Study On The Narrative About Medicine Written By Intelligentsia In Tang Dynasty

In recent years, with the growing attention to life health, various disciplines, including the history, social science and anthropology, have paid attention to the medical field. The ancient social history of medicine has already become one of the highlights in the current historical research, and there have already been a dozen works published till now.Unfortunately, these research results are mainly history and culture researchers from Taiwan, Hong Kong and some comprehensive colleges and universities of Chinese Mainland, but there are few professional medical history researches. Previously, the medical history field mainly paid more attention to the development of medical theory, improvement of medical technology, progress in medical education, reform in medical reform, as well as the life and thoughts of famous doctors, etc. but less attention to the pain experience of patients, social status of the physician, problems in the practical medical activities, etc.In this research, with the flourishing social development stage of ancient China, namely Tang Dynasty as the cutting-in point, and the poems, articles, notes and novels written by intellectuals in Tang Dynasty as the main research targets, the parts related to the medicine are sorted out, analyzed and discussed with the history and sociology research methods, including the literature review and content analysis method. It aims to get a glimpse of the real opinions and views of people in Tang Dynasty towards the medicine, life and diseases, learn about the real living state of doctors and patients through expanding the historical materials, so as to depict the overall state of the medical development in Tang Dynasty, and expand the Chinese medical history in linear traditional mode.Through the classification and analysis of various types of literatures about Tang Dynasty, the following research results are drawn:2337 poems about diseases created by 287 poets in Tang Dynasty are collected, and according to the statistical analysis, diseases with great impacts on the health of intellectuals in Tang Dynasty are mainly eye disease, followed by consumptive thirst, intermittent headache, sores, ear disease, foot disease, lung disease, arthralgia, and wind disease, as well as the miasma, malaria, plague, etc. It is discovered through the analysis of poems that intellectuals prefer living in a quiet place, reviewing medicine by themselves, practicing meditation and writing articles about the nourishment. Besides, the pressure brought by diseases is mainly reflected by the poor heath, damaged reputation, frustration in official career, poverty, alienation of friends, etc.There are 62 pieces of judgment related to medicine and disease, written by more than 45 officials or scholars, and 37 cases involved. According to the judgment, various problems in the practical medical activities of Tang Dynasty have been reflected from seven aspects, including the medicine circulation, doctor-patient relation, evasion of responsibilities with the excuse of disease, prejudice on physical disabilities, mere formality of health care system, inexplicit responsibility of the disease, and conflicts against laws in the treatment.There are 9 decrees related to the emperor’s health and 25 decrees related to the social status of official physicians, including the posthumous edict about how to deal with the attending doctor, the pardon and release about the change of position of official positions, as well as the special decree about the adjustment of salary for physicians. By analyzing the decree and other materials, it could be seen that the social status of Tang physicians was decreased slightly at first and then promoted gradually. However, compared with the previous Southern and Northern Dynasties and subsequent Song and Jin Dynasty, the social status of Tang physicians seemed to be in the ebb of the history. As for the reasons, it may be related to the changes in the historical background and disease spectrum, if physicians were in good conduct, the development rules of medicine, as well as the participation of intellectuals in medicine.43 exaggerated and imaginary stories involving the medicine in notes and novels are analyzed. According to the research, there would be some certain realistic foundation behind the absurd and weird event, while the exaggeration and imagination were mainly impacted by the times and attitude of the public. Some stories lacking basis were the metaphor of politics created by poets and literary men, or designed deliberately to attract believers by various religions. Such absurd and weird medicine-related stories sprang up in Tang Dynasty substantially, and it was mainly related to the artistic style of literary works, practices and limits of the medical exploration, special explanation of traditional Chinese medicine theory, as well as the extensive social influence of Buddhism and Taoism.