Confucian Scholars And Physicians In The Transition From The Ming Dynasty To The Qing Dynasty

This thesis aims to explore how the adherents of the Ming dynasty understood the identities of being Confucian scholars and being physicians after the Ming-Qing transition.Refusing to serve in the Qing court,the Ming adherents gave up their main way of supporting themselves and their families.Many of them practiced medicine and became physicians under the financial pressure.Gao Doukui was one of them.This thesis utilizes Gao Doukui’s experience as a case in point.Gao Doukui practiced medicine and became a famed physician after being a Ming adherent in early Qing.However,when Hong Zongxi,his close friend,an elite Ming adherent,wrote the epitaph for Gao Doukui when Gao died,Huang particularly diminished Gao’s achievements of being a physician.While Gao’s other friends,such as Lü Liuliang did not agree with Huang’s comment on Gao,they shared the same understanding that Gao’s identity was a Confucian scholar but not a physician.Gao Doukui’s case was typical.There was a significant number of the Ming adherents practiced medicine just like Gao while most of the Ming adherents,physicians or not,expressed negative views toward practicing medicine.This thesis explores the Ming adherents’ discourses regarding being Confucian scholars and being physicians.It looks into the group features of Ming adherents,as well as the hierarchical arrangement between Confucian scholars and physicians in Chinese history to understand the discourses.The Ming adherents engaged in two goals.Firstly,they tried to adhere to Confucian teachings and protect their identity as Confucian scholars.And secondly,they tried to support themselves and their families.These two goals were not compatible in the case of practicing medicine.It was believed that being physicians would negatively affect the pursuit of Confucian teachings and thus hurt the identity of being Confucian Scholars.This belief raised anxiety among the Ming adherents,which was fully reflected in the discourses of being Confucian scholars and physicians among the group members.On the other hand,these discourses were also deeply rooted in the hierarchical arrangement between Confucian scholars and physicians before the Ming-Qing transition period.The understanding that Confucian scholars were prestigious while physicians were at the bottom of the social ladder was not only reenforced by ideologies but was also institutionalized in various dynasties.The rise of the so-called Confucians physicians since the Song dynasty did change the landscape of the relations between Confucian scholars and physicians.However,looking closely,Confucian physician were physicians in essence.In their efforts of living up to the standards of Confucian scholars,physicians failed to construct their independent identities.The Ming adherents entered the medical field under a special social circumstance.When they began to reflect and discuss the issues of being Confucian scholars and physicians,the old story of the two groups and the problems behind the rosy picture of Confucian physicians were drastically exposed.The theme was constant and clear that Confucian scholars and physicians were not only separated but also hierarchically separated.