to communicate with the western scholars on the study of modern Chinese medical market, and how to strengthen the understanding of basic Chinese doctor groups to make a living, is still a field few scholars pay much attention to. Take this perspective as a starting point; this thesis focuses on the situation of traditional Chinese doctors in Shanghai from 1872 to 1929. The medical image and social position of Modern Shanghai traditional Chinese physicians are the most important part of the research.Admittedly, the traditional characteristics of Shanghai traditional Chinese medicine were incompatible with the modernization of society. Modernization of transport communication tools changed people’s life in Shanghai. In the meantime, it also made traditional Chinese doctors follow the fashion. Although the upper classes influenced by western culture took criticizing the old knowledge and spreading new ones as their own duty, causing public question to traditional Chinese doctors, the latter were not stuck in the past. They were gradually changing their ideas, to adapt to the modernization. The introduction of modern medicine education improved the traditional apprenticeship training mode, and created excellent talents of traditional Chinese physicians for Shanghai and the whole country. In addition, a large number of overseas Chinese physicians came to Shanghai to do business. After the operation of charitable institutions, they could gradually get a foothold in their profession field.This paper studies how the traditional Chinese doctors made a living. It can be divided into two periods——the late Qing dynasty and the early republic of China. In these days, changes in the income and living condition of traditional Chinese physicians were the focus in this paper. The traditional Chinese doctors in Shanghai at late Qing dynasty enjoyed high social prestige. They almost monopolized the medical market. Their service charged 400 wen at least, and sit in sedan chairs instead of walking when they visited. The ordinary families could not afford to the expensive fees.In the republic of China, some traditional Chinese doctors in Shanghai expanded the market by advertising in "ShunPao", which was quite effective. From novels, literary notes, "shunPao" etc, you can know that the visiting fees of Shanghai Chinese doctors were higher in the republic of China than in the late Qing dynasty. Usually it would be 8.8 yuan, which was even higher than the monthly salary of an ordinary worker. Maybe they only visit several times one day, and the income could support their life. The poor patients could not offer high fees, however, the doctors often took the clinic to the poor patients for free and made up for the shortcomings of the health care market.Between 1872 and 1929, the traditional Chinese medicine was still popular in Shanghai. But in the medical industry, Chinese medicine faced to many difficulties. Medical entanglement often struck. Midwives, quacks, witches at the edge of the medical world, and the ingrained superstition, strange Arcanum, all competed with the traditional Chinese doctors by a variety of means. Needless to say, compared to the Chinese doctors, western doctors have powerful offensive on the technology and treatment. Fortunately, in the process of struggle between the traditional Chinese doctors and western doctors, both of them did not abandon each other blindly, but looked for integration, complementary and mutual benefit.Above all, it is the real life scenes of modern Chinese medicine market. In the complicated medical market, traditional Chinese doctors have been tried to seek greater market affection. The impact of western medicine and medical modernization are the key of the scholars’ attention, but we can not deny that the traditional Chinese doctors in the modern society are seeking for transformation. They may not be representative of positive energy, but who can deny that they made the industry changes and convey the positive national spirit in the process of modernization? This article aims to show the strategy of traditional Chinese doctors to make a living in modern times.