Chinese Medical Books

中文

Exhibited items

  • Dou Mo
    China, 1196–1280

    Illustrated Anthology on Skin and External Diseases, 1910 reprint
    Shanghai: Saoye shanfang

    Gift of Dr Dorothy Chong and family, 1994
    Rare East Asian Collection, Archives and Special Collections

    This set of books was written by thirteenth century medical practitioner Dou Mo (also called Dou Hanqing), who  specialised in acupuncture. They are notable for examinations of skin tumours and diseases, and include illustrations depicting the corresponding affected areas of the body. For some diseases, the genders are differentiated. There are also discussions of and prescriptions for specific dermatological illnesses.

  • Zhao Kaimei  
    China, 1563–1624

    Medical Studies by Zhang Zhongjing, 1916 reprint
    Shanghai: Qianqing tang shuju

    Gift of Dr Dorothy Chong and family, 1994
    Rare East Asian Collection, Archives and Special Collections

    First published in 1599 by the scholar-official Zhao Kaimei, these volumes contain extensive discussions on typhus fever, which was a key factor in high mortality rates in pre-modern China. This set especially includes works attributed to the second century medical practitioner Zhang Zhongjing. It is a later, lithographic print based on an edition published in 1894, which in turn referred to a Japanese copy of the original Chinese edition, which was preserved by a Japanese medical practitioner.

  • Thomas Chong (copyist)
    Australia, 1877–1950

    Secret studies on circulation inside the body, c. 1910
    Manuscript

    Secret notes on the treatment of the eyes, c. 1910
    Manuscript

    Gift of Dr Dorothy Chong and family, 1994
    Rare East Asian Collection, Archives and Special Collections

    Secret studies on the circulation inside the body is likely a copy of a text of the same title originally published in 1827, which discussed the methods of making diagnoses by noting changes in the patient’s pulse. The second manuscript featured here concentrates on the study of the eyes. Since the name of the Qing scholar Lai Jixi (1865-1937) is on the cover, it is thought to be a copy of a  book from Lai's own collection. Lai himself later became a professor at Hong Kong University. The hand-drawn illustrations show that Daoist vocabularies were used to indicate the correspondence of distinct parts of the eye with the other internal organs: a correlation between symptoms in discrete areas of the body that was commonly accepted by pre-modern Chinese medical practitioners.