历史学最新文献

The breakout of leprosy in the history of Norway was influenced by two factors at least. It was partly because Norway was ruled by neighbouring countries for a long time so was underdeveloped, and partly it was a country with temperate marine climate. Leprosy came from Western Europe to Norway during the Viking Age (790-1066 CE) and peaked in the 13^th century when Norway was christianised and fully integrated with Europe with its participation in the crusades. At that time, the Christian Church cared for leprosy patients through its affiliated leprosariums. Leprosy nearly disappeared in Norway in the following two to three centuries because of the effects of the Black Death and the Little Ice Age. In the 19th century, Leprosy peaked again. The Norwegian government began its investigation and scientific research in this period, built up modern leprosariums, developed a leprosy registration system, and implemented strict and legal quarantine measures. Leprosy disappeared in Norway in the first half of the 20^th century. The history of leprosy in Norway showed its protracted and arduous nature, and the great achievements made by the Norwegian government in terms of constructing modern and scientific systems and the prevention and control practices to counter leprosy. This provides experiences and lessons for epidemiology.

Professor Zheng Jinsheng began his academic exchange with the Japanese academics in the 1980s. He traveled to Japan six times to participate in international conferences on the history of medicine for collaborative academic research with Japanese scholars. In particular, he undertook a research project in Japan for ten months from 1999 to 2000, with the support of the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science. This successfully facilitated and improved the investigation of ancient Chinese medical materials remaining in Japan. It also established a long-term, close and productive academic relationship with Japanese scholar Mayanagi Makoto, a professor at Ibaraki University. Professor Zheng Jinsheng, in the interview, specifically described the process of Sino-Japanese academic exchange in medical history, demonstrated his understanding of the academic culture and achievements of Japanese scholars and shared his perception on the future development of research in the historical literature of Chinese medicine. His interview offers valuable insight into the collaborated process and the mutual benefits.

The Communist Party of China faced many challenges, in the early years of the People's Republic of China, in terms of public health, such as scarce medical resources, rampant epidemics, and widespread feudal superstitious beliefs in rural areas. It unfolded a series of actions and regulations to improve perception and behaviors of farmers and peasants on public health, including presentations on their poor experiences to remind them of the root causes of health issues in the old society, improving their scientific health knowledge by instruction publicity and education, setting up evaluation criteria to contest on health knowledge, putting modern health knowledge into a guide which peasants could understand, implementing the system of setting up 'model examples' and making everyone a winner, and promoting the persistence of hygienic practice among the masses. This great public health practice program reshaped the perception and behavior of the public, providing historical insights for the implementation of "the Healthy China" strategy in the new era.

'Zong Mai' firstly appeared in Ling Shu of Inner Cannon of the Yellow Emperor (Huang Di Nei Jing). Its meanings are complicated and controversial. This paper examined 'Zong Mai' in terms of semantics, critical interpretation of ancient texts and the theories of traditional Chinese medicine. The paper aims to clarify two things. One is that ZONG () is not similar to ZHONG () and ZONG () in meanings. Another is that 'Zong Mai' is different from 'the centralised focus' (). It was found that 'Zong Mai' does not refer to 'numerous meridians' but specifically stands for an important major meridian closely related to the San Jiao (formed by the aggregation of various meridians). This might provide an active guide for current clinical practice.

Edward H. Hume is widely known for his "empathy and understanding" of traditional Chinese medicine because of his autobiography Doctors East, Doctors West, and monograph The Chinese Way of Medicine. It was found that the following multiple factors contributed to his understanding of traditional Chinese medicine by examining the cross-cultural experiences of Hume in India, China, and the United States. Hume's classical education background and his Indian experience constituted his foresight and acceptance of traditional Chinese medicine culture before he came to China. The conflict between traditional Chinese medicine and western medicine in his clinical experience in Changsha drove him to confront and begin to learn traditional Chinese medicine. With the rising of medical history in China and the United States, his interactions with Chinese medical historians pushed forward his research of Chinese medical history and made him disseminate traditional Chinese medicine to the world. His main source of knowledge for his affirmation and appraisal of the historical achievements of traditional Chinese medicine came from some writings by Chinese medical scholars in English, in particular, from the works of Professor K. C. Wong. Another source of Hume's knowledge of understanding traditional Chinese medicine philosophically and culturally came from the growing research of Sinology development in America at that time.

Pei Zi Yan Yi is a medical book written by Pei Yizhong, a popular physician in Jiaxing, Zhejiang Province in the late Ming and the early Qing Dynasties. This study combed through almost all existing versions of the book and its relevant historical materials. It was found that Pei Zi Yan Yi was originally written in the Shunzhi period of the Qing Dynasty, first published in 1671 and amended with the addition of Shan Run Yuan Bing Shi in 1713. Few copies of Pei Zi Yan Yi was extant, and the content of existing versions was found to be incomplete and seldom appeared in bibliographical documents. This might be due to the influence of the Literary Inquisition Case in the Yong Zheng period and the political stance of Pei's family. This study attempts to explore the academic value of Pei Zi Yan Yi and offer insights to the political situation and lifestyle of the medical and Confucian groups in the south of Yangzi River in the Ming and Qing Dynasties.

Zi Zai Hu Tian, the medical book with content consisting of prescriptions, was copied by Sun Jishuo in the period of Kangxi Emperor in the Qing Dynasty. It is extremely precious as the only remaining book, now held in the library of Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine. It had five volumes with more than 1,200 prescriptions. These prescriptions were organised according to symptoms and divided into internal medicine, gynecology and pediatrics, regimen, external medicine and detoxicant for weird diseases and animal diseases. Multiple prescriptions might be provided for one disease with diverse dosages. The prescriptions in Volume III focused on regimen, involving a total of 309 prescriptions. These prescriptions covered a variety of medicine, using products of flesh and blood with homology of medicine and food. They centred on "tonifying the kidney and filling up the essence", regulating the spleen and stomach and combining the tonic food and prolonging the life with flexible and diverse dosages. The medicine from these prescriptions were taken as pills with wine. Their processing was complicated, normally combined with the concepts of "Wu Xing" (the five elements about time and sequence). All prescriptions were believed deeply influenced by Taoist culture. They have important literature value and can provide reference for modern Chinese medicine research and clinical health care.

'Ju Jing', an allusion in traditional Chinese medicine, came from The Biography of Su Dan (Su Dan Zhuan) in The Legends of Immortal (Lie Xian Zhuan) and The Biographies of the Deities and Immortals (Shen Xian Zhuan). The hero of 'Ju Jing' Su Dan, in these myths, was imagined as a representative figure who satisfied the needs of ordinary people for medical demands, a moral model who was of loyal and filial piety proposed by ruling classes and an image with deities authorised by omnisciences. In this sense, the hero of 'Ju Jing' was embraced widely and was praised highly by generations because of the cultural adhesion of 'Ju Jing'. As a result, 'Ju Jing' was taken as a synonym of traditional Chinese medicine because this allusion took place in the context of traditional Chinese medicine.

Ma Peizhi (1820-1903) was one of the medical representatives in the Menghe School of Chinese Medicine. He was born into a medical family, and used the surname Ma () when practicing medicine. In fact, his ancestral family name was Jiang () and he was also known as Jiang Wenzhi (). Based on the Genealogy of the Menghe Jiang' Family (fragment now), Genealogy of the Jiangyin Jiang' Family and other relevant materials, in particular, the previous research by other scholars, it was found that the reason for the surname change of Menghe Jiang' family -- the surname Ma drew attention of patients but not the surname Jiang. It was also found that the first generation with the surname Ma was Jiang Ermao and the six generations were the Ma Peizhi.

Persian poetry is believed as one of the important carriers of Persian literature and important historical material for Persian culture study. The golden age of Persian poetry was the period from the 10th to 15th centuries in which a large number of poets with great reputations emerged. The healthcare concepts in their poems reflected the methods taken by the Persian society to maintain health and prevent diseases in this period. This study explores the healthcare concepts in Persian medical poetry and interprets its unique insights in terms of diet, sexual intercourse, and emotions.