Healing with Poisons
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Healing with Poisons Healing with Poisons Potent Medicines in Medieval China Yan Liu University of Washington Press Seattle Healing with Poisons was made possible in part by a grant from the Traditional Chinese Culture and Society Book Fund, established through generous gifs from Patricia Buckley Ebrey and Tomas Ebrey. Additional support was provided by grants from the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange and the Julian Park Publication Fund of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University at Bufalo. Tis book is freely available in an open access edition thanks to TOME (Toward an Open Monograph Ecosystem)—a collaboration of the Association of American Universities, the Association of University Presses, and the Association of Research Libraries—and the generous support of the University at Bufalo Libraries. Learn more at the TOME website, available at: openmonographs.org. Copyright © 2021 by Yan Liu Te digital edition of this book may be downloaded and shared under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives 4.0 international license (CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0). For information about this license, see https://creativecommons .org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0. Tis license applies only to content created by the author, not to separately copyrighted material. To use this book, or parts of this book, in any way not covered by the license, please contact University of Washington Press. Design by Katrina Noble Composed in Minion Pro, typeface designed by Robert Slimbach 25 24 23 22 21 5 4 3 2 1 Printed and bound in the United States of America University of Washington Press uwapress.uw.edu Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Liu, Yan (Cultural historian) author. Title: Healing with poisons : potent medicines in medieval China / Yan Liu. Description: Seattle : University of Washington Press, [2021] | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifers: LCCN 2020052168 (print) | LCCN 2020052169 (ebook) | isbn 9780295749006 (hardcover) | isbn 9780295748993 (paperback) | isbn 9780295749013 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Medicine, Chinese. | Traditional medicine. Classifcation: LCc R601 .L583 2021 (print) | LCc R601 (ebook) | DDC 610.951—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020052168 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020052169 Te paper used in this publication is acid free and meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ansi z39.48–1984.∞ To Yige Contents Acknowledgments ix Chronology of Dynasties xiii Introduction 3 Part I. Malleable Medicines Chapter 1. Te Paradox of Du 19 Chapter 2. Transforming Poisons 39 Part II. Knowledge, Authority, and Practice Chapter 3. Fighting Poison with Poison 61 Chapter 4. Medicines in Circulation 81 Chapter 5. Medicines in Practice 105 Part III. Enhancing the Body Chapter 6. Alluring Stimulant 127 Chapter 7. Dying to Live 147 Conclusion 168 Glossary of Chinese Characters 177 Notes 183 Bibliography 219 Index 245 Acknowledgments During the decade-long making of this book, I was fortunate to have had many people who helped me professionally and personally along the way. In the early stages of this project, I benefted immensely from guidance from Shigehisa Kuriyama for his comparative insight and poetic sensibility, Kath- arine Park for teaching me the history of European medicine, and James Robson for his expertise in Chinese religions (all at Harvard University). Tese excellent scholars and kind human beings helped me build a solid foundation for this project. Other scholars in Chinese history and the history of medicine have played a key role in my intellectual growth and the development of this book. Miranda Brown ignited my interest in the history of Chinese medicine when I was studying at the University of Michigan, and has since been a solid sup- port for my scholarly pursuit. TJ Hinrichs has provided much insight into this project and various opportunities to help develop my career. Marta Han- son has been very generous in ofering her time and expertise, especially during the later stages of the project. I am also indebted to Li Jianmin, whose expertise in Chinese medical history yielded invaluable advice. During my writing and revision of this book, I benefted greatly from many colleagues’ help and support. Fan Ka-wai, Chen Hao, and He Bian read the entire manuscript and ofered critical suggestions to improve the book. Kris- tin Stapleton, Gianna Pomata, and Lan Li also read various chapters of the manuscript and gave useful comments. I also received excellent feedback from Michael Stanley-Baker, Chen Yun-ju, and Dolly Yang, the nucleus of a decade- long online reading group that I enjoyed greatly. I also appreciate the con- versations and correspondence with many colleagues that in various ways ix x Acknowledgments helped me identify new directions and articulate my arguments for the book, and here I especially thank Chen Ming, Hsiao-wen Cheng, Constance Cook, Jeremy Greene, David Herzberg, Sean Hsiang-lin Lei, Liao Yuqun, Liu Xiaomeng, Margaret Wee Siang Ng, Michael Puett, Laurent Sagart, Nathan Sivin, Shao-yun Yang, Yanhua Zhang, and Zheng Jinsheng. I am also grateful to Elaine Leong and Pierce Salguero for ofering me the opportunities to share my discoveries with public audiences at the Recipes Project and Asian Medi- cine Zone, respectively. In the past years, I have presented sections of the book at various conferences, including the Association for Asian Studies (AAS) Annual Conference, the International Congress of History of Science and Technology (ICHST), the American Academy of Religion (AAR) Annual Meeting, and the Interna- tional Conference on the History of Science in East Asia (ICHSEA). I am grateful for all the insightful comments from the audiences. In addition, I presented chapters of the book at the University of Rochester, Johns Hopkins University, and Binghamton University, and I thank Sarah Higley, Laura Smoller, Marta Hanson, Tobie Meyer-Fong, and Meg Leja for their kind invi- tation and hospitality. Research and writing of this book have been generously supported by a number of institutions and fellowships. A Frederick Sheldon Traveling Fel- lowship at Harvard University (2012–13) supported my one-year research at the British Library, the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, and Academia Sinica to collect research material and interact with experts in the feld. In particular, my thanks go to Vivienne Lo, Catherine Despeux, and Li Jianmin for kindly hosting me at these various institutions. Te Andrew W. Mellon Foundation supported a wonderful year of postdoctoral fellowship at the Jackman Humanities Institute of the University of Toronto, where I had vibrant conversations with colleagues that extended my knowledge of mate- rial culture studies beyond premodern Chinese history. I thank the entire cohort, including the director Robert Gibbs and my postdoctoral peers Matt Cohn, Chris Dingwall, Peter Jones, Eugenia Kisin, Gabriel Levine, and Rasheed Tazudeen, for the stimulating exchanges and fun time together. Spe- cial thanks go to Nicholas Everett and Yiching Wu, who helped me navigate my research at the University of Toronto. Other scholars in the Department of East Asian Studies, including Linda Rui Feng, Yue Meng, and Yurou Zhong, provided intellectual fodder to the development of this project. Acknowledgments xi I have an excellent academic base in the Department of History at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Bufalo. Te department has provided a supportive and congenial environment for junior scholars to fourish. I thank Victoria Wolcott and Erik Seeman for cultivating such an environment, and am particularly grateful for mentorship from Kristin Stapleton, whose gen- erosity and kind heart have made my life in Bufalo enjoyable. Other col- leagues in the department and beyond, including David Herzberg, James Bono, Susan Cahn, Ndubueze Mbah, and Walter Hakala, helped me think through the project at its various stages of development. Michael Kicey pro- vided critical help with library resources at Bufalo. A Humanities Institute Faculty Research Fellowship and a College of Arts and Sciences Junior Fac- ulty Research Fellowship at Bufalo ofered me a much-needed one-year research leave to complete the manuscript. In addition, the Dr. Nuala McGann Drescher Diversity and Inclusion Leave Program at SUNY gave me a one- semester teaching release to fnish the revision of the manuscript on time. Te completion of this book would have been much harder without such generous support. At the University of Washington Press (UWP), Lorri Hagman has ofered superb editorship that assured the smooth publication of the book. I appreci- ate her confdence in this project and her professional help at every step of the process. I thank the two anonymous reviewers who ofered constructive feed- back to improve the manuscript. I am indebted to Oriana Walker, a fellow historian of medicine, who ofered excellent substantive suggestions and edi- torial help in the fnal stage of revision. Richard Isaac excellently copyedited the manuscript. Susan Stone professionally prepared the index and Judy Loeven helpfully read through the page proofs to eliminate errors. I also appreciate Margaret Sullivan’s support during my proofreading of the manu- script, and the suggestion from Beth Fuget who, in collaboration with Chris- topher Hollister at Bufalo, steered me through the process of producing the open-access edition of the book. My special thanks go to the University at Bufalo Libraries, which generously funded the subvention for publishing the open-access edition. In addition, I appreciate that the Library of Congress, the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, and Wenwu Press granted permission to use their images in the book. Ben Pease ofered crucial help to create the map. Te publication of the book was generously supported by xii Acknowledgments grants from the Traditional Chinese Culture and Society Book Fund, the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange, and the Julian Park Publication Fund of the College of Arts and Sciences at Bufalo.