UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations
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UCLA UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Constructing Patients: Medical Narratives in Late Imperial Chinese Vernacular Fiction Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2bm4160b Author Wang, Ying Publication Date 2020 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Constructing Patients: Medical Narratives in Late Imperial Chinese Vernacular Fiction A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Asian Languages and Cultures by Ying Wang 2020 © Copyright Ying Wang 2020 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Constructing Patients: Medical Narratives in Late Imperial Chinese Vernacular Fiction By Ying Wang Doctor of Philosophy in Asian Languages and Cultures University of California, Los Angeles, 2020 Professor David C. Schaberg, Co-Chair Professor Keith McMahon, Co-Chair My dissertation explores fictional medical narratives in late imperial China by focusing on representations of sickness, with particular attention to the patient. I argue that these fictional medical narratives produced a unique representation of sickness in terms of the patient’s subjective experience of an identity crisis. Through various patients’ individual experiences in fictional medical narratives, it can be seen that “sickness” indicates not only an unhealthy state, but also a process that uncovers disorders of family, ethics, and power structures, and can lead to the remaking of social identities and interpersonal relationships. As the rise of vernacular fiction as a narrative genre during the late Ming was closely related to the contemporary obsession with individual desire, the study of fictional medical narrative will help us understand and contextualize the new emphasis on the value of the individual. This dissertation takes fictional ii representations of sickness as a lens through which the tension between patients’ subjectivity and socially normative models is made manifest. I define the medical narrative in Ming-Qing vernacular fiction as a story that focuses on a character’s experience of illness and on the way illness influences the character’s social life and interpersonal relationships. In other words, it is the existence and the experience of the patient that constitutes the central feature of fictional medical narratives. Around the existence and the experience of the patient, the other characters have various responses and perform various roles, thereby contributing to the construction of the patient as a distinct type of character. We can conclude that these vernacular stories reflect the humanization of medicine, transforming the typology of patients in non-fictional medical narrative into various descriptions of patients as “whole persons in contexts and relations.” Fictional medical narratives reflect a more complex understanding of the cause, progress, and result of the sickness, revealing how patients’ experiences of suffering go beyond physical symptoms, diagnoses, and treatment. Therefore, fictional medical narratives formulate and convey contemporary understandings of the social meanings of illness in a way not found in other kinds of texts. iii The dissertation of Ying Wang is approved. Andrea S. Goldman Wei Shang Yinghui Wu Keith McMahon, Committee Co-Chair David C. Schaberg, Committee Co-Chair University of California, Los Angeles 2020 iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................................ vi VITA.............................................................................................................................................. ix Chapter 1 Introduction................................................................................................................. 1 1. Medical Narrative in Late Imperial Chinese Fiction .......................................................... 1 2. Basic Concepts and Review of Existing Literature ............................................................ 7 3. Major Textual Sources ...................................................................................................... 26 4. Chapter Overview ............................................................................................................. 31 Chapter 2 Sickness at Home: Destruction of Daily Life .......................................................... 35 1. Becoming a Nun or Monk Because of Sickness at Youth ................................................ 37 2. Threat and Damage to Marriage ....................................................................................... 44 Chapter 3 Sickness on the Road: A Journey of Dangers Everywhere ................................... 96 1. Dramatic Changes of Social Identity ................................................................................ 96 2. The Crisis of Marriage and Romance on the Road ......................................................... 115 3. Dangers and Hardships During a Journey ...................................................................... 129 Chapter 4 Sickness as Strategies ............................................................................................. 149 1. The Benefits of Sickness ................................................................................................. 150 2. Feigned Illness ................................................................................................................ 161 3. False Report of Death by Illness ..................................................................................... 189 Chapter 5 Sickness of Qing ...................................................................................................... 210 1. Medicalization of qing: Lovesickness ............................................................................ 211 2. Lovesickness in late imperial fiction .............................................................................. 216 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................. 251 Appendix .................................................................................................................................... 263 Bibliography .............................................................................................................................. 272 v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS In the course of my doctoral studies at UCLA, I have had the guidance and support of many thankful people. My deepest gratitude to my dissertation advisor, David Schaberg, is beyond description in words. It is my greatest fortune to have worked with him during the past few years. Through all of the challenges that go into the making of a dissertation, I received his constant encouragement, practical advice, and unreserved support to my research and career. It is he who helped me reconstitute my dissertation committee, sponsored my conference trips, and proofread my dissertation chapters. He is a wise, kind, and patient mentor who has spent countless hours advising me, no matter how busy he is. His insightful instructions have profoundly influenced every step and chapter of this project. Completing this dissertation would have been almost impossible without his help. I would like to express my heartfelt appreciation to Keith McMahon, who kindly agreed to join my dissertation committee and serve as its co-chair. I sincerely appreciate his extraordinary assistance in reviewing my dissertation chapter by chapter and providing perceptive advice. He has always responded to my emails promptly and commented carefully on my drafts. His interest and enthusiasm have been a continual source of inspiration. Although we have met in person only once, I am honored to be his student, since I could not have asked for a more generous and engaged advisor. I would like to extend my most special gratitude to Andrea Goldman, whom I regard as my unofficial dissertation committee co-chair. Among all my committee members, she is the only one who has witnessed and engaged in the whole process of my growth during my doctoral studies. From my preparation for the qualifying examinations and oral defense, my constitution and reconstitution of the dissertation committee, to the completion of my dissertation and vi ongoing job searches, she has always provided constructive guidance, invaluable advice, and boundless help at every step. I will never forget how her warmth and kindness shined a light on my darkest days. I am profoundly indebted to the other committee members, as well. Wu Yinghui not only read my chapters and offered excellent suggestions, but also helped me envision how to revise this dissertation into a book manuscript in the future. Shang Wei has been a generous and supportive mentor since my time studying with him at Columbia University ten years ago. I am lucky to have him serve on my dissertation committee. My eternal thanks are due also to Jack Chen, who was the committee co-chair before he left UCLA. Although he was not present during the writing of my dissertation, I will always remember his great help in reshaping my dissertation prospectus in 2016. I would not have been able to pass the oral defense without his help. I am genuinely grateful to Liu Yongqiang, my advisor at Peking University, who helped me establish a solid foundation in premodern Chinese literature and culture and who shaped this dissertation