Ming And Qing Chinese Acceptance Of Western Medical Research

At the end of the Ming dynasty and beginning of Qing, West medicine was introduced to China. along with the Western missionary.Some Chinese medicine scholars began to notice the enormous difference between the Western medicine and the traditional Chinese medicine. It is noteworthy that the growing tendency towards the blending of Chinese and western medicine can be found from all these correlative medical books.For example,Scholar Fang Yizhi in his book:"wu li xiao shi", compared the Western medicine theory of "si yuan xing" theory and "the brain main memory said" with correlating theory in Chinese medicine.He tried to analyze and blend all these theories together.However, another scholar Wang Honghan almost completely accepted all the West medicine theoeries and attempted to deny the "five-elements " theory of Chinese medicine.At that time, Chinese scholars had different view about western medicine. For example, Wang Kentang accepted the osteology knowledge; however,Zao Xuemin accepted the"yao lu" knowledge, and so on.When the Western medicine was introduced to china, because of the influences of history, politics, culture,chinese and Western medicine,etc, some doctors showed complex reponses towards western medicine.A tendency of " assimilated" and "anti-assimilated" also appeared in the philosophy of Chinese medicine.We can say that the phenomenon of Western medicine being accepted by Chinese had close correlation with the whole "power of assimilation"during the spreading of western medicine.At that time, the missionaries' "academically strategy for missionary work" promoted the western learning system to infiltrate into the whole domain of China traditional culture, this kind of western learning superiority academic influence situation is comprehensive, and also omni-directional, thus in some degrees impelled China intellectual to accept regarding the western learning cognition.For some reasons,the theory of western medicine at that time could't be put into practice effectively.That is why Chinese doctors had different view on the acceptance of western medicine.At the same time, for the elite of china being pinned great hopes by the missionary ,they would not give up the ownership complex of Chinese traditional culture when they faced a new medical theory,For above reasons,the tendency of anti-assimilated appeared because of the elite trying to deny the "extraneous culture" and go back to the traditional Chinese medicine.The typical example is the "return of five-elements "in Wang Honghan's《yi xue yuan shi》.It is commendable that at that time,there were some doctors like Fang Yizhi, etc, had already grasped the difference between two different medicines from defferent aspects of the east and the west.They made reasonable and considerable judgement on the western medicine in reasonable and prudent way.In my view,the Chinese doctors at that time had considerable understanding of the relations between western medicine and Chinese medicine.That is how chinese medicine do with other medicine theory.in the early time.That is also how chinese doctors think about "assimilation situation"about medicine. It fully reflected some Chinese doctors never had superstitious belief on western medicine.They were clear-headed about difference and assimilation.of Chinese and other medicines.Until today,it's still worthy of learning and thinking.