Chinese Medicine Study In Germany Of The Early 20^th Century

This Thesis focuses on the book Die Chinesische Medizin zu Beginn des XX. Jahrhunderts und ihr historischer Entwicklungsgang, which published in 1929 at Leipzig, Germany, and wrote by a German doctor, Sinologist and medical Historian Franz H(?)botter (1881-1967). The research of Chinese medicine in Europe at the beginning of the twentieth century and its influence will be discussed in this thesis from some aspects, such as the historical background, the academic background of the author and his experience in East Asia, the substance and structure of the book and its strategy of translation.First of all, it is about the situation of research of Chinese medicine in Europe culture since sixteenth century. For the Europeans the first impress of Chinese medicine come from the notebooks, which belong to the Jesuits and staff of Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie, who came to East Asia very early and brought the knowledge about China and India back to Europe. With the closer communication between East Asia and Europe, some records of typical Chinese medical therapies and classics of Chinese medicine were segmented translated into western language, such as Latin, German or French language. Initially, the knowledges of Chinese medicine were regarded as a part of natural history or zoology and botany. Until nineteenth century, there was a combine between so-called Chinese medicine and the burgeoning biomedicine developed in clinic by the doctors, who most came from France. The representative of the "Chinese medicine" with European characteristics is the electric acupuncture therapy.For the requirement of clinic, some classics about acupuncture were translated into European languages. But the European books for Chinese medicine systematically and relative completely were appeared from the beginning of the twentieth century and the Chinese medicine by Franz H(?)botter is very likely the first one of these books.With the background of the beginning of the twentieth century, Franz H(?)botter's academic background for biomedicine and sinology, as well as his experience in East Asia are discussed in the second part, which are all the background of the production of theChinese medicine. It is no doubt that, the Chinese medicine inherits the achievements about Chinese medicine in the past and has important influence for the farther research of Chinese medicine in the Europe.The next part is the analysis for this book. Holistic analysis is from two aspects, which are structure and form. Translation analysis focuses on the Nanjing, which is a major section of this book. Franz H(?)botter's other books and the other German translation of Nan Jing are used as contrasts. With the conclusions of the Translation analysis, Franz H ubotter's standpoints and opinions for Chinese medicine can be understudied. Some of them may be meaningful for today.To be a medical historian, Franz H(?)botter had researched Chinese medicine for some decades and read many original classics of Chinese medicine and has a relative clearly understanding of the history of Chinese medicine. At the last part of the Chinese medicine, he described the history of Chinese medicine in 16 pages, which likely is the first systematically summarization of the history of Chinese medicine in European language.Although Franz H(?)botter is not very popular in China, but his influence is really important not only ant that time, but also for today. For the western scholar, who research the Chinese medicine, Franz H(?)botter is an most influential pioneer in this territory. In the Chinese medicine the author put the Chinese medicine into the structure of modern biomedicine for the first time. He discusses the Chinese medicine in the viewpoints of both traditional Chinese medicine and modern biomedicine. In this point of view, which kind of medicine is good will not be discussed, the Chinese medicine should be considered on a global scale, and find a reasonable way for the development as a part of the medicines in the world.