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Healing with Poisons: Notes

Healing with Poisons

Notes

NOTES

INTRODUCTION

  1. 1   Liu Yuxi, Liu Yuxi ji, 6.76–77.

  2. 2   Fan Ka-wai, “Liu Yuxi yu Chuanxin fang,” 111–44.

  3. 3   Sun, Qianjin yifang, 1.6.

  4. 4   Nappi, Monkey and the Inkpot, 50–68.

  5. 5   Kaptchuk, Web That Has No Weaver, 372; Scheid, Chinese Medicine in Contemporary China, 108; Hilary Smith, Forgotten Disease, 13–19.

  6. 6   Lo, Potent Flavours.

  7. 7   Appadurai, ed., Social Life of Things; Miller, ed., Materiality; Daston, ed., Things That Talk; Findlen, ed., Early Modern Things.

  8. 8   Porkert, Theoretical Foundations of Chinese Medicine; Lu and Needham, Celestial Lancets; Barnes, “World of Chinese Medicine and Healing,” 284–333.

  9. 9   The issue of transformation in Chinese pharmacy has been explored in Carla Nappi’s study of a sixteenth-century pharmacological text chiefly through the lens of natural history. See Nappi, Monkey and the Inkpot. The transformative power of medicines is not unique to Chinese pharmacy, as it figures in other healing traditions as well. See Whyte, van der Geest, and Hardon, eds., Social Lives of Medicines, 5–6.

  10. 10   In the same vein, focusing on three medical writings in the seventh and eighth centuries, Kuo Ho-Hsiang has examined the historical meanings of du in these sources. See Kuo, “Sui-Tang yiji zhong guanyu du de xin renshi.”

  11. 11   Mou, “Duyao kukou,” 437–38; Kawahara, Dokuyaku wa kuchi ni nigashi; Li Ling, “Yaodu yijia,” 28–38; Huo, “‘Du’ yu zhonggu shehui.”

  12. 12   Arnold, Toxic Histories.

  13. 13   Arnold, Toxic Histories, 209. Orpiment is an arsenic ore.

  14. 14   It is entirely possible that the knowledge of the medical use of poisons was exchanged between China and India in the premodern period. One telling example is the claim by Sun Simiao cited earlier, which he ascribed to Jīvaka, the “Medicine King” of India, indicating the influence of Indian pharmacological thought on Sun’s work. See Liao Yuqun, Renshi Yindu chuantong yixue, 281–84. On the history of Jīvaka in China, see Salguero, “Buddhist Medicine King in Literary Context,” 183–210.

  15. 15   Collard, Crime of Poison in the Middle Ages; Whorton, Arsenic Century; Parascandola, King of Poisons.

  16. 16   Rinella, Pharmakon. Jacques Derrida has noted how the dual meanings are manifested in Plato’s works, though his main goal is to use pharmakon to demonstrate the instability of writing. See Derrida, “Plato’s Pharmacy,” 61–171.

  17. 17   Beck, trans., De Materia Medica.

  18. 18   Collard and Samama, eds., Le corps à l’épreuve; Grell, Cunningham, and Arrizabalaga, eds., “It All Depends on the Dose.”

  19. 19   Gibbs, Poison, Medicine, and Disease.

  20. 20   No medical works devoted to poisons and antidotes appeared in China until the late sixteenth century, possibly influenced by European medicine. One such text is Formulas to Counter a Hundred Poisons (Jie baidu fang) compiled by Gao Lian (1573–1620).

  21. 21   Beck, De Materia Medica, 281 (IV 77); Riddle, Dioscorides on Pharmacy and Medicine, 65–66.

  22. 22   The appellation is given by Tao Hongjing in his Collected Annotations on the Classic of Materia Medica (Bencao jing jizhu, ca. 500). See Tao, Bencao jing jizhu, 5.344.

  23. 23   For further discussion on this comparison, see Yan Liu, “Poisonous Medicine in Ancient China,” 437–39.

  24. 24   Liao Yuqun, “Zhongguo chuantong yixue de ‘chuantong’ yu ‘geming,’” 217–23; Goldschmidt, Evolution of Chinese Medicine, 199. Throughout this book, I use “classical Chinese medicine” or “classical Chinese pharmacy” as shorthand terms to refer to medical or pharmaceutical traditions before the nineteenth century.

  25. 25   Yamada Keiji, “Formation of the Huang-ti Nei-ching,” 67–89; Harper, “Physicians and Diviners,” 91–110; Li Jianmin, Sisheng zhiyu; Lo, “Influence of Nurturing Life Culture on the Development of Western Han Acumoxa Therapy,” 19–51; Hsu, Pulse Diagnosis in Early Chinese Medicine.

  26. 26   Chen Yuanpeng, Liang Song de “shangyi shiren” yu “ruyi”; Despeux, “System of the Five Circulatory Phases and the Six Seasonal Influences (wuyun liuqi),” 121–65; Goldschmidt, Evolution of Chinese Medicine; Hinrichs, “Governance through Medical Texts and the Role of Print,” 217–38; Chen Yun-ju, “Accounts of Treating Zhang (“miasma”) Disorders,” 205–54.

  27. 27   The definition of the medieval period in China remains a contested issue due to the different historical experiences of China and Europe. The debates are also linked to the issue of the starting point of Chinese modernity, which some scholars have dated as early as the tenth century (see discussion below). This book is not a place to adjudicate these debates. Rather, I use the term as shorthand to refer to the period from the post-Han to the mid-Tang (third to eighth century). See Brook, “Medievality and the Chinese Sense of History,” 145–64; Knapp, “Did the Middle Kingdom Have a Middle Period?,” 8–13; and Holcombe, “Was Medieval China Medieval?,” 106–17.

  28. 28   Dien and Knapp, eds., Cambridge History of China, vol. 2.

  29. 29   Fan Xingzhun, Zhongguo yixue shilüe, 57–96.

  30. 30   Fan Ka-wai, Dayi jingcheng.

  31. 31   Nathan Sivin’s early study of Sun Simiao’s alchemy remains an important reference. See Sivin, Chinese Alchemy. For a recent survey of medicine in this period, see Fan Ka-wai, “Period of Division and the Tang Period,” 65–96.

  32. 32   Fan Ka-wai, Liuchao Sui-Tang yixue zhi chuancheng yu zhenghe; Fan Ka-wai, Dayi jingcheng; Fan Ka-wai, Zhonggu shiqi de yizhe yu bingzhe.

  33. 33   Li Jianmin, Lüxingzhe de shixue; Lin, Zhongguo zhonggu shiqi de zongjiao yu yiliao; Lee Jen-der, Nüren de Zhongguo yiliao shi; Chen Hao, Shenfen xushi yu zhishi biaoshu zhijian de yizhe zhi yi.

  34. 34   Lo and Cullen, eds., Medieval Chinese Medicine; Chen Ming, Shufang yiyao; Despeux, ed., Médecine, religion et société dans la Chine médiévale; Chen Ming, Zhonggu yiliao yu wailai wenhua; Iwamoto, Tōdai no iyakusho to Tonkō bunken.

  35. 35   Unschuld, Medicine in China, 17–28; Harper, Early Chinese Medical Literature, 98–109.

  36. 36   My periodization is informed by Li Jianmin, Lüxingzhe de shixue, 33–94.

  37. 37   Studies on the Tang-Song transition are voluminous. Representative works are: Lau, “Hewei ‘Tang-Song biange’?,” 125–71; Bol, Neo-Confucianism in History; von Glahn, Economic History of China, 208–54; Tackett, Origins of the Chinese Nation.

  38. 38   This is the famous “Naitō hypothesis” advanced by the Japanese sinologist Naitō Konan in the early twentieth century. On the summary of the hypothesis and its influence, see Miyakawa, “Outline of the Naitō Hypothesis,” 533–52; Smith and von Glahn, eds., Song-Yuan-Ming Transition in Chinese History; and Zhang Guangda, “Neiteng Hunan de Tang-Song biange shuo jiqi yingxiang,” 5–71.

  39. 39   Goldschmidt, Evolution of Chinese Medicine; Hinrichs, Shamans, Witchcraft, and Quarantine; Lei, Neither Donkey nor Horse; Andrews, Making of Modern Chinese Medicine; Taylor, Chinese Medicine in Early Communist China, 1945–1963.

  40. 40   From a comparative perspective, the role of the state in regulating medicine was less pronounced in medieval Europe than it was in China during the same period. In the early medieval period (fifth to tenth century), monasteries were the major sites of the production for medical writings; in the late medieval period (eleventh to fifteenth century), universities took a leading role in generating scholarly works on medicine. See Siraisi, Medieval and Early Renaissance Medicine.

  41. 41   Goldschmidt, Evolution of Chinese Medicine, 19–136; Fan Ka-wai, Beisong jiaozheng yishuju xintan; Brown, Art of Medicine in Early China, 110–29.

  42. 42   For important studies of manuscript culture in medieval China, see Tian, Tao Yuanming and Manuscript Culture; Nugent, Manifest in Words, Written on Paper; Yu Xin, Zhonggu yixiang.

  43. 43   Lo and Cullen, Medieval Chinese Medicine; Despeux, Médecine, religion et société dans la Chine médiévale.

  44. 44   Unschuld, Medicine in China.

  45. 45   Pomata, “Observation Rising: Birth of an Epistemic Genre,” 45–80.

  46. 46   An example of the former is Tao Hongjing’s Collected Annotations on the Classic of Materia Medica. In his commentary, Tao offers elaborate explanations of drugs, often based on his own observations or other people’s words. See Chen Yuanpeng, “Bencao jing jizhu suozai ‘Taozhu’ zhong de zhishi leixing,” 184– 212. An example of the latter is Wang Tao’s Arcane Essentials from the Imperial Library (Waitai miyao fang, 752). In this text, Wang specifies the source of every formula, revealing his scholarly effort to compile medical information based on existing books. See Gao, Waitai miyao fang congkao, 906–55.

  47. 47   Zheng Jinsheng, Yaolin waishi, 96–99; Akahori, “Drug Taking and Immortality,” 73–98.

  48. 48   Tambiah, Magic, Science, Religion, and the Scope of Rationality.

  49. 49   Yates, Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition; Webster, Paracelsus; Biller and Ziegler, eds., Religion and Medicine in the Middle Ages; Horden, “What’s Wrong with Early Medieval Medicine?,” 5–25.

  50. 50   There is a large body of literature that examines this topic. Of particular importance are Sivin, “On the Word ‘Taoist’ as a Source of Perplexity,” 303–30; Strickmann, Chinese Magical Medicine; Lin, Zhongguo zhonggu shiqi de zongjiao yu yiliao; Stanley-Baker, “Daoists and Doctors”; and Salguero, Translating Buddhist Medicine in Medieval China.

  51. 51   Bynum, “Material Continuity, Personal Survival, and the Resurrection of the Body,” 51–85; Duden, Woman beneath the Skin; Schipper, Taoist Body; Kuriyama, Expressiveness of the Body and the Divergence of Greek and Chinese Medicine.

  52. 52   Kieschnick, Impact of Buddhism on Chinese Material Culture; Copp, Body Incantatory; Steavu, “Paratexuality, Materiality, and Corporeality in Medieval Chinese Religions,” 11–40.

  53. 53   A collection of anthropological studies offers insights into this issue. See Yu Shuenn-Der, ed., Tiwu ruwei.

  54. 54   For an excellent study of the irreducible physicality of the body in medieval Christianity, see Bynum, “Why All the Fuss about the Body?,” 1–33.

CHAPTER 1: THE PARADOX OF DU

Epigraph: Liu An et al., Huainanzi, 9.292.

  1. 1   Sima, Shiji, 55.2037.

  2. 2   Mou, “Duyao kukou,” 437–38.

  3. 3   On the previous discussions of the etymology of du, see Unschuld, “Zur Bedeutung des Terminus tu 毒,” 165–83; Obringer, L’aconit et l’orpiment, 25–26; Shi Zhicheng, “Zhongguo gudai duzi jiqi xiangguan cihui kao,” 1–9.

  4. 4   Xu Shen, Shuowen jiezi, 1b.15, 5b.111.

  5. 5   In an early study of du, the historian Yu Yan contends that the definition of “thickness” for du implies a negative sense of harmfulness. I interpret hou as a neutral word that could indicate either harm or benefit. See Yu Yan, “Duyao bian,” 1–4.

  6. 6   This graph of du is the prevailing way of writing the character in excavated manuscripts from the Qin and Han periods. Information from the Multi-function Chinese Character Database (http://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/Lexis/lexi-mf/search.php?word=%E6%AF%92, accessed August 1, 2020).

  7. 7   Xu Shen, Shuowen jiezi, 1b.18. The earliest appearance of the character fu is in The Book of Odes (Shijing), which refers to an unsavory vegetable that one can eat to stave off starvation. See Maoshi zhengyi, 11.794.

  8. 8   Unschuld, “Zur Bedeutung des Terminus tu 毒,” 169–70.

  9. 9   The English word “toxic” is derived from the Greek word toxon, which means “bow,” or toxikon, which means “pertaining to a bow,” indicating a similar involvement of poisons in hunting or warfare. See Stevenson, Meaning of Poison, 3–4. On the arguably earliest evidence of using poisons in hunting activities (24,000 years ago), see d’Errico et al., “Early Evidence of San Material Culture,” 13214–19. On the military use of poisons in ancient China, see Bisset, “Arrow Poisons in China. Part I,” 325–84.

  10. 10   Boltz, Origin and Early Development of the Chinese Writing System.

  11. 11   Gu Yewang, Songben yupian, 25.467.

  12. 12   I thank Constance Cook for sharing her unpublished research on reading the oracle bone graph of du. See her “Exorcism and the Spirit Turtle,” forthcoming.

  13. 13   Xu Shen, Shuowen jiezi, 1b.24.

  14. 14   Nylan, Five “Confucian” Classics, 202–52.

  15. 15   Zhouyi zhengyi, 3.121; Shaughnessy, I Ching, 110–11, 146–47.

  16. 16   See Tōdō, Kanji gogen jiten, cited in Unschuld, “Zur Bedeutung des Terminus tu 毒,” 166. The ancient pronunciations of du and shu are *[d]ˤuk and *[d]uk, respectively. Information acquired from the Baxter-Sagart reconstruction of Old Chinese (http://ocbaxtersagart.lsait.lsa.umich.edu/, accessed August 1, 2020). Relatedly, James Matisoff has interpreted the original meaning of du as “a pregnant woman revolted by food” (https://stedt.berkeley.edu/~stedt-cgi/rootcanal.pl/etymon/2202, accessed August 1, 2020). This interpretation, though, requires further evidence. I thank Laurent Sagart for bringing Matisoff’s interpretation to my attention.

  17. 17   Zhouyi zhengyi, 2.60–61.

  18. 18   Du meaning “govern” only appears in the commentary section of The Classic of Changes, which is a later addition. This suggests that this meaning developed later, possibly during the Warring States period (476–221 BCE).

  19. 19   Laozi jiaoshi, 51.204.

  20. 20   Nylan, Five “Confucian” Classics, 168–201, esp. 182–85; Chin, Zhongguo gudai de yixue, yishi yu zhengzhi, 291–352.

  21. 21   Zhouli zhushu, 5.127.

  22. 22   Zhouli zhushu, 5.136–38.

  23. 23   Zhouli zhushu, 5.138–39.

  24. 24   Li Jianmin, Huatuo yincang de shoushu, 18–20.

  25. 25   Huangdi neijing suwen jiaozhu, 13.180. Other examples of this meaning of duyao can be found in 12.174–75, 25.353–55, 76.1142–43, and 77.1156–57.

  26. 26   Huangdi neijing suwen jiaozhu, 22.329–30.

  27. 27   Wang Chong, Lunheng jiaoshi, 66.949–60. A French translation of the chapter was rendered by Frédéric Obringer, in his L’aconit et l’orpiment, 275–83.

  28. 28   On the relationship between du, fire, and heat during the Han period, see Li Jianmin, Lüxingzhe de shixue, 112–15. Wang was not the first person who linked du to words. In a collection of excavated manuscripts dating to the third century BCE, we find a similar connection in a legal context, where powerful words are believed to disrupt social harmony. See Hulsewé, Remnants of Ch’in Law, 206–7.

  29. 29   Zheng Jinsheng, Yaolin waishi, 7–10.

  30. 30   Beck, De Materia Medica.

  31. 31   Liu An et al., Huainanzi, 19.629–30.

  32. 32   On the historical role of the sages in Han medical texts, see Chin, Zhongguo gudai de yixue, yishi yu zhengzhi, 56–70.

  33. 33   Ban, Hanshu, 12.359, 25b.1257–58. For important studies on the origins of the materia medica genre in China, see Yamada Keiji, “Hongzō no kigen,” 454–73; and Liao Yuqun, Qi Huang yidao, 124–52.

  34. 34   Wang and Zhang, “Shennong bencao jing” yanjiu.

  35. 35   Unschuld, “Ma-wang-tui Materia Medica,” 11–63; Harper, Early Chinese Medical Literature, 98–109.

  36. 36   Among ancient works on natural history in China, the third-century Record of Comprehensive Things (Bowu zhi) by Zhang Hua is particularly important. The text has been lost, but fragments of it, including a short section on drugs, are preserved in later sources. See Zhang Hua, Bowu zhi jiaozheng, 4.47–48.

  37. 37   Fuyang Hanjian Zhengli Zu, “Fuyang hanjian Wanwu,” 36–47; Hu and Han, “Wanwu lüeshuo,” 48–54; Li Ling, “Liandanshu de qiyuan he fushi zhuyou,” 323–30.

  38. 38   Chin, Zhongguo gudai de yixue, yishi yu zhengzhi, 157–210; Brown, Art of Medicine in Early China, 89–109.

  39. 39   Ban, Hanshu, 30.1776–80.

  40. 40   The Han text has long been lost, but its content has been preserved in later materia medica sources, based on which a number of modern reconstructions have been produced. In my analysis, I rely on Shang Zhijun’s edition to examine the text.

  41. 41   Shennong bencao jing jiaozhu, 1.1–3. The translation is mine in consultation with Unschuld, Medicine in China, 19; Lloyd and Sivin, Way and the Word, 232–33; and Wilms, Divine Farmer’s Classic of Materia Medica, 2–3.

  42. 42   Huangdi neijing suwen jiaozhu, 2.31–32.

  43. 43   Kohn, ed., Taoist Meditation and Longevity Techniques; Sakade, ed., Chūgoku kodai yōjō shisō no sōgōteki kenkyū.

  44. 44   I must point out that the classification of drugs based on their du is not absolute in The Divine Farmer’s Classic. For example, there are some du-possessing drugs in the top group, which I will examine in part III. In addition, many top-level drugs, in addition to their life-enhancement properties, can also cure sickness. However, rarely can we find an example in the text where a bottom-level drug can promote longevity. In other words, top-level drugs tend to be versatile, while those at the bottom are more restricted to treating illness.

  45. 45   Huangdi neijing suwen jiaozhu, 5.82–91. Viscera as defined in Chinese medicine cannot be reduced to anatomical organs in modern biomedicine but are functional units that act in concert in the body. Because of this, I capitalize the organ names in English to signal this difference. See Sivin, Traditional Medicine in Contemporary China, 124–33.

  46. 46   Scholars hold different views on this point. Some believe that, in order to maintain consistency between the preface and the rest of the text, the du status of each drug is specified in The Divine Farmer’s Classic. Others have contended instead that this information was added later. These scholars point to a strong piece of evidence from a commentary text to buttress their claim (more on this in the following section). Moreover, there are other characteristics of drugs that are outlined in the preface but not specified in the main text. I am thus inclined to agree with the view that the definition of du for each drug is a later addition. See Shennong bencao jing jizhu, 609–11; and Shennong bencao jing jiaozhu, 1–8.

  47. 47   Li Jianmin, Lüxingzhe de shixue, 33–94; Fan Ka-wai, Liuchao Sui-Tang yixue zhi chuancheng yu zhenghe, 96–108.

  48. 48   Lin, Zhongguo zhonggu shiqi de zongjiao yu yiliao; Salguero, Translating Buddhist Medicine in Medieval China; Pregadio, Great Clarity.

  49. 49   Tao, Bencao jing jizhu, 1.30. Fan in the title likely refers to Fan Wang, a fourth-century officer of the Eastern Jin who excelled at medicine. See Fan Xingzhun, Zhongguo yixue shilüe, 59.

  50. 50   Wei Zheng et al., Suishu, 34.1040–50. For Tao Hongjing’s biography, see Yao Silian, Liangshu, 51.742–43; Li Yanshou, Nanshi, 76.1897–1900; and Wang Jiakui, Tao Hongjing congkao, 313–76.

  51. 51   Tao, Bencao jing jizhu, 1.1–6.

  52. 52   Liao Yuqun, “Kaoding Mingyi bielu jiqi yu Tao Hongjing zhushu de guanxi,” 261–69.

  53. 53   The specification of the du status for individual drugs is already seen in the third-century Materia Medica of Wu Pu (Wu Pu bencao), which is extant only in fragments. Unlike Collected Annotations, the book simply juxtaposes accounts on each drug from disparate sources without a synthesis. See Wu, Wu Pu bencao.

  54. 54   Chen Hao, Shenfen xushi yu zhishi biaoshu zhijian de yizhe zhi yi, 97.

  55. 55   Iwamoto, Tōdai no iyakusho to Tonkō bunken, 83–86.

  56. 56   It is also possible, based on Iwamoto Atsushi’s research, that the Tang court modified Tao’s writing system when they copied his work, making the precise recovery of Tao’s original text impossible. See Iwamoto, Tōdai no iyakusho to Tonkō bunken, 85–86.

  57. 57   The earliest complete text of materia medica that is still extant to us is the Materia Medica Prepared for Emergency, Verified and Classified from the Classics and Histories (Jingshi zhenglei beiji bencao, eleventh century, often abbreviated as Zhenglei bencao), compiled by Tang Shenwei during the Northern Song dynasty. This is the text that modern scholars have used to reconstruct the whole texts of The Divine Farmer’s Classic and Collected Annotations.

  58. 58   Tao, Bencao jing jizhu, 1.3.

  59. 59   Tao, Bencao jing jizhu, 1.6; Mayanagi, “Three Juan Edition of Bencao jizhu and Excavated Sources,” 306–21.

  60. 60   The second-century scholar Zheng Xuan, in his commentary to the ancient text Rites of Zhou, defines five types of drugs based on their natural category (herbs, trees, worms, stones, and grains). See Zhouli zhushu, 5.132. Scholars have offered various explanations for Tao’s novel organization of drugs, including Indian influence, possibly facilitated by the transmission of Buddhism (Liao Yuqun, “Yindu gudai yaowu fenleifa jiqi keneng dui zhongguo yixue chansheng de yingxiang,” 56–63), and influence from Confucian writings where “natural categories” are invoked to assist political governance and offer moral guidance (Yamada Keiji, Honzō to yume to renkinjutsu to, 67–72). To understand Tao’s organizational scheme, it is also necessary to align this medical text with his Daoist writings. Tao seems fascinated with the number seven: both of his Daoist works, Declarations of the Perfected and Secret Instructions for Ascending for Perfection, contain seven scrolls. He claims that this organization corresponds to the seven stars of the Northern Dipper (aka the Big Dipper) that guide earthly patterns. Worshipping the Northern Dipper was an important Daoist ritual in premodern China. The numerological significance of seven in Collected Annotations is thus consistent with the cosmological thinking that undergirds his Daoist works. See Tao, Zhen’gao (HY 1016), 19.3a; and Mollier, Buddhism and Taoism Face to Face, 134–73.

  61. 61   This calculation does not include the 178 drugs that “have names but are not used anymore” and the 81 drugs whose du statuses are not specified. Out of the 108 du-possessing drugs, 23 are new in Collected Annotations. From a comparative perspective, among major pharmacological treatises produced in Greek antiquity, about 10 percent of the drugs are perceived to be toxic. See Touwaide, “Les poisons dans le monde antique et byzantin,” 268.

  62. 62   The precise correspondence between the name of a drug in Chinese pharmacy and its modern referent is often difficult to identify due to the various, sometimes conflicting descriptions of the medicine across different sources. Throughout this book, I use either the common names in English to translate these substances when possible, or sometimes in the case of plants, the name of the genus instead of the species in order to leave some ambiguity granted by the sources. My identification of drugs is guided by Sivin, Chinese Alchemy, 272–94; Shiu-ying Hu, Enumeration of Chinese Materia Medica; and Wilms, Divine Farmer’s Classic of Materia Medica.

  63. 63   Tao, Bencao jing jizhu, 2.130, 148–51, 154–55, 168, 175.

  64. 64   Tao, Bencao jing jizhu, 5.344. The “attached offspring” refers to the side tubers of the herb. See the more detailed discussion of aconite in chapter 2.

  65. 65   According to Frédéric Obringer’s calculation, 10 percent of prescriptions in an eighth-century formula book use aconite. See Obringer, L’aconit et l’orpiment, 121–22.

  66. 66   Tao, Bencao jing jizhu, 5.327–29, 335–36, 354–55, 374.

  67. 67   Tao, Bencao jing jizhu, 6.441–42.

  68. 68   Tao, Bencao jing jizhu, 6.389.

  69. 69   Tao, Bencao jing jizhu, 6.449.

  70. 70   The idiom signals the use of a measure that appears to temporarily solve an urgent problem but actually leads to disasters. See Fan Ye, Hou Hanshu, 48.1616.

  71. 71   For a study of the zhen bird, see Mayanagi, “Chintori,” 151–85. Could a bird’s feathers be so poisonous? For a modern biological study, see Dumbacher et al., “Homobatrachotoxin in the Genus Pitohui,” 799–801.

  72. 72   Tao, Bencao jing jizhu, 7.499; Li Hui-lin, “Origin and Use of Cannabis in Eastern Asia,” 51–62.

  73. 73   Tao, Bencao jing jizhu, 7.510.

  74. 74   Liu An et al., Huainanzi, 9.291–95. A similar passage can be found in 10.319–22. On the use of medical discourse for political persuasion in ancient China, see Brown, Art of Medicine in Early China, 21–62.

  75. 75   Liu An et al., Huainanzi, 3.79–129.

CHAPTER 2: TRANSFORMING POISONS

Epigraph: Lü et al., Lüshi chunqiu jishi, 25.661.

  1. 1   Ban, Hanshu, 97a.3966.

  2. 2   On this division, see Latour, We Have Never Been Modern; on the perception of nature in the East Asian context, see Vogel and Dux, Concepts of Nature; and Marcon, Knowledge of Nature and the Nature of Knowledge, 16–21.

  3. 3   Arnold, Colonizing the Body; Lei, Neither Donkey nor Horse.

  4. 4   The quote is from Paracelsus’s Seven Defensiones, III, cited in Gibbs, Poison, Medicine, and Disease in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe, 201. For a collection of essays on this topic in European history, see Grell, Cunningham, and Arrizabalaga, eds., “It All Depends on the Dose.”

  5. 5   Shennong bencao jing jiaozhu, 1.8.

  6. 6   Tao, Bencao jing jizhu, 1.19–20.

  7. 7   Tao, Bencao jing jizhu, 1.36–37. On the change of weight systems from the Han period to the Era of Division, see Guo, San zhi shisi shiji Zhongguo de quanheng duliang, 103–17.

  8. 8   Tao, Bencao jing jizhu, 1.53. One fen in Tao’s time was equivalent to about 3.5 grams. See Guo, San zhi shisi shiji Zhongguo de quanheng duliang, 115.

  9. 9   Tao, Bencao jing jizhu, 5.374. Other examples in this category include “hemp seed” (mafen, cannabis) and “cloud fruit” (yunshi, Mysore thorn). See 3.247–48 and 7.499–500 in the same book. On hallucinogenic drugs in classical Chinese pharmacy, see Ishida, “Genkiyaku kō,” 38–57.

  10. 10   Tao, Bencao jing jizhu, 6.450–52; 7.471–72; 7.515–16.

  11. 11   Tao, Bencao jing jizhu, 1.80–88.

  12. 12   Shennong bencao jing jiaozhu, 1.3–4.

  13. 13   Chin, Zhongguo gudai de yixue, yishi yu zhengzhi.

  14. 14   Lloyd and Sivin, Way and the Word, 188–238.

  15. 15   Huangdi neijing suwen jiaozhu, 8.128–30.

  16. 16   Shennong bencao jing jiaozhu, 1.4–5.

  17. 17   Puett, “Ethics of Responding Properly,” 37–68.

  18. 18   Tao, Bencao jing jizhu, 1.93–125. Besides The Divine Farmer’s Classic, Tao also consulted a treatise dedicated to drug combinations titled Drug Correspondences (Yaodui) to compile this list.

  19. 19   Tao, Bencao jing jizhu, 1.113.

  20. 20   Tao, Bencao jing jizhu, 1.11.

  21. 21   Tao, Bencao jing jizhu, 1.11.

  22. 22   On the discussion of dragon’s bone, which probably refers to fossilized animal bones, see Nappi, Monkey and the Inkpot, 50–68.

  23. 23   “Barbarian powder” likely refers to white lead. See Sivin, Chinese Alchemy, 278.

  24. 24   Tao, Bencao jing jizhu, 1.94.

  25. 25   Tao, Bencao jing jizhu, 1.11.

  26. 26   Tao, Bencao jing jizhu, 1.80–88.

  27. 27   Shennong bencao jing jiaozhu, 1.6–7.

  28. 28   Tao, Bencao jing jizhu, 1.90–93.

  29. 29   Being deficient (xu) and replete (shi) are two opposing states of the body conceived of in Chinese medicine. See Kuriyama, Expressiveness of the Body and the Divergence of Greek and Chinese Medicine, 217–31.

  30. 30   Tao, Bencao jing jizhu, 1.20–21.

  31. 31   A different term with the same pronunciation, paozhi (roast to restrain), is commonly found in modern pharmaceutical writings in China. This term only started to appear in twelfth-century texts, then gradually became the dominant phrase to designate drug processing. See Zheng Jinsheng, Yaolin waishi, 174.

  32. 32   Xu Shen, Shuowen jiezi, 10a.208, 10b.212.

  33. 33   Maoshi zhengyi, 15.1095–99.

  34. 34   Maoshi zhengyi, 15.1098–99. There is a third character in the poem, fan, which refers to the roasting of dry meat.

  35. 35   Liji zhengyi, 28.997.

  36. 36   On culinary culture in early China, see Sterckx, Food, Sacrifice, and Sagehood in Early China, 49–82; on the intimate relationship between food and medicine in premodern China, see Lo, “Pleasure, Prohibition, and Pain: Food and Medicine in Traditional China,” 163–85.

  37. 37   Shennong bencao jing jiaozhu, 1.5–6.

  38. 38   Tao, Bencao jing jizhu, 1.39–54.

  39. 39   The word jin, for example, could refer to a variety of plants not restricted to aconite. See Obringer, L’aconit et l’orpiment, 94–99.

  40. 40   Obringer, L’aconit et l’orpiment, 119–30. On the cultural history of aconite in premodern China, see Wei Bing, “Cong Zhangming xian fuzi ji kan Songdai shidafu dui fuzi de renshi,” 310–22; and Yu Xin, Zhonggu yixiang, 189–216.

  41. 41   Obringer, L’aconit et l’orpiment, 105–6, 139–43.

  42. 42   Bisset, “Arrow Poisons in China. Part II,” 247–336.

  43. 43   Harper, Early Chinese Medical Literature, 105. Wuhui, which literally means “black beak,” refers to the main tubers of aconite with a split, resembling a bird’s bill. See Tao, Bencao jing jizhu, 5.343.

  44. 44   Harper, Early Chinese Medical Literature, 352–53. The use of aconite for speedy travel is also recorded in Ten Thousand Things (Wanwu), excavated from Shuanggudui (ca. 165 BCE), in which it is claimed that the ingestion of the plant enables both humans and horses to run fast. See Fuyang Hanjian Zhengli Zu, “Fuyang hanjian Wanwu,” 38, 39.

  45. 45   “Cold damage” (shanghan), a disease category originating during the Eastern Han period, refers to a set of acute, severe, and often infectious conditions characterized by fever. See Mitchell, Ye, and Wiseman, Shang Han Lun, 9–19.

  46. 46   Yang and Brown, “Wuwei Medical Manuscripts,” 241–301. On the formulas including aconite, see 258, 259, 260, 265, 274, 279, 280, 283–84, 286, 288, 291–92, 293–94, 296–97, 298, and 299.

  47. 47   Shi You, Jijiu pian, 4.276–77.

  48. 48   This estimation is based on a list of commodities with their prices from the Juyan manuscripts (Yu Xin, Zhonggu yixiang, 201). Silk was affordable during the Han period, as it was used as a common writing material (Tsien, Written on Bamboo and Silk, 130).

  49. 49   Shennong bencao jing jiaozhu, 1.8. The cold and hot maladies refer to those pathological conditions with typical symptoms of chilling and heating sensations, respectively. This principle of opposites, of course, is not unique to Chinese medicine; a wide variety of healing traditions around the world rely on it to treat illnesses. See Anderson, “‘Heating’ and ‘Cooling’ Foods in Hong Kong and Taiwan,” 237–68; and Messer, “Hot/Cold Classifications and Balancing Actions in Mesoamerican Diet and Health,” 149–67.

  50. 50   Shennong bencao jing jiaozhu, 4.205–6. Several other warming drugs, including cinnamon, Sichuan pepper, and ginger, also appear frequently in Han medical formulas. See Yang and Brown, “Wuwei Medical Manuscripts,” 241–301.

  51. 51   I will explore this issue further in chapter 7.

  52. 52   For an excellent study of this murder, see Li Jianmin, Lüxingzhe de shixue, 285–324.

  53. 53   For example, see Harper, Early Chinese Medical Literature, 226, 237, 274, 288, and 297; and Yang and Brown, “Wuwei Medical Manuscripts,” 258, 265, and 280. On pharmaceutical techniques during the Han period, see Zheng Jinsheng, Yaolin waishi, 178–85.

  54. 54   Shang, “Leigong paozhi lun youguan wenxian yanjiu,” 139–43.

  55. 55   Zheng et al., eds., Dictionary of the Ben Cao Gang Mu, vol. 3, 254, 256.

  56. 56   Although refined arsenic (arsenic trioxide) was one of the most frequently used poisons in late imperial China, it appeared in materia medica writings starting in the tenth century. See Obringer, “Song Innovation in Pharmacotherapy,” 197.

  57. 57   The original Treatise on Drug Processing has long been lost, but sections of it have been preserved in the eleventh-century pharmacological work Zhenglei bencao, allowing for reconstruction.

  58. 58   “The southern ground of wu” (wudi) could be a reference to “evading stems” (dunjia), a divination system based on the spatial-temporal correspondence between the trigrams from The Classic of Changes and the sexagenary cycle. In this system, wu corresponds to the direction of due south, so the ground of wu could refer to the southern section of the ground in a house. On dunjia, see DeWoskin, Doctors, Diviners, and Magicians of Ancient China, 25.

  59. 59   Leigong paozhi lun, 2.58–59.

  60. 60   Fan Ye, Hou Hanshu, 94.3110–11.

  61. 61   Pregadio, Great Clarity, 95–96, 99.

  62. 62   Fan Ye, Hou Hanshu, 83.2770–71.

  63. 63   Fan Ye, Hou Hanshu, 83.2770, 2777.

  64. 64   Fan Ye, Hou Hanshu, 82.2745–46.

  65. 65   Fan Ye, Hou Hanshu, 82.2719.

  66. 66   Fan Ye, Hou Hanshu, 82.2743–45.

  67. 67   The meaning of fangshi is subject to multiple interpretations. The term has been variously translated as “masters of methods,” “recipe gentlemen,” and “technicians,” among others. In the eyes of Han literati, they sometimes appeared to be “quacks,” especially when they tried to use their occult arts to gain imperial favor and posed a threat to established orders. But this is not always the case, as Han texts also portray them, especially those with no political ambitions, as talented masters with extraordinary faculties. Due to the historical complexity of the term, I leave it untranslated in this book. On the issue of fangshi, see DeWoskin, Doctors, Diviners, and Magicians; Sivin, “Taoism and Science,” ch. VII, 27–30; Harper, Early Chinese Medical Literature, 50–54; and Csikszentmihalyi, “Fangshi,” 406–9.

  68. 68   DeWoskin, Doctors, Diviners, and Magicians, 17–22.

  69. 69   Shangdang is a region in the northwest (in present-day Shanxi). Tao considered ginseng grown in that area to be of the highest quality, better than that produced from the two Korean kingdoms of Baekje and Goguryeo. Yet people during his time erroneously valued the latter two types more. See Tao, Bencao jing jizhu, 3.207–8.

  70. 70   Huayin is a region in the northwest (in present-day Shaanxi). Tao considered asarum produced from that area to be one of the best kinds for medicine. See Tao, Bencao jing jizhu, 3.220.

  71. 71   Tao, Bencao jing jizhu, 1.32–35.

  72. 72   Leigong paozhi lun, 3.101–2.

  73. 73   Tao, Bencao jing jizhu, 1.33.

  74. 74   Mantis eggshells found on the branches of mulberry trees were considered the best, as they could absorb qi of the sap from the trees. Tao, Bencao jing jizhu, 6.430.

  75. 75   Centipedes with red heads and legs were considered the best for medicine. Tao, Bencao jing jizhu, 6.442.

  76. 76   Tao, Bencao jing jizhu, 2.132; 3.253; 4.311; 5.358, 359; 6.443.

  77. 77   Tao, Bencao jing jizhu, 3.197, 198, 202, 242, 254; 4.292, 320; 5.372; 6.430, 449.

  78. 78   Hibino, “Tō Kōkei no Honzō shūchū ni kansuru itsu kōsatsu,” 1–20; Chen Yuanpeng, “Bencao jing jizhu suozai ‘Taozhu’ zhong de zhishi leixing,” 184–212.

  79. 79   Tao, Bencao jing jizhu, 1.30.

  80. 80   For the studies of Xu Zhicai and the influential Xu medical clan, see Fan Ka-wai, Zhonggu shiqi de yizhe yu bingzhe, 70–91; Iwamoto, Tōdai no iyakusho to Tonkō bunken, 51–77; and Chen Hao, Shenfen xushi yu zhishi biaoshu zhijian de yizhe zhi yi, 87–130.

  81. 81   Xu Zhicai, Leigong yaodui, 1.1.

  82. 82   Weatherall, “Drug Therapies,” 915–38.

  83. 83   Deleuze and Guattari, Thousand Plateaus, 282–86. For an excellent study of the concept of “drug assemblage” and its implications in contemporary drug culture, see Fuenzalida, “Pharmakontologies.”

CHAPTER 3: FIGHTING POISON WITH POISON

Epigraphs: Soushen houji, 6.47; Wei Zheng et al., Suishu, 79.1791.

  1. 1   Soushen houji, 6.42–43.

  2. 2   Shennong bencao jing jiaozhu, 1.8.

  3. 3   Poo, “The Concept of Ghost in Ancient Chinese Religion,” 173–91.

  4. 4   Xu Shen, Shuowen jiezi, 11a.233.

  5. 5   Liu Xi, Shiming, 4.885b.

  6. 6   Li Jianmin, “Contagion and Its Consequences,” 201–22.

  7. 7   Ge, Buji zhouhou fang, 1.24–26. Earlier scholars have tried to draw a correspondence between demonic infestation and a disease in modern biomedicine, for example, by identifying it as tuberculosis (Yu Yan, Gudai jibing minghou shuyi, 223; Fan Xinzhun, Zhongguo bingshi xinyi, 96–99). More recently, scholars have shifted to examining demonic influence as part of the cultural fabric of premodern China without flattening the illness to fit it into a modern disease category (Sivin, Chinese Alchemy, 297; Li Jianmin, “They Shall Expel Demons,” 1132–47). I adopt the approach of the latter group in exploring the rich and changing meanings of demonic infestation in its own cultural milieu. For an exemplary historical study of the disease foot qi in Chinese medicine’s own framework, see Hilary Smith, Forgotten Disease.

  8. 8   Harper, “Chinese Demonography of the Third Century B.C.,” 459–98.

  9. 9   On detailed studies of zhu in the grave-quelling writs, see Chen Hao, Ji zhi cheng shang, 181–220; and Chen Liang, “Donghan zhenmu wen suojian daowu guanxi de zai sikao,” 44–71.

  10. 10   Strickmann, Chinese Magical Medicine, 58–88; Mollier, “Visions of Evil,” 74–100; Lin, Zhongguo zhonggu shiqi de zongjiao yu yiliao, 29–84.

  11. 11   Yoshikawa, “Seishitsu kō,” 125–62; Kleeman, Celestial Masters, 222–28.

  12. 12   Nickerson, “Great Petition for Sepulchral Plaints,” 230–74.

  13. 13   This is The Scripture of Divine Incantations of the Abyssal Caverns (Taishang dongyuan shenzhou jing), HY 335. On the studies of this Daoist text, see Mollier, Une apocalypse taoïste du Ve siècle; Lee Fong-mao, “Daozang suoshou zaoqi daoshu de wenyi guan,” 417–54.

  14. 14   HY 335, 9.1a.

  15. 15   HY 335, 8.2b; 11.9a. Another telling example is nüqing, a potent herb of the Paederia genus that, based on the materia medica literature, could kill demons and avert epidemics. It also appears in the title of a fourth-century Daoist text of demonology, Demon Statutes of Nüqing (Nüqing guilü, HY 790), revealing a strong link between poisons and demons. See Strickmann, Chinese Magical Medicine, 80–88.

  16. 16   Tao Hongjing briefly discussed this etiological model in his Collected Annotations. See Tao, Bencao jing jizhu, 15–18; and Li Jianmin, “They Shall Expel Demons,” 1146–47.

  17. 17   Li Linfu et al., Tang liudian, 14.410.

  18. 18   Despeux, “Gymnastics,” 223–61; Kohn, Chinese Healing Exercises; Ding, Zhubing yuanhou lun yangsheng fang daoyin fa yanjiu.

  19. 19   Dolly Yang, “Prescribing ‘Guiding and Pulling.’”

  20. 20   Chao et al., Zhubing yuanhou lun jiaozhu, 24.696–97.

  21. 21   This interpretation is based on the fact that the character zhu 注 (to pour) is a homonym of the character zhu 住 (to reside).

  22. 22   Chao et al., Zhubing yuanhou lun jiaozhu, 23.669–70.

  23. 23   Unschuld, Huang Di nei jing su wen, 149–67.

  24. 24   Dolly Yang, “Prescribing ‘Guiding and Pulling,’” 301–14.

  25. 25   Sun, Beiji qianjin yaofang jiaoshi, 17.612–20.

  26. 26   Sun, Beiji qianjin yaofang jiaoshi, 17.615. The Great One (Taiyi) is the name of a deity in the Daoist pantheon. See Andersen, “Taiyi,” 956–59.

  27. 27   Sun, Beiji qianjin yaofang jiaoshi, 17.614–15. Golden teeth (jinya) refers to a mineral drug that has a golden color and is about the size of chess pieces (Tao, Bencao jing jizhu, 2.179). It is the first of the forty-five ingredients listed in the formula.

  28. 28   Kuriyama, “Epidemics, Weather, and Contagion,” 3–22; Zhang Zhibin, Zhongguo gudai yibing liuxing nianbiao.

  29. 29   Lin, Zhongguo zhonggu shiqi de zongjiao yu yiliao, 29–85.

  30. 30   Sun, Beiji qianjin yaofang jiaoshi, 9.340.

  31. 31   Barrett, “Climate Change and Religious Response,” 139–56.

  32. 32   Mollier, Une apocalypse taoïste du Ve siècle.

  33. 33   Li Linfu et al., Tang liudian, 14.334–35.

  34. 34   Besides demonic infestation, which is the focus of my analysis, other major types of contagious disorders include “epidemic pestilence” (yili), “seasonal qi” (shiqi), “warm illness” (wenbing), and “cold damage” (shanghan). For an extensive analysis of these disorders in Chao’s work, see Chang Chia-Feng, “‘Jiyi’ yu ‘xiangran,’” 157–99.

  35. 35   On the discussion of epidemics in Chinese medicine in late imperial China, see Hanson, Speaking of Epidemics in Chinese Medicine.

  36. 36   Shirakawa, “Biko kankei jisetsu,” 458–76; Obringer, L’aconit et l’orpiment, 226–28.

  37. 37   Chunqiu zuozhuan zhengyi, 41.1343–44. For a detailed study of this story, see Brown, Art of Medicine in Early China, 21–40.

  38. 38   Chunqiu zuozhuan zhengyi, 41.1340–43.

  39. 39   Zhouyi zhengyi, 3.108–11; Xing, “Hexagram Gu,” 20–21.

  40. 40   The link between gu and female seduction in early China is also visible in a fourth-century BCE divination text. See Cook, “Fatal Case of Gu 蠱 Poisoning in Fourth-Century BC China?,” 123–49. We should note that the passage in Zuo Commentary is He’s interpretation of gu, not what The Classic of Changes says. On the contrary, the divination text reads the sign of gu as a favorable condition in which it is suitable to cross a great river.

  41. 41   Wind and worms are etymologically related—the character for wind (feng) contains the basic element of the character for worms (chong). In a first-century dictionary, the entry for wind explains that “once wind moves, vermin come into being.” Xu Shen, Shuowen jiezi, 13b.284.

  42. 42   Xu Shen, Shuowen jiezi, 13b.284.

  43. 43   Fèvre, “Drôles de bestioles,” 57–65; Liu Pao-line, “Yi chong wei xiang.”

  44. 44   Gan Bao, Xinjiao soushen ji, 12.95–96.

  45. 45   Soushen houji, 2.12–13.

  46. 46   For a brief summary, see Fan Ka-wai, “Han-Tang jian zhi gudu,” 1–23.

  47. 47   Chao et al., Zhubing yuanhou lun jiaozhu, 25.716–17.

  48. 48   Chao et al., Zhubing yuanhou lun jiaozhu, 25.717–18.

  49. 49   Zhang Zhuo, Chaoye qianzai, 6.158.

  50. 50   Sun, Sun zhenren qianjin fang, 25.420–25.

  51. 51   Sun, Sun zhenren qianjin fang, 26.451.

  52. 52   On the connection between poison and the heating power of yang, see Obringer, L’aconit et l’orpiment, 244; and Li Jianmin, “They Shall Expel Demons,” 1120–22.

  53. 53   Unschuld, Medicine in China, 50–52.

  54. 54   Chen Cangqi, Bencao shiyi jishi, 6.242–43.

  55. 55   The pioneering studies of this aspect of gu are de Groot, Religious System of China, 826–69; and Feng and Shryock, “Black Magic in China Known as Ku,” 1–30.

  56. 56   Ban, Hanshu, 63.2742–45.

  57. 57   Loewe, “Case of Witchcraft in 91 B.C.,” 159–96; Poo, “Wugu zhi huo de zhengzhi yiyi,” 511–38; Cai, Witchcraft and the Rise of the First Confucian Empire.

  58. 58   “The sinister way” (zuodao) is an umbrella term that designates various types of black magic. See von Glahn, Sinister Way.

  59. 59   Wei Zheng et al., Suishu, 79.1790–91. A similar account can be found in Li Yanshou, Beishi, 61.2172–73. For previous studies of this episode, see Lu Xiangqian, “Wu Zetian ‘weimao shuo’ yu Suishi ‘maogui zhi yu,’” 81–94; Li Ronghua, “Suidai ‘wugu zhi shu’ xintan,” 78–81; and Doran, “Cat Demon, Gender, and Religious Practice,” 689–707.

  60. 60   On the identification of li as a type of wild cat, see Barrett, Religious Affiliations of the Chinese Cat, 16–17, 25–27.

  61. 61   Chao et al., Zhubing yuanhou lun jiaozhu, 25.724.

  62. 62   Ito, Chūgoku no shinjū, akkitachi; Sterckx, Animal and the Daemon in Early China.

  63. 63   Barrett, Religious Affiliations of the Chinese Cat, 1–40; Barrett and Strange, “Walking by Itself,” 84–98.

  64. 64   Liu Xu et al., Jiu Tangshu, 51.2170. For detailed studies of this episode, see Lu Xiangqian, “Wu Zetian ‘weimao shuo’ yu Suishi ‘maogui zhi yu,’” 81–94; and Fu, “Wu Zetian ‘weimao shuo’ zaitan,” 96–109.

  65. 65   Wei Zheng et al., Suishu, 79.1789–90; Lu Xiangqian, “Wu Zetian ‘weimao shuo’ yu Suishi ‘maogui zhi yu,’” 87–88; Doran, “Cat Demon, Gender, and Religious Practice,” 692–93.

  66. 66   Wei Zheng et al., Suishu, 48.1287–88.

  67. 67   Wei Zheng et al., Suishu, 2.43. Besides the cat demon, the edict also expelled families who were accused of practicing three other types of black magic: gu poison (gudu), sorcery (yanmei), and wild path (yedao). For detailed studies of them, see von Glahn, Sinister Way; Mollier, Buddhism and Taoism Face to Face, 55–99; and Li Jianmin, Lüxingzhe de shixue, 251–84.

  68. 68   Yang Xiu was a younger brother of the crown prince Yang Guang. I mentioned earlier that his implication in the witchcraft was the outcome of Yang Su’s false accusation.

  69. 69   Zhang Zhuo, Chaoye qianzai, 1.26.

  70. 70   Zhangsun et al., Tanglü shuyi qianjie, 18.1299–1300; Chen Dengwu, Cong renjianshi dao youmingjie, 196–214.

  71. 71   Schafer, Vermilion Bird.

  72. 72   Wei Zheng et al., Suishu, 31.886–87.

  73. 73   On gu’s association with the south, see Fan Ka-wai, Liuchao Sui-Tang yixue zhi chuancheng yu zhenghe, 148–53; and Yu Gengzhe, Tangdai jibing, yiliaoshi chutan, 180–93.

  74. 74   This insight is from Barrett and Strange, “Walking by Itself,” 87.

  75. 75   The literature on shamans in Chinese history is profuse. For representative studies, see Harper, Early Chinese Medical Literature, 173–83; Lin, “Image and Status of Shamans in Ancient China,” 397–458; Sivin, Health Care in Eleventh-Century China, 93–128; and Hinrichs, Shamans, Witchcraft, and Quarantine.

  76. 76   The phrase first appeared in The Record of Clouds and Mist Passing before One’s Eyes (Yunyan guoyan lu) by the Song scholar Zhou Mi (1232–1298). The text describes a foreign material called “Khottal rhino horn” (guduo xi), which the author identified as actually the horn of a snake. The substance was extremely poisonous but could also counteract poisons. The logic, the author reasoned, was to “use poison to attack poison.” See Weitz, Zhou Mi’s “Record of Clouds and Mist Passing before One’s Eyes,” 82, 312. I am indebted to Fan Ka-wai for bringing this reference to my attention. On the development of this idea in the Buddhist context, see Chen Ming, Zhonggu yiliao yu wailai wenhua, 440.

  77. 77   Comparatively, we find a similar logic in homeopathy. Developed by the German physician Samuel Hahnemann (1755–1843), the therapy, based on the “principle of similars,” uses the pathogenic agent diluted to infinitesimal amounts to cure the disease it causes. Although the rationale of homeopathy resembles that of the medical use of poisons in China, they are also substantially different: the latter never involves ultrahigh dilutions of medicines, and the former is not about purging the body. See Jonas, Kaptchuk, and Linde, “Critical Overview of Homeopathy,” 393–99.

  78. 78   Temkin, “Scientific Approach to Disease,” 629–47; Rosenberg, Explaining Epidemics and Other Studies in the History of Medicine, 293–304.

  79. 79   Unschuld, “Traditional Chinese Medicine,” 1023–29; Hinrichs, “Catchy Epidemic,” 19–62.

  80. 80   The two models are not categorically distinct but often work in a linked and dynamic manner in Chinese medical traditions. For example, Chao Yuanfang, in his On the Origins and Symptoms, fuses the concept of demons with qi; that is, he uses demonic qi to explain a variety of maladies. This approach allows him to tie the ontological etiology to the physiology of the body as expounded by the ancient classics. For detailed analysis of the entanglement of the two models, see Yan Liu, “Words, Demons, and Illness,” 1–29.

  81. 81   Diamond, “Miao and Poison,” 1–25; Yu Gengzhe, Tangdai jibing, yiliaoshi chutan, 105–19; Hinrichs, Shamans, Witchcraft, and Quarantine.

  82. 82   Deng, Zhongguo wugu kaocha; Wang Ming-ke, “Nüren, bujie yu cunzhai rentong,” 699–738.

CHAPTER 4: MEDICINES IN CIRCULATION

Epigraph: Su et al., Xinxiu bencao, 1.

  1. 1   Wang Pu, Tang huiyao, 82.1522–23.

  2. 2   The decline of the Tang regime was ushered in by the An Lushan Rebellion. Instigated from the north by the Tang general An Lushan in 755, it triggered a seven-year war that devastated the Tang empire. Although the revolt was eventually suppressed in 763, Tang power was subsequently weakened and decentralized. See Hansen, Open Empire, 201–34.

  3. 3   Fan Ye, Hou Hanshu, 116.3592; Brown, “‘Medicine’ in Early China,” 459–72.

  4. 4   Chen Hao, Shenfen xushi yu zhishi biaoshu zhijian de yizhe zhi yi, 87–130.

  5. 5   Li Linfu et al., Tang liudian, 14.409; Miyashita, “Zui-Tō jidai no iryō,” 259–88; Ren, “Tangdai de yiliao zuzhi yu yixue jiaoyu,” 449–73; Needham, Science and Civilisation in China, vol. 6, pt. 6, Medicine, 98–105.

  6. 6   Iwamoto, Tōdai no iyakusho to Tonkō bunken, 60–69.

  7. 7   The Tang emperors often bestowed creams on their officials, who used them to protect their skin and enhance their complexion. See Fan Ka-wai, Dayi jingcheng, 125–29.

  8. 8   Li Linfu et al., Tang liudian, 11.324–25.

  9. 9   Li Linfu et al., Tang liudian, 26.667. The Tang princes lived in the Eastern Palace, a different site from the emperors’ residence, and hence they were served by a separate medical office.

  10. 10   Li Linfu et al., Tang liudian, 11.324–25.

  11. 11   The document is preserved in the Pavilion of Heavenly One (Tianyi Ge) in Ningbo, a private library established in the sixteenth century. Previously thought to be a Ming (1368–1644) text, it was rediscovered in 1998 to be part of a long-lost legal document titled Ordinances of the Tiansheng Era (Tiansheng ling) completed in 1029. Significantly, the document contains almost five hundred Tang ordinances dating to the eighth century, many of which are not seen in other extant sources. See Dai, “Tianyi Ge cang Ming chaoben Guanpin ling kao,” 71–86.

  12. 12   Cheng, “Tang Yiji ling fuyuan yanjiu,” 552–80.

  13. 13   Cheng, “Tang Yiji ling fuyuan yanjiu,” 146, 579.

  14. 14   I interpret huanfang as an abbreviation for gongren huanfang (ward for the sick palace maids). The ward, established in the two capitals (Chang’an and Luoyang), offered medical services to the palace maids who were seriously ill. It had its own drug depot, as well as personnel dispatched by the Imperial Medical Office. See Ouyang Xiu, Xin Tangshu, 48.1244–45; and Ishino, “Tōdai ryōkyō no miyabito kanbō,” 25–35. A different type of organization called “the ward of compassion field and recuperation” (beitian yangbing fang) or simply “the ward of recuperation” (bingfang) was established at the beginning of the eighth century. Based in Buddhist monasteries, they were state-organized charity sites that provided housing, food, and basic care for the elderly, invalids, and the poor. See Wang Pu, Tang huiyao, 49.862–63; and Liu Shu-fen, Cibei qingjing, 41–54.

  15. 15   The Gates Office (Mensi) was part of the palace guard system that inspected articles that either entered or exited the palace. See Li Linfu et al., Tang liudian, 25.640.

  16. 16   Zhangsun et al., Tanglü shuyi qianjie, 9.740–44.

  17. 17   Zhangsun et al., Tanglü shuyi qianjie, 26.1795–98.

  18. 18   Huo, “‘Du’ yu zhonggu shehui,” 127–49.

  19. 19   Zhangsun et al., Tanglü shuyi qianjie, 18.1304–11.

  20. 20   Zhangsun et al., Tanglü shuyi qianjie, 18.1304.

  21. 21   Cheng, “Tang Yiji ling fuyuan yanjiu,” 139, 573. Due to the lack of corroboration from other sources during the Tang period, the dating of this ordinance is not conclusive. Aconite was not on this list probably because it was frequently used as a medicine, much more so than the other two poisons (see chapter 2).

  22. 22   Li Linfu et al., Tang liudian, 14.392, 409–10.

  23. 23   The two capitals refer to the main capital of Chang’an in the west and the second capital of Luoyang in the east.

  24. 24   Cheng, “Tang Yiji ling fuyuan yanjiu,” 145–46, 579.

  25. 25   Shangshu zhengyi, 6.158–205.

  26. 26   Cheng, “Tang Yiji ling fuyuan yanjiu,” 145–46, 579; Ouyang Xiu, Xin Tangshu, 48.1244–45. For a comprehensive list of drugs with their locations in the early Tang period, see Sun, Qianjin yifang, 1.5–6; and Yu Gengzhe, Tangdai jibing, yiliaoshi chutan, 92–104.

  27. 27   Li Linfu et al., Tang liudian, 3.79.

  28. 28   Du, Tongdian, 6.112.

  29. 29   Huang Zhengjian, “Shilun Tangdai qianqi huangdi xiaofei de mouxie cemian,” 173–211.

  30. 30   On a survey of these sources, see Wang Yongxing, “Tangdai tugong ziliao xinian,” 60–65, 59. Early scholarship focuses on the symbolic function of these tribute items (Hibino, “Shin tōjo chirishi no tokō nitsuite,” 83–99) while more recent studies point out their practical uses (Yu Xin, Zhonggu yixiang, 267– 93).

  31. 31   Du, Tongdian, 6.112–31. According to one modern scholar’s research, these tribute items were collected between 742 and 755. See Wang Yongxing, “Tangdai tugong ziliao xinian,” 62-63.

  32. 32   Huang Zhengjian, “Shilun Tangdai qianqi huangdi xiaofei de mouxie cemian,” 176–88. The counting is slightly different from Huang’s, based on my own analysis. The grouping of medicines and foods is by no means definitive, as it is often hard to distinguish them in premodern China.

  33. 33   Yan Qiyan, “Cong Tangdai gongpin yaocai kan Sichuan didao yaocai,” 76–81.

  34. 34   Su et al., Xinxiu bencao, 15.363–65.

  35. 35   Su et al., Xinxiu bencao, 6.160–63, 8.203; Zhou Zuofeng, “Tang liudian jizai de tugong yaocai fenxi,” 13–18.

  36. 36   Su et al., Xinxiu bencao, 5.142.

  37. 37   Su et al., Xinxiu bencao, 16.424–25.

  38. 38   Schafer, Golden Peaches of Samarkand, 192–93. Bovine bezoar was another costly product on the list that prompted many counterfeits on the market. See Su et al., Xinxiu bencao, 15.362–63.

  39. 39   Cheng, “Tang Yiji ling fuyuan yanjiu,” 137–38, 578.

  40. 40   The work is often touted as the first pharmacopoeia in the world, which appeared eight centuries earlier than The Nuremberg Pharmacopoeia in Europe (1542). Yet it is important to note that the Tang text did not in and of itself impose legal regulation of drug prescription, as was evident in the European work. Rather, it functioned as a guidebook for the imperial collection and use of drugs. See Unschuld, Medicine in China, 47.

  41. 41   Fan Ka-wai, Dayi jingcheng, 81. During the Tang period, foot qi was a condition whose symptoms were swelling of the feet or the lower legs, perceived of as the result of a plump body. See Hilary Smith, Forgotten Disease, 43–65.

  42. 42   Su et al., Xinxiu bencao (Japan edition), 15.216–20. For a detailed study of these authors, see Wang, Zhang, and Yin, “Xinxiu bencao zuanxiu renyuan kao,” 200–204; Fan Ka-wai, Dayi jingcheng, 78–85; and Chen Hao, Shenfen xushi yu zhishi biaoshu zhijian de yizhe zhi yi, 219–43.

  43. 43   Liu Xu et al., Jiu Tangshu, 47.2048.

  44. 44   Su et al., Xinxiu bencao, 1–10.

  45. 45   Dunhuang manuscript Kyōu 040R.

  46. 46   Similar to other early pharmacological texts in China, Newly Revised Materia Medica has long been lost to us, but its drug entries, together with a modified preface, have been preserved in Song materia medica texts thanks to the commentary tradition, allowing for the recovery of the Tang treatise. That being said, there are several manuscript fragments dating to the Tang period that contain sections of Newly Revised Materia Medica, among which the newly released one from the Kyōu Shōku Collection preserves a preface that is markedly different from the Song editions.

  47. 47   The term jiaoli 澆醨, in Fan Ka-wai’s view, should be read as yaoli 堯離, which refers to the rule of Sage Yao in high antiquity, corresponding to the phase of Fire (li) in the dynastic cycle. Some Han scholars claimed that their dynasty matched the same propitious phase. Hence, I translate the term as “propitious fortune.” See Chang Shu-hao, “Xihan ‘yao hou huo de’ shuo de chengli,” 1–27. I thank Fan Ka-wai for suggesting this interpretation.

  48. 48   Zhou here refers to the dynasty of the Northern Zhou (557–581) that the Sui dynasty superseded. Certain Tang scholars, regarding the regimes of the Era of Division as unorthodox, traced the lineage of the Tang directly back to the orthodox rule of the Han dynasty. See Rao, Zhongguo shixue shang zhi zhengtong lun, 25–27.

  49. 49   Dunhuang manuscript Kyōu 040R, reprinted in Tonkō hikyū, vol. 1. The passage is incomplete, and in this reading, a gap is filled by the historian Iwamoto Atsushi based on a thirteenth-century Japanese medical work. See Iwamoto, Tōdai no iyakusho to Tonkō bunken, 102–15.

  50. 50   Tao, Bencao jing jizhu, 5.335–36.

  51. 51   Taishang lingbao wufu xu (HY 388), 2.19a. The practice of consuming huangjing to prolong life was popular among Daoist adepts and social elites from the Era of Division to the Tang period. See Fan Ka-wai, Zhonggu shiqi de yizhe yu bingzhe, 304–9; and Arthur, Early Daoist Dietary Practices, 115–16.

  52. 52   Su et al., Xinxiu bencao, 6.153–54, 10.253–55.

  53. 53   Su et al., Xinxiu bencao, 10.256–58.

  54. 54   Su et al., Xinxiu bencao, 10.260–61.

  55. 55   Su et al., Xinxiu bencao, 10.258–59.

  56. 56   Dunhuang manuscript Kyōu 040R.

  57. 57   Su et al., Xinxiu bencao, 8.219, 10.256.

  58. 58   Su et al., Xinxiu bencao, 11.291.

  59. 59   Barrett, Woman Who Discovered Printing, 84–98.

  60. 60   Wang Pu, Tang huiyao, 82.1805; Li Fang et al., Taiping yulan, 724.3338a. On a modern reconstruction of some of the formulas in Guangji fang, see Feng, Gu fangshu jiyi, 26–92.

  61. 61   We also see such practice in the Buddhist context. For example, a collection of formulas was carved on one of the Buddhist grottos in Longmen (in present-day Henan) in the mid-seventh century, likely for the same reason of making useful medical knowledge available to the public. See Zhang, Wang, and Stanley-Baker, “Earliest Stone Medical Inscription,” 373–88; and Chen Hao, Shenfen xushi yu zhishi biaoshu zhijian de yizhe zhi yi, 269–300.

  62. 62   Wang Pu, Tang huiyao, 82.1522; Du, Tongdian, 33.915.

  63. 63   Dunhuang manuscript P. 3714. On the dating of this manuscript, see Lu Xiangqian, “Boxihe sanqiyisi hao beimian chuanmafang wenshu yanjiu,” 671–74.

  64. 64   Su et al., Xinxiu bencao (Japan edition), 15.220. This copy is incomplete, containing ten scrolls only.

  65. 65   For a general introduction to the Dunhuang manuscripts, see Rong, Eighteen Lectures on Dunhuang.

  66. 66   Dunhuang yiyao wenxian jijiao; Lo and Cullen, eds., Medieval Chinese Medicine; Despeux, ed., Médecine, religion et société dans la Chine médiévale.

  67. 67   Dunhuang manuscript Kyōu 040R.

  68. 68   Dunhuang manuscript P. 3714.

  69. 69   Dunhuang manuscripts S. 4534 and S. 9434.

  70. 70   Dunhuang yiyao wenxian jijiao, 653–58; Despeux, Médecine, religion et société dans la Chine médiévale, 211–13.

  71. 71   Baums, “Inventing the Pothi,” 343–62.

  72. 72   Iwamoto, Tōdai no iyakusho to Tonkō bunken, 169–74.

  73. 73   It is possible that these non-native plants were transplanted in Dunhuang for local consumption, but direct evidence is lacking.

  74. 74   The plant is simply called su (betony) in the standard edition of Newly Revised Materia Medica. See Su et al., Xinxiu bencao, 18.469.

  75. 75   Substitution was particularly common with the use of potent drugs in Dunhuang. For example, gelsemium (yege), a highly potent herb that was forbidden by the Tang court to circulate among the population, was replaced by phytolacca (danglu), an herb with similar medical uses but locally available. See P. 3731.

  76. 76   Zheng and Dang, “Tangdai Dunhuang sengyi kao,” 31–46; Zheng and Gao, “Cong Dunhuang wenshu kan Tang-Wudai Dunhuang diqu de yishi zhuangkuang,” 68–73; Chen Ming, Dunhuang de yiliao yu shehui, 59–73.

  77. 77   Iwamoto, Tōdai no iyakusho to Tonkō bunken, 181–86; Engelhardt, “Dietetics in Tang China and the First Extant Works of Materia Dietetica,” 173–91.

  78. 78   The five pungent vegetables are large garlic (dasuan), Chinese onion (caocong), scallion (cicong), small garlic (lancong), and asafetida (xingqu). See P. 3777 and P. 3244.

  79. 79   On alcohol consumption in Buddhist monasteries, see Liu Shu-fen, Zhonggu de fojiao yu shehui, 398–435.

  80. 80   Fujieda, “Tunhuang Manuscripts: A General Description (Part I),” 1–32; Fujieda, “Tunhuang Manuscripts: A General Description (Part II),” 17–39.

  81. 81   On a close study of a Dunhuang manuscript in motion, see van Schaik and Galambos, Manuscripts and Travellers.

  82. 82   Li Linfu et al., Tang liudian, 11.324–25, 14.408–9.

  83. 83   Hinrichs, “Governance through Medical Texts and the Role of Print,” 217–38; Hinrichs, Shamans, Witchcraft, and Quarantine.

  84. 84   This phenomenon, of course, is not limited to medical manuscripts. For studies of manuscript culture in Chinese literature, see Tian, Tao Yuanming & Manuscript Culture; and Nugent, Manifest in Words, Written on Paper.

CHAPTER 5: MEDICINES IN PRACTICE

Epigraph: Sun, Sun Zhenren qianjin fang, 12.202.

  1. 1   Sun, Sun Zhenren qianjin fang, 12.199–202.

  2. 2   Farquhar, Knowing Practice; Sivin, “Text and Experience in Classical Chinese Medicine,” 195–98; Li Jianmin, Lüxingzhe de shixue, 67–91.

  3. 3   Lei, “How Did Chinese Medicine Become Experiential?,” 334. In this sense, the term carries a meaning similar to experientia, the Latin root of the English word “experience.” Experientia refers to “a trial, proof, experiment; knowledge gained by repeated trials.” Information extracted from Online Etymology Dictionary (www.etymonline.com).

  4. 4   Prior to the Song dynasty, the term appears in a collection of miracle tales (fifth or sixth century) and denotes the efficacy of divination techniques. See Soushen houji, 2.15–16.

  5. 5   Wei Zheng et al., Suishu, 34.1042–46; Liu Xu et al., Jiu Tangshu, 47.2049–50; Ouyang Xiu, Xin Tangshu, 59.1567–73.

  6. 6   This genre initially appeared in governmental archives during the Han dynasty, fell out of fashion in the medieval period except a brief revival in the twelfth century, and started to proliferate from the sixteenth century on. See Cullen, “Yi’an 醫案 (Case Statements),” 297–323; Grant, Chinese Physician; Furth, “Producing Medical Knowledge through Cases,” 125–51; and Goldschmidt, “Reasoning with Cases,” 19–51.

  7. 7   Ban, Hanshu, 30.1777–78.

  8. 8   Harper, Early Chinese Medical Literature, 221–304.

  9. 9   Yang and Brown, “Wuwei Medical Manuscripts,” 241–301.

  10. 10   Fan Ka-wai, Liuchao suitang yixue zhi chuancheng yu zhenghe.

  11. 11   Wei Zheng et al., Suishu, 34.1040–50.

  12. 12   Fan Ka-wai, Zhonggu shiqi de yizhe yu bingzhe, 70–91.

  13. 13   Wei Zheng et al., Suishu, 34.1050; Liu Xu et al., Jiu Tangshu, 47.2049.

  14. 14   Cheng, “Tang Yiji ling fuyuan yanjiu,” 137, 578; Fan Ka-wai, Zhonggu shiqi de yizhe yu bingzhe, 190–93.

  15. 15   Wei Zheng et al., Suishu, 34.1041, 1042, 1045. On the elevation of Zhang during the Northern Song period, see Goldschmidt, Evolution of Chinese Medicine, 69–102; and Brown, Art of Medicine in Early China, 110–29.

  16. 16   Chen Yanzhi, Xiaopin fang; Ishida, “Shōbon hō no igaku shisō,” 254–76.

  17. 17   Linghu, Zhoushu, 47.839–44; Li Yanshou, Beishi, 90.2977–79; Yao Sengyuan, Jiyan fang. It is also possible that the name refers to a different text since we find several medical works with such a title in the Sui and Tang bibliographical records.

  18. 18   Gan Zuwang, Sun Simiao pingzhuan.

  19. 19   Chen Hao, “Zai xieben yu yinben zhijian de fangshu,” 69–85; Zheng Jinsheng, Yaolin waishi, 306–18.

  20. 20   The exact year of Sun’s birth is still debatable given the contradictory accounts in different sources. A new piece of evidence, the epitaph of Sun Xing, one of Sun’s sons, indicates that the physician’s time of birth might have been the late sixth century. Since Sun died in 682, he was a centenarian, which is possible given the emphasis in his works on the cultivation of longevity. See Hu Mingzhao, “Cong xinchu Sun Xing muzhi tanxi yaowang shengzunian,” 406–10.

  21. 21   Da Tang xishi bowuguan cang muzhi, 326–27.

  22. 22   Sun, Sun Zhenren qianjin fang, 1.1–2; Liu Xu et al., Jiu Tangshu, 191.5094–97; Ouyang Xiu, Xin Tangshu, 196.5596–98; Sivin, Chinese Alchemy, 81–144.

  23. 23   Wang Pu, Tang huiyao, 82.1523–24.

  24. 24   Da Tang xishi bowuguan cang muzhi, 326–27. On Sun’s ties to the court, see Chen Hao, Shenfen xushi yu zhishi biaoshu zhijian de yizhe zhi yi, 162–93.

  25. 25   Ingesting water (fushui) refers to a fasting practice that involved the ritual imbibing of water. Both Daoist and Buddhist adepts during the Tang period adopted the technique to cultivate longevity and obtain transcendence. See Fan Ka-wai, Zhonggu shiqi de yizhe yu bingzhe, 113–33.

  26. 26   On Sun’s connection to Daoism and Buddhism, see Sakade, Chūgoku shisō kenkyū, 246–82; on Sun’s alchemy, see Sivin, Chinese Alchemy.

  27. 27   Sun, Qianjin yifang.

  28. 28   Sun, Qianjin yifang, 2–4.14–58.

  29. 29   The Tang editions of Essential Formulas have long been lost. The earliest complete copy of the text is the Song edition produced in the eleventh century. A different edition of the text (Sun Zhenren qianjin fang), which contains twenty scrolls, was discovered in the late eighteenth century and is considered to bear fewer traces of Song editorial changes and to preserve more features of the Tang text. My study relies on this edition for the extant scrolls (juan 1–5, 11–15, 21–30) and the Song edition for the rest of the scrolls (juan 6–10, 16–20). Moreover, I also consulted a Japanese edition (Zhenben qianjin fang) dated to the fourteenth century, with only the first scroll extant that preserves certain Tang traits of the book. See Okanishi, Sō izen iki kō, 795–835.

  30. 30   The preface is based on the Japanese edition Zhenben qianjin fang. See Sun, Sun Zhenren qianjin fang, 1.613.

  31. 31   Sun, Sun Zhenren qianjin fang, 1.613–14.

  32. 32   Fan Ka-wai, Dayi jingcheng, 167.

  33. 33   For an explanation of these schemes, see Sivin, Traditional Medicine in Contemporary China, 43–80.

  34. 34   On Bian Que in the history of Chinese medicine, see Brown, Art of Medicine in Early China, 41–62.

  35. 35   Sun, Sun Zhenren qianjin fang, 5.122, 15.286, 21.298, 22.332–38, 23.350, 23.369. Sun valued the works of these ancient figures, making it clear in the preface that he believed these eminent physicians possessed true medical knowledge originating in the distant past.

  36. 36   Sun, Sun Zhenren qianjin fang, 1.9–10.

  37. 37   This is most evident in juan 26, which includes more than four hundred formulas. Most of them use only one ingredient to treat emergencies such as sudden death, snake poisoning, injuries caused by beatings, and burns. Tellingly, Sun offers no theoretical discussion at all in this section.

  38. 38   Sun, Sun Zhenren qianjin fang, 1.614.

  39. 39   Li Jianmin, Lüxingzhe de shixue, 39–54.

  40. 40   Sun, Sun Zhenren qianjin fang, 3.83, 3.86, 11.164, 13.223.

  41. 41   Liu Xu et al., Jiu Tangshu, 191.5096; Ouyang Xiu, Xin Tangshu, 9.1571.

  42. 42   Sun, Sun Zhenren qianjin fang, 12.199–211, 23.345–77.

  43. 43   The specific mention of eighteen years of no pregnancies in this formula indicates that such information was derived from a particular medical case.

  44. 44   During the Tang period, one liang was equivalent to about forty grams; one fen, a quarter of a liang, was equivalent to about ten grams. See Guo, San zhi shisi shiji Zhongguo de quanheng duliang, 169, 191.

  45. 45   Sun, Sun Zhenren qianjin fang, 2.28.

  46. 46   Although this formula doesn’t specify what these effects are, other medical texts point out that aconite could induce the sensations of numbness and dizziness. See Jingui yaolüe, 2.70.

  47. 47   Sun attributes another formula in his book to the magistrate of the Northern Land, who, as Sun specifies, is a figure in the Eastern Han dynasty. See Sun, Sun Zhenren qianjin fang, 25.422.

  48. 48   Sun, Sun Zhenren qianjin fang, 5.116.

  49. 49   Sun, Sun Zhenren qianjin fang, 15.280.

  50. 50   For some examples of these phrases, see Sun, Sun Zhenren qianjin fang, 2.46, 3.74, 3.88, 4.107, 11.169, 11.185, 21.318, 24.391, 26.459.

  51. 51   The term “efficacy phrases” was coined by the historian of medicine Claire Jones. In her study of medieval English medical manuscripts, she identified these phrases at the end of many formulas and argued that they reveal the authoritative or popular voice rather than empirical knowledge. See Jones, “Formula and Formulation,” 199–209.

  52. 52   For example, see Chen Yanzhi, Xiaopin fang; and Yao Sengyuan, Jiyan fang.

  53. 53   For a translation and brief analysis of some of these cases, see Sivin, “Seventh-Century Chinese Medical Case History,” 267–73.

  54. 54   Sun, Sun Zhenren qianjin fang, 11.180.

  55. 55   “The dragon illness” involved the formation of a coagulation in the abdomen upon eating celery. See Chao, Zhubing yuanhou lun jiaozhu, 19.585.

  56. 56   Sun, Beiji qianjin yaofang jiaoshi, 7.280, 20.711; Sun, Sun Zhenren qianjin fang, 21.313.

  57. 57   Sun, Beiji qianjin yaofang jiaoshi, 7.271; Sun, Sun Zhenren qianjin fang, 21.297– 98. Later medical cases during the early modern period give patients a stronger voice to negotiate therapeutic options with physicians. See Tu, Jiuming; and Bian, “Documenting Medications,” 103–23. A similar phenomenon also arose in early modern Europe. See Pomata, Contracting a Cure.

  58. 58   Sun, Sun Zhenren qianjin fang, 24.401–2. “Great wind” refers to a severe, wind-induced condition, the symptoms of which resemble leprosy. See Leung, Leprosy in China, 17–59.

  59. 59   Sun, Beiji qianjin yaofang jiaoshi, 7.280; Sun, Sun Zhenren qianjin fang, 12.211, 23.365.

  60. 60   Sun, Sun Zhenren qianjin fang, 23.365.

  61. 61   Su et al., Xinxiu bencao, 8.222–23.

  62. 62   Gan Zizhen could be the name of a court physician who appears in another medical case of Sun (see my discussion later in this section).

  63. 63   Sun, Sun Zhenren qianjin fang, 23.349.

  64. 64   Sun included the formula from Granny Rong of Qizhou elsewhere in the same section of his book (Sun, Sun Zhenren qianjin fang, 23.347). It merits our attention that both this formula and the one from Gan Zizhen are linked to elderly women, indicating their role in medicinal preparation that likely took place in domestic spaces. See Lee Jen-der, Nüren de Zhongguo yiliao shi, 305–48.

  65. 65   Sun, Sun Zhenren qianjin fang, 15.284, 25.422.

  66. 66   Sun, Sun Zhenren qianjin fang, 12.211. For further discussion of the detoxification of potent minerals in Chinese alchemy, see chapter 7.

  67. 67   Sun, Beiji qianjin yaofang jiaoshi, 20.706–8; Chao, Zhubing yuanhou lun jiaozhu, 22.648–51.

  68. 68   Sun, Beiji qianjin yaofang jiaoshi, 20.711.

  69. 69   Chen Hao, Shenfen xushi yu zhishi biaoshu zhijian de yizhe zhi yi, 131–40.

  70. 70   Sun, Sun Zhenren qianjin fang, 24.388, 25.420, 25.423.

  71. 71   On the concept of phlegm (tan) in Chinese medicine and its Indian connection, see Köhle, “Confluence of Humors,” 465–93.

  72. 72   On the identification of this monk, see Fan Ka-wai, Zhonggu shiqi de yizhe yu bingzhe, 127–28.

  73. 73   Sun, Sun Zhenren qianjin fang, 12.202.

  74. 74   This worldview, that the highest principle, or Dao, is utterly inscrutable and unpredictable, can be traced back to the ancient philosophical works Laozi and Zhuangzi. See Sivin, “On the Limits of Empirical Knowledge,” 165–89.

  75. 75   Sun, Sun Zhenren qianjin fang, 26.447.

  76. 76   Sun, Sun Zhenren qianjin fang, 1.3.

  77. 77   Classical Chinese medicine considers the Spleen and the Stomach to be closely related. The qi of the Spleen fosters the digestion of grains in the Stomach. To treat diarrhea, therefore, one needs to tackle the root of the problem, namely, the malfunction of the Spleen. See Chao, Zhubing yuanhou lun jiaozhu, 17.522.

  78. 78   In a separate passage, Sun remarks that drugs such as ginger, cinnamon, and ginseng were expensive and hard to obtain during his time. See Sun, Beiji qianjin yaofang jiaoshi, 10.365.

  79. 79   Sun, Sun Zhenren qianjin fang, 15.287–88.

  80. 80   Sun, Sun Zhenren qianjin fang, 23.357–58.

  81. 81   On the use of feces in Chinese medicine, see Despeux, “Chinese Medicinal Excrement,” 139–69.

  82. 82   Pomata, “Medical Case Narrative,” 1–23; Pomata, “Medical Case Narrative in Pre-Modern Europe and China,” 15–46.

  83. 83   McVaugh, “Experimenta of Arnold of Villanova,” 107–18.

  84. 84   This epistemic orientation became more pronounced during the Song period, when scholar-officials integrated personal experience of healing and empirical knowledge in general into their writings. See Chen Yun-ju, “Accounts of Treating Zhang (“miasma”) Disorders,” 205–54; and Zuo, Shen Gua’s Empiricism.

  85. 85   Wang Tao, Waitai miyao fang, 1.3–6; Fan Ka-wai, Zhonggu shiqi de yizhe yu bingzhe, 153–85.

CHAPTER 6: ALLURING STIMULANT

Epigraph: Chen Yanzhi, Xiaopin fang, 9.164.

  1. 1   Li Yanshou, Nanshi, 32.839–40. The physician Xu Sibo in this story came from the prestigious Xu family, practitioners of medicine for eight generations. See Fan Ka-wai, Zhonggu shiqi de yizhe yu bingzhe, 78–80.

  2. 2   Yu Jiaxi, “Hanshi San kao,” 181–226; Wagner, “Lebensstil und Drogen im Chinesischen Mittelalter,” 79–178.

  3. 3   Liu Yiqing, Shishuo xinyu jianshu, 2.74; Mather, Shih-shuo Hsin-yü, 37.

  4. 4   A similar origin story can be found in later physicians’ works. See Chao, Zhubing yuanhou lun jiaozhu, 6.177; and Sun, Sun Zhenren qianjin fang, 25.413.

  5. 5   Chen Shou, Sanguo zhi, 9.292; Chao, Zhubing yuanhou lun jiaozhu, 6.177.

  6. 6   Tang, Wei-Jin xuanxue lungao; Wagner, Language, Ontology, and Political Philosophy in China.

  7. 7   He Yan was executed in 249 because the general whom he served, Cao Shuang, was eliminated in a power struggle at the court of Wei. See Chen Shou, Sanguo zhi, 9.282–88.

  8. 8   Liu Yiqing, Shishuo xinyu jianshu, 23.726–65; Mather, Shih-shuo Hsin-yü, 399– 422; Yü, “Individualism and the Neo-Taoist Movement in Wei-Chin China,” 121–56.

  9. 9   Lu Xun, “Wei-Jin fengdu ji wenzhang yu yao ji jiu zhi guanxi,” 486–507. Also see Wagner, “Lebensstil und Drogen im Chinesischen Mittelalter,” 118–35.

  10. 10   Chao, Zhubing yuanhou lun jiaozhu, 6.177; Sun, Sun Zhenren qianjin fang, 25.413.

  11. 11   Ouyang Xun, Yiwen leiju, 75.1292.

  12. 12   Yan Kejun, Quan Jin wen, 22–26.1580–1611; Yu Jiaxi, “Hanshi San kao,” 194–98; Richter and Chace, “Trouble with Wang Xizhi,” 86–88.

  13. 13   Satō, “Ō Gishi to Goseki San,” 1–13.

  14. 14   Tamba, Yixin fang/Ishimpō, 19.394. The former aspiration intimates the alchemical practice of ingesting elixirs to achieve the transcendence of the body. These two goals, namely, the enhancement of life and the transformation of the body, entailed related but distinct practices. Sharing Qin’s view, Tao Hongjing also placed Five-Stone Powder in the category of “worldly formulas” rather than “transcendent formulas.” See Tao, Bencao jing jizhu, 1.11.

  15. 15   Tamba, Yixin fang/Ishimpō, 19.395.

  16. 16   Besides Huiyi, we also find the eminent monk Huiyuan (334–416), who took the powder at an old age, as well as the monks Zhibin and Daohong, who both produced medical writings on the powder. See Huijiao, Gaoseng zhuan, 6.221–22; and Wei Zheng et al., Suishu, 34.1041.

  17. 17   Chao, Zhubing yuanhou lun jiaozhu, 6.177.

  18. 18   Wei Shou, Weishu, 2.44. An important detail of the story is that the emperor only started to suffer from the powder after the Prefect of Grand Physicians, who might have been involved in prescribing the powder for the monarch, died, suggesting that medical guidance was central to the proper use of the drug.

  19. 19   Shen Ruiwen, An Lushan fusan kao, 133–75.

  20. 20   Chao, Zhubing yuanhou lun jiaozhu, 6.177–207; Epler, “Concept of Disease,” 255– 62. In the history of Chinese medicine, Huangfu Mi has been primarily remembered as a medical scholar who capably compiled and edited ancient medical classics. Yet prior to the Song period, he figured prominently in heated discussions of Five-Stone Powder. On the changing image of Huangfu Mi in Chinese medical history, see Brown, Art of Medicine in Early China, 130–50.

  21. 21   Yu Jiaxi, “Hanshi San kao,” 186–87.

  22. 22   Fang et al., Jinshu, 51.1409–18; DeClercq, Writing against the State, 159–205.

  23. 23   Fang et al., Jinshu, 68.1825–26; Akahori, “Kanshoku San to yōjō,” 117–21.

  24. 24   Liu Yiqing, Shishuo xinyu jianshu, 23.731.

  25. 25   Wagner, “Lebensstil und Drogen im Chinesischen Mittelalter,” 115–16; Akahori, “Kanshoku San to yōjō,” 132–36.

  26. 26   Ge, Baopuzi waipian jiaojian, 26.16–18.

  27. 27   Shennong bencao jing jiaozhu, 2.26–27.

  28. 28   Sivin, Traditional Medicine in Contemporary China, 70–80. Specifically, the green-blue clay (phase Wood) nourishes the Liver, the red clay (phase Fire) nourishes the Heart, the yellow clay (phase Earth) nourishes the Spleen, the white clay (phase Metal) nourishes the Lungs, and the black clay (phase Water) nourishes the Kidneys.

  29. 29   Zhouli zhushu, 5.137.

  30. 30   Sima, Shiji, 105.2810–11. For a translation of the full case, see Hsu, Pulse Diagnosis in Early Chinese Medicine, 87–88; on the historical context of Chunyu Yi’s cases, see Brown, Art of Medicine in Early China, 63–86.

  31. 31   Sima, Shiji, 105.2796.

  32. 32   Guangzhou Shi Wenwu Guanli Weiyuanhui, Xihan Nanyue wang mu, vol. 1, 141. The kingdom of Nanyue, with its capital in Panyu (present-day Guangzhou), was established by a Qin general during the chaotic period of the Qin-Han transition, and later annexed to the Han empire in 111 BCE. See Twitchett and Loewe, eds., Cambridge History of China, vol. 1, 451–53.

  33. 33   Li Ling, “Wushi kao,” 345–46.

  34. 34   Jingui yaolüe, 23.631; Jing and Xiao, “Zhonggu fusan de chengyin ji chuancheng,” 342–47.

  35. 35   Jingui yaolüe, 5.134.

  36. 36   Chao, Zhubing yuanhou lun jiaozhu, 6.177.

  37. 37   Yu Jiaxi, “Hanshi San kao,” 208.

  38. 38   Many of these formulas are preserved in Sun Simiao’s Qianjin yifang, juan 22. See also the summary of these formulas in Obringer, L’aconit et l’orpiment, 153–61.

  39. 39   Li Fang et al., Taiping yulan, 722.3331a. Little is known about Jin Shao. Sun Simiao placed him among a group of eminent physicians during the Era of Division and included two formulas from Jin in his medical work. See Sun, Sun Zhenren qianjin fang, 1.3; and Sun, Qianjin yifang, 15.170a, 22.266a.

  40. 40   Wang Tao, Waitai miyao fang, 15.276.

  41. 41   Tao, Bencao jing jizhu, 2.168–69. Modern chemical analysis has shown that heating can reduce the toxicity of arsenolite. See Wang Kuike et al., “Shen de lishi zai Zhongguo,” 14–38.

  42. 42   This hypothesis was proposed by the historian of chemistry Wang Kuike. See Wang Kuike, “‘Wushi San’ xinkao,” 87.

  43. 43   Obringer, L’aconit et l’orpiment, 173–75, 188.

  44. 44   Needham et al., Science and Civilisation in China, vol. 5, pt. II, 282–94.

  45. 45   Chao, Zhubing yuanhou lun jiaozhu, 5.164–65.

  46. 46   Chao, Zhubing yuanhou lun jiaozhu, 6.199.

  47. 47   Tao, Bencao jing jizhu, 2.138, 141, 142, 143, 144, 152, 154, 168. The exceptions are limonite (plain) and kalinite (cooling). Given kalinite is the only cooling agent on the list, it is possible that arsenolite, rather than kalinite, was actually used in the powder.

  48. 48   Tao, Bencao jing jizhu, 2.168. Arsenic poisoning causes the inflammation of the stomach, vomiting, and diarrhea, leading to extreme thirst and dehydration. These symptoms are consistent with the warming nature of the mineral as defined in Chinese materia medica texts. See Whorton, Arsenic Century, 7–16.

  49. 49   The text has long been lost, but sections of it have been preserved in later medical works. The discussion on Five-Stone Powder is preserved in Yixin fang/Ishimpō, juan 19. A similar passage is also in Zhubing yuanhou lun, juan 6.

  50. 50   Tamba, Yixin fang/Ishimpō, 19.395.

  51. 51   Chao, Zhubing yuanhou lun jiaozhu, 6.174.

  52. 52   Xu Shen, Shuowen jiezi, 12b.270.

  53. 53   Sun, Sun Zhenren qianjin fang, 23.360–67; 25.412–20.

  54. 54   Wei Zheng et al., Suishu, 34.1040–50; Liu Xu et al., Jiu Tangshu, 47.2047–51; Ouyang Xiu, Xin Tangshu, 59.1566–73.

  55. 55   Tamba, Yixin fang/Ishimpō, 19.394.

  56. 56   Tamba, Yixin fang/Ishimpō, 19.395.

  57. 57   Chao, Zhubing yuanhou lun jiaozhu, 6.180–85.

  58. 58   Tamba, Yixin fang/Ishimpō, 19.396–97.

  59. 59   Tamba, Yixin fang/Ishimpō, 19.394–95. The former was espoused by the monk Huiyi, the latter by Qin Chengzu.

  60. 60   Tao’s comment is cited in Formulas of the Lesser Grade (fifth century), which is preserved in Arcane Essentials from the Imperial Library (eighth century). See Wang Tao, Waitai miyao fang, 37.752. “Waiting at the stump” is a reference to a story in the ancient philosophical text Hanfeizi. In the story, a farmer had the good fortune of obtaining a rabbit who had accidentally run into a stump and died. After that, he waited at the stump, expecting more such fortunes, but to no avail. See Hanfeizi jijie, 49.442–43.

  61. 61   Chao, Zhubing yuanhou lun jiaozhu, 6.168–73; Sun, Sun Zhenren qianjin fang, 25.413–17. Little is known about Daohong, and only excerpts of his text are preserved in Sui and Tang medical sources. According to On the Origins and Symptoms of All Illnesses, he lived in the south during the Era of Division and excelled at treating the disorders caused by Five-Stone Powder. See Chao, Zhubing yuanhou lun jiaozhu, 6.168.

  62. 62   Chao, Zhubing yuanhou lun jiaozhu, 6.174–77.

  63. 63   Wang Kuike, “‘Wushi San’ xinkao,” 80–87.

  64. 64   Tao, Bencao jing jizhu, 2.154–56. The most famous case is that of the Tang scholar Han Yu (768–824), who allegedly suffered from sulfur poisoning. See Hu and Hu, “Han Yu ‘zuruo buneng bu’ yu ‘tuizhi fu liuhuang’ kaobian,” 193–212; and Davis, “Lechery, Substance Abuse, and … Han Yu?,” 89–91.

  65. 65   Sun, Qianjin yifang, 22.261a. The five exhaustions and seven injuries refer to severe conditions of viscera depletion, especially the depletion of the Kidneys that leads to sexual malfunction. See Chao, Zhubing yuanhou lun jiaozhu, 3.86–89.

  66. 66   Sun, Qianjin yifang, 15.167a.

  67. 67   Sun Simiao was not the first physician to propose the highly restrictive use of the powder. The sixth-century physician Yao Sengyuan held a similar view. In a medical case described in The History of the Zhou, he encountered a patient who contracted a qi disorder that led to panting and fluster. The family of the patient was tempted to treat him with Five-Stone Powder, probably intrigued by its panacea reputation. Yao rejected the idea and prescribed a specific formula that cured the patient. See Linghu, Zhoushu, 47.841–42.

  68. 68   Sun, Sun Zhenren qianjin fang, 25.413.

  69. 69   Sun, Sun Zhenren qianjin fang, 25.412.

  70. 70   Sun, Sun Zhenren qianjin fang, 25.413.

  71. 71   For a detailed study of the culture of ingesting stalactite during the Tang period, see Sakade, “Zui-Tō jidai niokeru shōnyūseki fukuyō no ryūkō nitsuite,” 615–44.

  72. 72   On the zhen bird, see chapter 1.

  73. 73   Sun, Sun Zhenren qianjin fang, 25.412–13.

  74. 74   Lu Xun, “Wei-Jin fengdu ji wenzhang yu yao ji jiu zhi guanxi,” 494; Yu Jiaxi, “Hanshi San kao,” 181–82; Li Ling, “Yaodu yijia,” 35–38. The similarity between Five-Stone Powder and opium was first proposed by the Qing scholar Yu Zhengxie (1775–1840). See Yu Zhengxie, “Hanshi San,” 7.212–13 (cited by Yu Jiaxi above).

  75. 75   Wagner, “Lebensstil und Drogen im Chinesischen Mittelalter,” 174–77.

  76. 76   Zheng, Social Life of Opium in China.

  77. 77   For example, see Wagner, “Lebensstil und Drogen im Chinesischen Mittelalter,” 135–49.

  78. 78   Tomes, Remaking the American Patient, 234–40.

  79. 79   Etkin, “‘Side Effects,’” 99–113; Etkin, “Negotiation of ‘Side’ Effects,” 17–32.

CHAPTER 7: DYING TO LIVE

Epigraph: Chuze, Taiqing shibi ji (HY 881), 3.11a.

  1. 1   On fangshi, see chapter 2.

  2. 2   Lard (zhufang) was mainly used for making ointments in Chinese medicine. Occasionally it was ingested to treat emergencies. See Ge, Buji zhouhou fang, 1.22. I have not yet been able to identify what “grain lacquer” (guqi) is.

  3. 3   Liu Xu et al., Jiu Tangshu, 132.3649.

  4. 4   Zhao Yi, Ershier shi zhaji, 398–99.

  5. 5   In comparison to outer alchemy, inner alchemy (neidan) focused on various techniques of meditation to achieve transcendence without ingesting potent substances. In this chapter, for simplicity, I use the word “alchemy” to refer only to the practices of outer alchemy.

  6. 6   Needham et al., Science and Civilisation in China, vol. 5, pt. II, pt. III, and pt. IV; Ho, Explorations in Daoism.

  7. 7   Sivin, “Chinese Alchemy and the Manipulation of Time,” 512–26; Pregadio, Great Clarity.

  8. 8   Ho and Needham, “Elixir Poisoning in Medieval China,” 221–51.

  9. 9   Strickmann, “On the Alchemy of T’ao Hung-ching,” 123–92.

  10. 10   Needham et al., Science and Civilisation in China, vol. 5, pt. IV, 472–91.

  11. 11   This sense of upward movement is evident in the affinity of the early writing of xian to qian, which means “ascend” or “transfer.” See Miura, “Xianren,” 1092–94.

  12. 12   Gruman, History of Ideas about the Prolongation of Life.

  13. 13   My understanding of xian is informed by Yü, “Life and Immortality in the Mind of Han China,” 80–122; Needham et al., Science and Civilisation in China, vol. 5, pt. II, 71–127; Bokenkamp, Early Daoist Scriptures, 21–23; Campany, To Live as Long as Heaven and Earth, 4–5; Stanley-Baker, “Cultivating Body, Cultivating Self,” 34–40; and Pregadio, “Which Is the Daoist Immortal Body?,” 385–407.

  14. 14   Sima, Shiji, 6.247; Schafer, “Transcendent Vitamin,” 27–38.

  15. 15   Sima, Shiji, 28.1385.

  16. 16   On alchemy in Chinese antiquity, see Li Ling, “Liandanshu de qiyuan he fushi zhuyou,” 301–40. An important text in the Daoist canon, Token for the Agreement of the Three According to the Book of Changes (Zhouyi cantong qi), was traditionally treated as a Han alchemical work, but more recent studies have shown that the text was originally a work of prognostication and only became associated with alchemy during the Era of Division. See Pregadio, “Early History of the Zhouyi cantong qi,” 149–76.

  17. 17   Fang et al., Jinshu, 72.1910–13; Campany, To Live as Long as Heaven and Earth, 13–17.

  18. 18   Ge lamented that, though in possession of instructional books given by Zheng Yin for more than twenty years, he still couldn’t practice alchemy, due to the lack of resources. See Ge, Baopuzi neipian jiaoshi, 4.71.

  19. 19   Ge, Baopuzi neipian jiaoshi, 4.72.

  20. 20   Ge, Baopuzi neipian jiaoshi, 4.71–72.

  21. 21   Ge, Baopuzi neipian jiaoshi, 4.82–83.

  22. 22   Pregadio, “Seeking Immortality in Ge Hong’s Baopuzi Neipian,” 437–39.

  23. 23   Ge, Baopuzi neipian jiaoshi, 4.72.

  24. 24   Huangdi neijing suwen jiaozhu, 43.565; Unschuld, Huang Di nei jing su wen, vol. 2, 163–67.

  25. 25   Ge, Baopuzi neipian jiaoshi, 15.272; Fan Ka-wai, “Ge xianweng Zhouhou beijifang,” 88–94; Stanley-Baker, “Ge xianweng zhouhou beiji fang,” forthcoming.

  26. 26   Ge, Baopuzi neipian jiaoshi, 4.77, 9.172.

  27. 27   Ge, Baopuzi neipian jiaoshi, 13.240.

  28. 28   Ge, Baopuzi neipian jiaoshi, 3.53–54.

  29. 29   To be sure, certain alchemical texts in medieval China concern only the imagination and cosmic contemplation of elixir-making rather than putting alchemy into practice (Sivin, “Chinese Alchemy and the Manipulation of Time,” 512–26; Bokenkamp, Early Daoist Scriptures, 289–95), but we also have abundant textual and material evidence for the actual making and ingesting of elixirs, as I will demonstrate shortly.

  30. 30   Fang et al., Jinshu, 8.208–9.

  31. 31   Wei Shou, Weishu, 114.3049.

  32. 32   Li Yanshou, Beishi, 89.2931.

  33. 33   Alchemists during the Era of Division consisted of mainly two groups: fangshi, who were technical adepts versed in various magical arts, and Daoist practitioners, especially in the sect of the Great Clarity (Taiqing). See Pregadio, Great Clarity.

  34. 34   Yao Silian, Liangshu, 51.742; Jia, Huayang Tao yinju neizhuan (HY 300), 2.13b.

  35. 35   Li Yanshou, Nanshi, 76.1899. Not surprisingly, Tao’s intimate relationship with the court helped him promote the Daoist sect that he established in Maoshan. See Zhong, Tao Hongjing pingzhuan, 125–35; and Pettit, “Learning from Maoshan.”

  36. 36   Li Yanshou, Nanshi, 76.1899.

  37. 37   My study of Tao’s alchemy is primarily based on Inner Biography of the Hermit Tao from Huayang (Huayang Tao yinju neizhuan), compiled by Jia Song during the Tang dynasty. Although this is a much later text, it preserves information that matches up well with Tao’s own writings that are preserved only in fragments, allowing me to reconstruct Tao’s alchemical practice with certain confidence. See Jia, Huayang Tao yinju neizhuan (HY 300); Strickmann, “On the Alchemy of T’ao Hung-ching,” 123–92; Sakade, Chūgoku shisō kenkyū, 113–46; and Zhong, Tao Hongjing pingzhuan, 135–62.

  38. 38   The procedure is described in an alchemical text dated to the early Era of Division, Essential Instructions on the Scripture of the Reverted Elixir in Nine Cycles of the Perfected of the Great Ultimate. See Taiji zhenren jiuzhuan huandan jing yaojue (HY 889), 1b–4a; Strickmann, “On the Alchemy of T’ao Hung-ching,” 143–46; and Pregadio, Great Clarity, 193–200. Fabrizio Pregadio offered a full translation of the text, on which my summary is based.

  39. 39   Jia, Huayang Tao yinju neizhuan (HY 300), 2.8b–11b. We can trace this idea of choosing a sacred site for alchemy back to Ge Hong’s writings. See Ge, Baopuzi neipian, 4.84–85.

  40. 40   Wei Zheng et al., Suishu, 35.1093.

  41. 41   Jia, Huayang Tao yinju neizhuan (HY 300), 2.5b.

  42. 42   Tao, Bencao jing jizhu, 1.33, 2.148–49.

  43. 43   Chen Yuanpeng, “Bencao jing jizhu suozai ‘Taozhu’ zhong de zhishi leixing,” 184–212.

  44. 44   Jia, Huayang Tao yinju neizhuan (HY 300), 2.12a–12b.

  45. 45   Jia, Huayang Tao yinju neizhuan (HY 300), 2.13a–13b. Instructions on Elixirs is likely the abbreviated title of a lost alchemical text.

  46. 46   Jia, Huayang Tao yinju neizhuan (HY 300), 2.14a. The same source narrates that in 524, Tao made another attempt at compounding the elixir, finally succeeding when the product radiated the variegated colors of a rainbow. But we don’t know what Tao did with the elixir. Another source reveals that Tao presented a certain Sublimated Elixir to Emperor Wu sometime before 519. Both the emperor and Tao ingested it and felt their bodies become light (Li Yanshou, Nanshi, 76.1899). Michel Strickmann has argued that what they ingested was not a deadly drug but a “tonic iatro-alchemical compound” (Strickmann, “On the Alchemy of T’ao Hungching,” 162–63). In any case, both the emperor and Tao lived long lives—the emperor died at 86 and Tao at 81—suggesting that they never took a lethal elixir.

  47. 47   One such daring alchemist is Tao’s disciple Zhou Ziliang (497–516), who died of elixir poisoning at the age of twenty. See Zhou Ziliang, Zhoushi mingtong ji (HY 302), 1.3a–4a, 4.19a–20b; and Bokenkamp, “Answering a Summons,” 188–202.

  48. 48   Sakade, Chūgoku shisō kenkyū, 138–40.

  49. 49   On the early history of the Shangqing movement, see Strickmann, “Mao Shan Revelations,” 1–64; and Robinet, Taoism, 114–48.

  50. 50   Pregadio, Great Clarity, 43–47; Chang Chaojan, “You xian er zhen,” 260–326; Stanley-Baker, “Daoists and Doctors.”

  51. 51   Huangdi jiuding shendan jingjue (HY 885), 14.2a.

  52. 52   Yin zhenjun jinshi wu xianglei (HY 906), 33a.

  53. 53   Jinshi bu wujiu shu jue (HY 907), 7a.

  54. 54   Schafer, Golden Peaches of Samarkand, 215–21; Liao Jui-yui, Tangdai fushi yangsheng yanjiu, 73–95; Chen Ming, Zhonggu yiliao yu wailai wenhua, 278–96.

  55. 55   Bokenkamp, “Li Bai, Huangshan, and Alchemy,” 29–55.

  56. 56   Shaanxi Sheng Bowuguan Geweihui Xiezuo Xiaozu, “Xi’an nanjiao Hejiacun faxian Tangdai jiaocang wenwu,” 30–42; Geng, “Xi’an nanjiao Tangdai jiaocang li de yiyao wenwu,” 56–60; Qi and Shen, Huawu da Tang chun, 150–55.

  57. 57   Even without detailed explanation, the effort required to manage the potency of alchemical ingredients is already visible during the Era of Division. For instance, a text titled Oral Instructions of the Heavenly Master on the Classics of the Great Clarity briefly describes the methods of detoxifying gold and silver. See Taiqing jing tianshi koujue (HY 883), 5b–8b.

  58. 58   Pregadio, Great Clarity, 241–54.

  59. 59   Huangdi jiuding shendan jingjue (HY 885), 6.4a. On zhen-laced alcohol, see chapter 1.

  60. 60   Ge, Baopuzi neipian jiaoshi, 4.72; Zhao Kuanghua, “Woguo gudai ‘chousha liangong’ de yanjin jiqi huaxue chengjiu,” 128–53.

  61. 61   Tao, Bencao jing jizhu, 2.129–30.

  62. 62   Huangdi jiuding shendan jingjue (HY 885), 13.1b.

  63. 63   In Tang materia medica, mercury was relegated to the middle group of drugs, suggesting its lowered value. See Su et al., Xinxiu bencao, 4.107.

  64. 64   Huangdi jiuding shendan jingjue (HY 885), 11.1a–11b. On the history of mercury in Chinese medicine and alchemy, see Liu and Kuriyama, “Fluid Being.”

  65. 65   Pregadio, Great Clarity, 169; Chen Guofu, Chen Guofu daozang yanjiu lunwen ji, 320–24.

  66. 66   Huangdi jiuding shendan jingjue (HY 885), 11.9a–9b.

  67. 67   Tao, Bencao jing jizhu, 6.397–98, 7.510, 7.514.

  68. 68   The other two yang drugs are sal ammoniac and flakes of gold and silver.

  69. 69   Pregadio, “Elixirs and Alchemy,” 179–80.

  70. 70   Huangdi jiuding shendan jingjue (HY 885), 10.4b, 11.5a–6a.

  71. 71   Huangdi jiuding shendan jingjue (HY 885), 20.17a. One tip of the jade-knife (daogui) is a size unit in classical Chinese pharmacy. It is four times the size of a small bean, which is eight times the size of a millet grain. Hence, from the dose of one tip of the jade-knife to that of half a millet grain, we see a difference of sixty-four times. See Tao, Bencao jing jizhu, 1.38–39.

  72. 72   Shennong bencao jing jiaozhu, 1.8. Also see chapter 2.

  73. 73   Fang et al., Jinshu, 72.1913.

  74. 74   On the studies of shijie, see Robinet, “Metamorphosis and Deliverance,” 37–70; Cedzich, “Corpse Deliverance,” 1–68; Campany, To Live as Long as Heaven and Earth, 52–60; and Pregadio, “Which Is the Daoist Immortal Body?,” 389–92.

  75. 75   Ge, Baopuzi neipian jiaoshi, 2.20.

  76. 76   Ge, Baopuzi neipian jiaoshi, 3.52–53.

  77. 77   Shen Yue, Songshu, 45.1377–78.

  78. 78   Hu is a unit of volume measurement. During the Era of Division, one hu was equivalent to about 0.2 liters. See Qiu, Zhongguo lidai duliangheng kao, 254–55.

  79. 79   Tao, Zhen’gao (HY 1016), 10.5a.

  80. 80   Tao, Zhen’gao (HY 1016), 5.8a–8b. A similar but more famous story is that of Wei Boyang. Wei, a Daoist master, brought three disciples to a mountain to compound an elixir. After the elixir was made, he pronounced that it was an elixir with du. He then fed it to a dog, who died instantly. Despite this, Wei, together with one trusting disciple, ingested the elixir and died too. Terrified, the other two disciples fled, only to realize later that Wei and his unflinching follower had become transcendents. See Campany, To Live as Long as Heaven and Earth, 379–80, 543–44.

  81. 81   Chen Guofu, Daozang yuanliu kao, 314–15.

  82. 82   Chuze, Taiqing shibi ji (HY 881), 2.7a.

  83. 83   Chuze, Taiqing shibi ji (HY 881), 3.11a. The original quote is from the ancient text The Book of Documents (Shangshu). See Shangshu zhengyi, 10.294–95.

  84. 84   The triple jiao (sanjiao) is one of the six palace-viscera in classical Chinese medicine, with no counterpart in modern biomedicine. Functionally, it controls the opening of water channels in the body and regulates digestion and excretion. See Huangdi neijing suwen jiaozhu, 8.129, 9.150; and Sivin, Traditional Medicine in Contemporary China, 125.

  85. 85   Chuze, Taiqing shibi ji (HY 881), 3.10b–11a. Unlike certain early medical texts that deem pain to be a symptom of abnormal circulation of qi inside the body, this alchemical text regards pain and other strong bodily sensations as therapeutic manifestations of powerful qi from the elixir. See Lo, “Tracking the Pain,” 191–211.

  86. 86   In particular, worms figured prominently in the Daoist imagination of sickness as innate, destructive creatures residing in one’s body that pose a perpetual menace to life. See Toshiaki Yamada, “Longevity Techniques,” 99–124; Huang Shih-shan Susan, “Daoist Imagery of Body and Cosmos, Part 2,” 33–64; and Yan Liu, “Words, Demons, and Illness,” 19–23.

  87. 87   Chuze, Taiqing shibi ji (HY 881), 3.11b–12a.

  88. 88   Skar and Pregadio, “Inner Alchemy (Neidan),” 464–97; Yokote, “Daoist Internal Alchemy,” 1053–1110.

  89. 89   Besides two formula books (see chapter 5), Sun Simiao also compiled an alchemical text titled Essential Instructions from the Classics of Elixirs of the Great Clarity (Taiqing danjing yaojue), which, with regard to the therapeutic use of elixirs, resembles The Record from the Stone Wall. See Sivin, Chinese Alchemy.

CONCLUSION

Epigraph: Gu Yanwu, Rizhi lu jishi, 6.279–80. The passage is quoted in Yu Yan, “Duyao bian,” 4.

  1. 1   Fan Ka-wai, “Liu Yuxi yu Chuanxin fang,” 111–44.

  2. 2   Liu Yuxi, Liu Yuxi ji, 6.77.

  3. 3   Liu Zongyuan, “Yu Cui lianzhou lun shi zhongru shu,” 515–18.

  4. 4   Davis, “Lechery, Substance Abuse, and … Han Yu?,” 89–91; Fan Ka-wai, Zhonggu shiqi de yizhe yu bingzhe, 200–222.

  5. 5   Han, “Gu taixue boshi Lijun muzhiming,” 2655–57.

  6. 6   Chen Yuanpeng, Liang Song de “shangyi shiren” yu “ruyi.”

  7. 7   Bian, Know Your Remedies.

  8. 8   Li Shizhen, Bencao gangmu, 17.1113–29.

  9. 9   Gu Yanwu, Rizhi lu jishi, 6.280.

  10. 10   Lei, Neither Donkey nor Horse; Andrews, Making of Modern Chinese Medicine.

  11. 11   On the globalization of Chinese medicine and its consequences, see Barnes, “World of Chinese Medicine and Healing,” 284–378.

  12. 12   Hanson, “Is the 2015 Nobel Prize a Turning Point for Traditional Chinese Medicine?”

  13. 13   Rao, Li, and Zhang, “Drug from Poison,” 495–502. Arsenic trioxide, a refined product from arsenic ores, entered Chinese pharmacy during the Song dynasty. Called pishuang, it was considered an effective drug to treat intermittent fevers. See Obringer, “Song Innovation in Pharmacotherapy,” 192–213.

  14. 14   Lord et al., “Urothelial Malignant Disease and Chinese Herbal Nephropathy,” 1515–16; Hao, “Cong lishi jiaodu kexue lixing renshi zhongyao de dufu zuoyong,” 57. In the latest development in this controversy, the newest edition of the government-issued Pharmacopoeia of China (Zhongguo yaodian), released in 2020, has eliminated aristolochia from its drug list (www.sohu.com/a/402929732_233656, accessed August 1, 2020).

  15. 15   Throughout this book, I have used “drug” and “medicine” interchangeably to translate yao so as to underscore the fluid meaning of the word over the course of Chinese history. On the changed meaning of the word “drug” from medicine to an object of substance abuse in early twentieth-century America, see Parascandola, “Drug Habit,” 156–67.

  16. 16   Martin Lee, Smoke Signals; Dufton, Grass Roots.

  17. 17   Pollan, How to Change Your Mind, 331–96.

  18. 18   Herzberg, Happy Pills in America; Greene and Watkins, eds., Prescribed.

  19. 19   Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/drug-use-therapeutic.htm, accessed August 1, 2020). The data are based on the period 2013–16.

  20. 20   Information from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (www.drugabuse.gov/drugs-abuse/opioids/opioid-overdose-crisis#one, accessed August 1, 2020).

  21. 21   On an excellent new study of the history of licit drug abuse in twentieth-century America, see Herzberg, White Market Drugs.

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