East Asian Science, Technology, and Medicine (EASTM - Universität Tübingen)

Mu, Peng

The Doctor's Body: Embodiment and Multipilicity of Chinese Medical Knowledge

Vogel, Hans Ulrich

7 
Note from the Editor 
 
EASTM no. 25 is, at least in part, a continuation of the congratulatory issue in 
honour of the eightieth birthday of Professor Ho Peng Yoke. The articles dedi-
cated to Professor Ho by Bernard Führer on the art of future prediction and pun-
ning by graph analysis in traditional China and by David Brown on astral divina-
tion in the context of Mesopotamian society and culture have already been intro-
duced by Christopher Cullen in the previous issue. In addition, this number starts 
with Dieter Kuhn’s inaugural lecture at the 11th International Conference of the 
History of Science in East Asia (Munich, August 15-20, 2005) reflecting on the 
current state and significance of the history of East Asian technology. After hav-
ing delineated the academic field of the history of technology in general and 
highlighted a number of recent or current important projects in the history of 
East Asian technology, he proposes ways of overcoming certain deficiencies and 
limitations in the field and developing it in the future. He argues convincingly 
that the adoption of these proposals will significantly increase our understanding 
of historical development and help us in explaining the different paths taken by 
East Asian civilisations. His survey also makes clear that, given the contributions 
of East Asian civilisations in the field of technology, research in this area ap-
pears to be quite underrepresented when compared to that in the history of sci-
ence and medicine. The second article in this journal is an important paper writ-
ten by Peng Mu on the crucial role of the practitioners’ bodily sensations in the 
construction of Chinese medical knowledge. She argues that by stressing the 
importance of the doctors’ own bodies in medical discourse, the ambiguity of its 
language can be overcome, while at the same time light can be cast on the promi-
nence of experience and practice as well as the efficiency of traditional knowl-
edge transmission. By concentrating on pulse diagnosis, the importance of case 
studies (yian 醫 案), and the concept of “experience” (yan 驗), she makes clear 
that Chinese medical tradition highly valued subjective knowledge based on 
personal experience, thus establishing an interaction between subject and object 
and resulting in an individual standard embodied within each doctor’s body. This 
not only engendered multiplicity in Chinese diagnosis and therapy, but also gave 
rise to an enduring and dynamic process of innovation. The issue concludes with 
a lengthy review article of Ole Döring on the question of whether we can speak 
of a Confucian Asian Ethos in the culture of East Asian bioethics. He not only 
provides us with a systematic introduction to the development of bioethics in 
China, but also the attempts of Chinese and other Asian scientists to construct a 
Confucian, Chinese, Asian or otherwise East Asian ethos as a “third way” to-
wards modernisation, one with Asian or “Chinese” characteristics. After having 
critically discussed the major players and concepts involved, one of Döring con-
clusions is that actually no clearly discernible East Asian bioethic conception 
exists and that Asia can only be understood in regional terms, not as an all-
embracing entity. The arguments proffered by Asian protagonists contain a large 
measure of morality, including sincere moral concerns, but also paternalistic 
    8 
 
medical morality, post-modern libertarianism, and a fair portion of strategic 
argument often related to political propaganda and chauvinistic self-appraisal. 
In this note, we have the sad duty to inform our readership of the passing of 
Professor Jutta Rall-Niu (born March 29, 1929), who after long illness died on 
April 10, 2006. She was well-known in the field especially because of her mono-
graph on the four great medical schools of the Yuan period (Die vier grossen 
Medizinschulen der Mongolenzeit: Stand und Entwicklung der chinesischen 
Medizin in der Chin- und Yüan-Zeit, Wiesbaden: Steiner, 1970). Having obtained 
both a M.D. in 1954 and a PhD in 1962, she taught for many years at the Univer-
sity of Hamburg. She will be especially remembered here at EASTM for her 
generous help as an editorial consultant during the years from 1999 until her 
death. An obituary in German was published by Professor Hans Stumpfeldt in 
Hamburger China-Notizen, no. 43 (June 3, 2006) and is available via the inter-
net.1  
We also received the sad news of the passing of Professor Li Di 李 迪 (born 
October 6, 1927), who died on October 30, 2006. EASTM will publish an obitu-
ary in honour of this eminent Chinese historian of mathematics in the next issue. 
As ever, my thanks go to the authors and anonymous referees for their contribu-
tions and critical evaluations as well as to my collaborators in Cambridge and 
Tübingen for their dedicated help in producing this issue. Attentive readers will 
notice the change in the journal’s managing and production section. Because of 
other obligations and new academic perspectives both He Heng and Tobias 
Wissler have left EASTM, the first pursuing an MA thesis in ethnology, the 
latter going to Ghent as an assistant and doctoral candidate. Their tasks have 
been taken over in the same efficient way by Vanessa Dahlmann and Valerie 
Keppel, students at the Tübingen Institute of Chinese and Korean Studies.  
The next issue of this journal (no. 26, 2007) will be published very soon. It 
will be a special issue with contributions by Alix Cooper, Laura Hostetler, Bruce 
Rusk, and Denis Phillips on “Global Science and Comparative History: Jesuits, 
Science, and Philology in China and Europe, 1550-1850,” a workshop organized 
by Benjamin Elman in Princeton in 2002.  
 
 
Hans Ulrich Vogel 
Seminar für Sinologie und Koreanistik 
Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen 
                                                          
1
 See http://www.stumpfeldt.de/hcn/hcn43/chinas.html. 


Note from the Editor

Brown, David

Astral Divination in the Context of Mesopotamian Divination, Medicine, Religion, Magic, Society, and Scholarship

Cover

East Asian 
Science, Technology, 
and Medicine 
 
Number 25 
2006 
 
A journal dedicated to the study of traditional and modern  
East Asian science, technology, and medicine. 
 
 
 
Editor:  
Hans Ulrich Vogel 
 
Seminar für Sinologie und Koreanistik 
Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen 
Wilhelmstr. 133 
72074 Tübingen / Germany 
FAX: 0049 - 7071 - 295733 
E-Mail: eastm@uni-tuebingen.de 
 
 
Managing and Production Editors: 
Vanessa Dahlmann, Seminar für Sinologie und Koreanistik, Tübingen 
Valerie Keppel, Seminar für Sinologie und Koreanistik, Tübingen 
 
English Language Editor:  
John P. C. Moffett, Needham Research Institute, Cambridge (UK) 
 
Editorial Consultant: 
†Jutta Rall-Niu, Seminar für Sprache und Kultur Chinas, Universität Hamburg 
 
Local Advisory Board: 
Klaus J. Antoni, Seminar für Japanologie, Tübingen 
Dieter Eikemeier, Seminar für Sinologie und Koreanistik, Tübingen 
Viktoria Eschbach-Szabo, Seminar für Japanologie, Tübingen 
Robert Horres, Seminar für Japanologie, Tübingen 
Achim Mittag, Seminar für Sinologie und Koreanistik, Tübingen 
 
 
 
EDITORIAL COMMITTEE 
Bridie Andrews-Minehan, Department of History, Bentley College 
Francesca Bray, Department of Social Anthropology, University of Edinburgh 
Christopher Cullen, Needham Research Institute and Darwin College, 
Cambridge 
Benjamin A. Elman, East Asian Studies and History, Princeton University 
Charlotte Furth, Department of History, University of Southern California, Los 
Angeles 
Hashimoto Keizō, Faculty of Sociology, Kansai University, Osaka 
Huang Yi-Long, Institute of History, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu 
Jeon Sang-woon, Cultural Properties Committee Korea, Seoul 
Catherine Jami, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris 
Yung Sik Kim, College of Humanities, Seoul National University 
Dieter Kuhn, Institut für Kulturwissenschaften Ost- und Südasiens - Sinologie, 
Universität Würzburg 
Angela Ki Che Leung, Sun Yat-Sen Institute for Social Sciences and Philosophy, 
Academia Sinica, Taipei 
Liu Bing, Institute of Science, Technology and Society, Tsinghua University, 
Beijing 
Liu Dun, Institute for the History of Natural Science, Academia Sinica, Beijing 
Morris Low, Department of the History of Science, Medicine, and Technology, 
Johns Hopkins University 
Georges Métailié, Centre Alexandre Koyré, CNRS-EHESS-MNHN, Paris 
Shi Yunli, Department of the History of Science and Scientific Archaeology, 
University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 
Nathan Sivin, Department of the History and Sociology of Science, University of 
Pennsylvania, Philadelphia 
C. Michele Thompson, Department of History, Southern Connecticut State 
University, New Haven 
Tsukahara Togo, History and Philosophy of Science, Technology and Medicine, 
Kobe University 
Paul U. Unschuld, Institut für Geschichte der Medizin, Ludwig-Maximilians-
Universität München 
Donald B. Wagner, Department of Asian Studies, University of Copenhagen 
Yoshida Tadashi, Center for Northeast Asian Studies, Tohoku University, Sendai 
 
 
 
 
THE SCOPE OF EASTM 
Copyright © 2006. EASTM (formerly Chinese Science) is published by the International 
Society for the History of East Asian Science, Technology, and Medicine (ISHEASTM). 
Numbers 1-10 (1975-92) were published irregularly under the editorship of Nathan Sivin 
(University of Pennsylvania). Numbers 11-15 (1993-98) were issued annually at the 
University of California, Los Angeles, by Benjamin A. Elman. Beginning with Number 
16 (1999), the name of the journal changed to East Asian Science, Technology, and 
Medicine and is published at the University of Tübingen, Germany. From Number 20 
(2003) there are two issues per year. The publication of this periodical is supported by a 
grant from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG). 
This journal includes studies on the science, technology, and medicine of traditional and 
contemporary East Asia. Any study based on original research using Chinese, Japanese, 
or Korean primary sources or artifacts, that elucidates the relationships and interactions of 
science, technology, and medicine with politics, society, economics, philosophy, culture, 
religion, historiography, as well as their disciplinary traditions, or throws light on the 
work of scientists, technologists, and physicians in East Asia will gladly be considered. 
SUBMISSIONS 
Potential contributors are encouraged to correspond with the editor before submitting 
manuscripts in order to ensure that their work falls within the purview of EASTM, and to 
simplify the preparation of the final copy. All contributions except invited reviews are 
refereed. The editor does not referee. For Chinese romanization, both Pinyin and Wade-
Giles transcriptions are accepted, while for Japanese and Korean, the Hepburn and 
McCune/Reischauer systems are to be used. With regard to style and format, contributors 
should refer to the latest issue of EASTM. Information on the preparation of manuscripts 
and their submission in electronic form will also be provided on request. 
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SUBSCRIPTIONS (six issues within three years, postage paid (surface mail) anywhere): 
Individual rate: € 90.00 or US$ 105.00. Students or retired: € 60.00 or US$ 70.00. 
Institutions: € 165.00 or US$ 195.00. SINGLE BACK ISSUES: € 30.00/US$35.00. Note: 
Members of the Society (which includes all individuals holding a subscription) may 
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of back issues (nos. 1–24) is available to subscribers at € 440.00/US$ 500.00.  
Send orders or inquiries to: ISHEASTM/SIHSTMAO, Institut d’Extrême-Orient, att.: 
Vera Dorofeeva-Lichtmann, 52 rue du Cardinal Lemoine, 75231 Paris Cedex 05, France. 
Fax: 33/1/44271854. E-Mail: vera.lichtman@free.fr 
Subscriptions will remain in force until terminated, and will be billed in advance for each 
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enclosed in the issue prior to the expiry of the subscription, promptly. Payment of 
subscriptions also enrolls individuals (including students and retirees) as members of the 
Society for three years. 
 
 
NOTICE TO LIBRARIES 
Libraries are reminded that we charge a fee (US$ 27.00/€ 27.00) for processing forms, in-
cluding claims against issues not yet published. Please note that since Number 11 (1993) 
Chinese Science/EASTM is published annually. From Number 20 (2003) there are two 
issues of EASTM per annum. 
BACK ISSUES 
Issues of Chinese Science/EASTM normally remain in print for three or four years. At the 
moment sufficient copies of Numbers 12-24 are still available. Numbers 1-11 are out-of-
print and can be supplied as unbound photocopies on special request. 
HOME PAGE 
For more information on the journal please also consult the home page maintained at 
Tübingen University: http://www.uni-tuebingen.de/sinologie/eastm/  
ISHEASTM 
The publication, since the fifties, of Joseph Needham’s (1900-1995) monumental work, 
Science and Civilisation in China, has been followed by a rapid development of research 
on the history of science, technology, and medicine in China, as well as in civilisations 
upon which Chinese culture exerted an important influence, such as Japan, Korea, and 
Vietnam. Since 1982, International Conferences on the History of Science in China had 
been held at irregular intervals. At the sixth of these conferences, held in Cambridge in 
1990 in honour of Joseph Needham’s ninetieth birthday, participants agreed to found the 
International Society for the History of East Asian Science, Technology, and Medicine 
(ISHEASTM). 
The Society’s purpose is to serve, represent and speak for scholars of the field defined by 
its name. It aims, primarily, to promote contacts and exchanges between those scholars, 
and also to establish and reinforce links with other scholarly communities, at an 
international level. The Society’s activities include: 
• The organisation of a plenary meeting every three years (Kyoto 1993, Seoul 1996, 
Singapore 1999, Shanghai 2002, Munich 2005, Baltimore 2008); 
• The publication of a journal, EASTM, on a semi-annual basis; 
• The publication of a semi-annual Bulletin. 
For more information on the society please consult the home page maintained at the 
Needham Research Institute in Cambridge: http://www.nri.org.uk/ISHEASTM.html 
 
This journal is printed on acid-free paper. 
 
 
ISSN #1562-918X 
 
 
 
 


Editorial

Führer, Bernhard

Seers and Jesters: Predicting the Future and Punning by Graph Analysis

Sivin, Nathan

A Multi-dimensional Approach to Research on Ancient Science

Du Bois, Christine M.

110 EASTM 24 (2005) 
David Y. H. Wu and Tan Chee-beng (eds.), Changing Chinese Foodways in 
Asia. Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press, 2001. xv, 304 pp. 
 
Christine M. Du Bois 
 
[Christine M. Du Bois is a Research Associate in the Department of Interna-
tional Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and a re-
searcher with the Johns Hopkins Project on Soybeans. She has published a book 
on West Indian immigration to the United States, and is currently co-editing a 
volume on soy foods around the world with Chee-beng Tan and Sidney Mintz.] 
 
 
With food an inexorable necessity, and with China poised to become an eco-
nomic powerhouse in this century, the central topic of Changing Chinese Food-
ways in Asia unquestionably merits careful attention. What the Chinese eat has 
major impacts on trade, on the health of over a billion people, and on the evolu-
tion of cuisines both within and outside of China. Wu and Tan have prepared a 
book that tackles this complex subject.  
The chapters in Changing Chinese Foodways in Asia provide an ethno-
graphic view of eating habits from a wide variety of people labelled “Chinese”—
ethnically Han, ethnically minority Chinese, rural, urban, northern, southern, 
humble, wealthy, living in China, immigrants elsewhere (whether recently so or 
not), young, old, male, female. In addition, some of the articles address the ways 
that non-Chinese Asian people consume and borrow from Chinese cuisines (Ma-
lays, Singaporeans, Koreans, and Japanese). Yet although taken as a whole the 
book is broad in scope, individual articles explain local particularities. This com-
bination of breadth and ethnographic detail gives the reader the sensation of 
sampling the history of many varied Asian folkways through the lens of food. 
We are given many different little “tastes” of the overall topic. 
Thus we learn of changing foodways in rural south China (articles by Chen 
and Su), evolving restaurant culture in Hong Kong (Tam, Wu, and Cheung), 
food restrictions among pregnant Hong Kongers (Martin), food as a complex 
marker of ethnicity among various kinds of Chinese in Malaysia and Singapore 
(Tan, and Chua and Rajah), the adoption of Chinese food in Korea and Japan 
(Kim and Aoki), the interplay between Asian and Western styles of breakfasting 
in Taiwan (Tsui), and the patterning of pork consumption throughout East Asia 
(Zhou). A foreword by Yih-yuan Li, an introduction by the editors, and a con-
cluding commentary by Sidney Mintz raise valuable questions and provide an 
eagle-eye view of dietary shifts among the Chinese. 
Most of the chapters discuss ways that food is used to construct and symbol-
ize ethnic, religious, or localized identities; herein lies the book’s strength. Tan’s 
finely detailed ethnography demonstrates how very many ways there are to be 
“Chinese” in Malaysia and to express nuanced identities through cuisine. Here 
food serves as a marker of subtle as well as more obvious group differences. By 
111 Reviews 
contrast, Chua and Rajah show how the actual complexity and hybridization of 
cuisines is often glossed over in Singapore, and food is used to bolster essential-
ist ideas about a limited number of ethnic groups. Kim’s fascinating article 
shows yet another way that food can reinforce group boundaries: Certain intra-
Korean identities—and a kind of nostalgic Korean nationalism—can be marked 
through the consumption of Chinese restaurant foods!  
A few of the articles touch briefly on the effects of changing technology on 
people’s diets. For example, Cheung’s article notes that technical improvements 
in poultry breeding and disease control led to the flourishing of Hakka restau-
rants in the 1950s and early 1960s in Hong Kong. These restaurants particularly 
benefited from the new technologies because their menus emphasized meats, 
including chicken. The increase in light industry in Hong Kong during this pe-
riod also had an impact, as it provided the working class with more disposable 
income with which to eat outside the home.  
Folk medical beliefs also appear in this volume, here and there within several 
of the articles, and squarely as the focus of attention in Martin’s article on preg-
nancy in Hong Kong. Interviews with midwives, doctors, husbands, and espe-
cially pregnant women of various socio-economic backgrounds revealed that all 
of these groups adhere not only to the dietary recommendations for pregnancy of 
Western medical science, but also to older “folk” beliefs about how to protect 
the foetus. Martin characterizes these traditions as oral, anecdotal, and shaped by 
the shifting patterns of authority within the extended family. 
The book is somewhat uneven. In some articles the writing could have been 
more concise. In addition, Zhou’s article belabours points unnecessarily for an 
educated readership—for instance, by insisting that the reader must not conclude 
that because the Japanese do not eat pork as the Chinese do, Chinese food cul-
ture “is therefore superior to that of Japan.” In Aoki’s article, there are overgen-
eralizations and omissions. For example, in a discussion of Japan’s adoption of 
China’s ramen noodles, we find the assertion that “The only other instance of 
foreign food taking root in Japan and being Japanized is curry ...” But what 
about tofu? Surely if any foreign food has become truly Japanese, it is tofu. 
Still, the volume is a valuable addition to Asian studies. Its commitment to an 
ethnographic focus, and its eschewing of unneeded jargon, are refreshing. The 
book would be of particular interest to readers wishing to explore foodways, 
ethnic boundaries, folk beliefs, modernization, migration, or globalization.  
 


David Y. H. Wu and Tan Chee-beng (eds.), Changing Chinese Foodways in Asia

Torck, Mathieu

Maritime Travel and the Question of Provisions and Scurvy in a Chinese Context 

Not a member yet

The Doctor's Body: Embodiment and Multipilicity of Chinese Medical Knowledge

Note from the Editor

Astral Divination in the Context of Mesopotamian Divination, Medicine, Religion, Magic, Society, and Scholarship

Cover

Editorial

Seers and Jesters: Predicting the Future and Punning by Graph Analysis

Cover

A Multi-dimensional Approach to Research on Ancient Science

David Y. H. Wu and Tan Chee-beng (eds.), Changing Chinese Foodways in Asia

Maritime Travel and the Question of Provisions and Scurvy in a Chinese Context

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