This article examines the complex interplay between Chinese medical and pharmaceutical practices and the introduction of Western medicine and pharmacy in China,with a particular focus on the British administration’s ...This article examines the complex interplay between Chinese medical and pharmaceutical practices and the introduction of Western medicine and pharmacy in China,with a particular focus on the British administration’s efforts to marginalizing Chinese medicine in Hong Kong from 1842 to 1941.Soon after the British occupation of Hong Kong in 1841,the Hong Kong government promulgated laws and regulations governing the sale,supply,distribution,and manufacture of opium and potent medicines(aka“poisons”).These laws,based on parliamentary acts passed in Westminster,marginalized Chinese medicine and pharmacy and empowered Western medical doctors,chemists,and druggists as the sole providers of these services.Despite this,Chinese medicine and pharmacy remained the preferred therapeutic system of the local Chinese population.However,minimal resources were allocated to the sector or support for practitioners of Chinese medicine and pharmacy,even though they served most of the population.The British Hong Kong administration seized two key opportunities which shifted the balance in favor of Western medicine and pharmacy.The first was during the 1894 bubonic plague,when the British Hong Kong administration funded a Western medicine clinic at the Tung Wah Hospital in Sheung Wan,with a short-lived effect.The second,with lasting impact,was the mass influx of refugees fleeing Kwangtung(now Guangdong)to Hong Kong in 1938,which led to the three independently managed Tung Wah hospitals(the Hospitals)merging into one Hospital Group at the urging of the British Hong Kong administration,due to funding issues by local philanthropists.Western medicine thus became the mainstream therapeutic system for in-patients at the Hospital Group.展开更多
In ancient China, Daoist philosophers developed the concepts of qi(energy), Wu Xing(five elements), and yin(feminine, dark, negative) and yang(masculine, bright, positive) opposite forces between 200 and 600 BCE. Base...In ancient China, Daoist philosophers developed the concepts of qi(energy), Wu Xing(five elements), and yin(feminine, dark, negative) and yang(masculine, bright, positive) opposite forces between 200 and 600 BCE. Based on these philosophies, Zhen Jiu(acupuncture), Ben Cao(materia medica), and the practice of Qi Gong(energy optimization movements) evolved as the three interrelated therapeutic regimens of Chinese medicine(Note 1). Since the time of Zhang Qian, who discovered China's western regions in the 1st century BCE, Hai Yao(the exotic elements of materia medica from the maritime Silk Road countries), had been transmitted from the ancient land and maritime routes of the Silk Road to China in the past two millennia(Note 2). Since the late 17th century, the English East India Company, later called the British East India Company, introduced Yang Yao(opium) to the Manchu Qing Empire to balance a growing trade deficit for tea export from China to the British Empire. After the First Opium War ended in 1842, enterprising expatriate chemists and druggists in the treaty ports imported Xi Yao(modern medicines from the Western world) for sale to the merchant navy and the local market. From the second half of the 19th century onwards, both Hai Yao and Xi Yao have become a fully integrated part of modern China's armamentarium for the Chinese medicine and Western hospitals and retail pharmacy sectors. This paper articulates the journey of adoption of exotic elements of materia medica from the ancient land and sea routes of the Silk Road, including the western regions and the rest of the world in the past two millennia. Opium traders, ship surgeons, medical and pharmaceutical missionaries, enterprising traders, and policymakers together transformed Ben Cao into Xi Yao during the late Manchu Qing dynasty and the early Nationalist Era.展开更多
文摘This article examines the complex interplay between Chinese medical and pharmaceutical practices and the introduction of Western medicine and pharmacy in China,with a particular focus on the British administration’s efforts to marginalizing Chinese medicine in Hong Kong from 1842 to 1941.Soon after the British occupation of Hong Kong in 1841,the Hong Kong government promulgated laws and regulations governing the sale,supply,distribution,and manufacture of opium and potent medicines(aka“poisons”).These laws,based on parliamentary acts passed in Westminster,marginalized Chinese medicine and pharmacy and empowered Western medical doctors,chemists,and druggists as the sole providers of these services.Despite this,Chinese medicine and pharmacy remained the preferred therapeutic system of the local Chinese population.However,minimal resources were allocated to the sector or support for practitioners of Chinese medicine and pharmacy,even though they served most of the population.The British Hong Kong administration seized two key opportunities which shifted the balance in favor of Western medicine and pharmacy.The first was during the 1894 bubonic plague,when the British Hong Kong administration funded a Western medicine clinic at the Tung Wah Hospital in Sheung Wan,with a short-lived effect.The second,with lasting impact,was the mass influx of refugees fleeing Kwangtung(now Guangdong)to Hong Kong in 1938,which led to the three independently managed Tung Wah hospitals(the Hospitals)merging into one Hospital Group at the urging of the British Hong Kong administration,due to funding issues by local philanthropists.Western medicine thus became the mainstream therapeutic system for in-patients at the Hospital Group.
文摘In ancient China, Daoist philosophers developed the concepts of qi(energy), Wu Xing(five elements), and yin(feminine, dark, negative) and yang(masculine, bright, positive) opposite forces between 200 and 600 BCE. Based on these philosophies, Zhen Jiu(acupuncture), Ben Cao(materia medica), and the practice of Qi Gong(energy optimization movements) evolved as the three interrelated therapeutic regimens of Chinese medicine(Note 1). Since the time of Zhang Qian, who discovered China's western regions in the 1st century BCE, Hai Yao(the exotic elements of materia medica from the maritime Silk Road countries), had been transmitted from the ancient land and maritime routes of the Silk Road to China in the past two millennia(Note 2). Since the late 17th century, the English East India Company, later called the British East India Company, introduced Yang Yao(opium) to the Manchu Qing Empire to balance a growing trade deficit for tea export from China to the British Empire. After the First Opium War ended in 1842, enterprising expatriate chemists and druggists in the treaty ports imported Xi Yao(modern medicines from the Western world) for sale to the merchant navy and the local market. From the second half of the 19th century onwards, both Hai Yao and Xi Yao have become a fully integrated part of modern China's armamentarium for the Chinese medicine and Western hospitals and retail pharmacy sectors. This paper articulates the journey of adoption of exotic elements of materia medica from the ancient land and sea routes of the Silk Road, including the western regions and the rest of the world in the past two millennia. Opium traders, ship surgeons, medical and pharmaceutical missionaries, enterprising traders, and policymakers together transformed Ben Cao into Xi Yao during the late Manchu Qing dynasty and the early Nationalist Era.
