The Writing Of Medical Work For Sick Women In The Ming And Qing Dynasties

Since Huang Di's Canon of Medicine, traditional Chinese medicine uphold the view that there is a difference in men and women's physiological structure,and thus produced different means of women's diagnosis and treatment. This basic concept was inherited by medical work in the Ming and Qing dynasties. With the rise of Confucianism and the etiquette of women, the concept of medical gynecology was deeply rooted, which affected the doctor on the analysis of gynecological factors and the understanding of female patients. The result is that the writing of sick women is different from other patients. From the cause of the disease, doctors stressed that women's personality traits and emotional changes influence the burst of disease, the severity of the disease and the follow-up treatment. From the image of female patients to be painted, the external features in the majority of medical records are simple and rough, the analysis of the internal emotions are too modeled, which showing the cognitive diaphragm brought about by gender differences. From the self-perception of female patients, which compared the writing of talented woman and medical work in the Ming and Qing dynasties, we can see the opposition on the style of writing. This difference comes from the different purpose. Talented woman try to express the literary needs, doctors want to treat the disease. Those are also related to the positioning that medical work are technical books.This paper attempts to explore the writing of sick women in the Ming and Qing Dynasties in the context of male discourse system, and explore the feminine concept of mainstream society by analyzing the image of female patients. Focusing on health practices in daily life, health care, physician interaction with patients and even personal perception of health in medical work, can interpretate the power relations, cultural implications and social psychology embodied in medical care, which to see the style of region and times.