755 의사학 제28권 제3호(통권 제63호) 2019년 12월 Korean J Med Hist 28ː755-786 December 2019 ⓒ대한의사학회 http://dx.doi.org/10.13081/kjmh.2019.28.755 pISSN 1225-505X, eISSN 2093-5609 A Research on the Shamanistic Medical Activities as Seen in the Recipes for Fifty-two Ailments (五十二病方) Written in the Mawangdui (馬王堆) Silk Manuscript † CHO Yongjun* 1. Introduction 2. A Brief Introduction of the Recipes for Fifty-two Ailments 3. ‘Zhuyou (祝由)’ Activities 4. ‘Zhuyichuxiong (逐疫除凶)’ Activities 5. Curing Maggots Activities 6. Conclusion 1. Introduction As early as the primitive period, in order to survive and reproduce, human beings have made unremitting efforts to prevent and treat diseases that endanger and affect human life and health. Therefore, the ancients had knowledge about the treatment of common traumatic symptoms. Many archaeological results reveal that up until and before the Shang (商) era and Zhou (周) dynasties, the identification of symptoms and causes had reached a fairly high level. On one hand, through the † I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to my two friends, Mr. Guillaume Maisonneuve and Mr. Benjamin Giaimo, for their great English translation of this article. * Assistant Professor, School of History in Renmin University of China, China / E-mail: [email protected]. 755│ 醫史學 제28권 제3호(통권 제63호) 755-786, 2019년 12월 │755 CHO Yongjun : A Research on the Shamanistic Medical Activities as Seen in the Recipes for Fifty- two Ailments (五十二病方) Written in the Mawangdui (馬王堆) Silk Manuscript accumulation of numerous successful or unsuccessful experiences, the methods of medical treatment and the social customs of health care marked, to a certain extent, the civilized development of social life at that time, and at the same time, marked the establishment and improvement of the medical system of later generations in China, laying its foundation (CHO, 2011: 322-325). Even so, due to the harsh living conditions in primitive society, poor nutrition and poor sanitation conditions, the chronic damage to human tissues was indeed very serious. In particular, when the concept of ghosts and gods was abundant, many ancient people directly attributed the causes of diseases that were not easily visible to the ghosts and gods of the natural world. Therefore, the ancients used various means to appease the ghosts, or to please them with sacrifices, or to dispel their discontent with pious repentance, or to express their submission to please them, or to exorcise the ghosts with certain ceremonies. At that time, the task was accomplished by the means of a medium that could perform communication between human beings and ghosts, i.e. the power of shamans (巫者) (Michael, 2015: 649-696; CHO, 2004a: 167-182; 2011b: 49-58).1) In ancient times, shamanism (巫術) and medicine were indiscriminate. Due to human beings regarded ghosts as the cause for diseases, they used shamans as intermediaries between the former and the latter. They hoped that shamans would practice medicine and appease the ghosts 1) Michael, Thomas has put forward penetrating opinions on the translation of ‘shaman’ and ‘shamanism’ by ancient Chinese ‘wu (巫者)’ and ‘wushu (巫術)’ in his articles on “Shamanism Theory and the Early Chinese Wu”. Even so, according to the CHO’s previous research results, the following is a direct translation of ancient Chinese ‘wu’ and ‘wushu’ into the word ‘shaman’ and ‘shamanism’. 756│ 醫史學 CHO Yongjun : A Research on the Shamanistic Medical Activities as Seen in the Recipes for Fifty- two Ailments (五十二病方) Written in the Mawangdui (馬王堆) Silk Manuscript so as to eliminate diseases. Therefore, when performing a ritual of healing shamanism, the shaman often made full use of his own solution to perform this medical shamanism. With this concept, medicine and shamanism, or medical treatment and shamanism were closely combined, and medical psychology and shamanistic psychology were also naturally combined. Seeking medication and a shaman were therefore unified medical activities (Hsu, 1995: 506). Even so, in the Eastern Zhou (東周) Dynasty, the ancients gradually broke away from the superstitious concept of relying on shamans (CHO, 2011: 284-293), and took acupuncture, moxibustion and medicine as main medical treatments methods, resulting in the later generations’ emergence of medical professionalization and famous doctors (CHO, 2013: 17-25), such as Yi Huan (醫緩), Yi He (醫和), Bian Que (扁鵲), and Wen Zhi (文摯). Nevertheless, the medical knowledge of the Zhou Dynasty was still an embryonic form of Chinese medicine. It was simple and naive, mixed science with falsehood, and interwoven with shamanism belief. Nevertheless, ‘wuyi (巫醫)’ of that time pioneered and expanded the medical field, playing an important role in Chinese medicine (CHO, 2010a: 322-325; 2011b: 127-147). This paper discusses the main content of shamanistic medical activities as seen in the Recipes for Fifty-two Ailments written in the Mawangdui Silk Manuscript, based on the recent reorganization and publication of Changsha Mawangdui Han Tomb Bamboo and Silk Integration (長沙馬王 堆漢墓簡帛集成), Recipes for Fifty-two Ailments (Volume No. 5) (Qiu et al, 2014), and corroborates it with various traditional documents of early China and other unearthed documents. The shamanistic medical activities seen in the Recipes for Fifty-two Ailments written in the Mawangdui 제28권 제3호(통권 제63호) 755-786, 2019년 12월 │757 CHO Yongjun : A Research on the Shamanistic Medical Activities as Seen in the Recipes for Fifty- two Ailments (五十二病方) Written in the Mawangdui (馬王堆) Silk Manuscript Silk Manuscript contain details about the shamanistic ‘zhuyou’ medical activities, the ‘zhuyichuxiong’ activities and curing maggots activities. Here are some examples facilitating the understanding. 2. A Brief Introduction of the Recipes for Fifty-two Ailments Mawangdui is located outside the Wulipai (五里牌) in the eastern suburb of Changsha City (長沙市) in Hunan Province (湖南省). Since 1972, tombs No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 have been excavated one after the other. The Mawangdui Silk Manuscript was found in Tomb No. 3 in a rectangular lacquer box which had been folded and rolled for a long time and had been damaged. The Mawangdui Silk Manuscript is a 48-centimeter high and 85-centimeter wide ink book. The content of this Mawangdui Silk Manuscript, according to the classification of Hanshu (漢書), Yiwenzhi (藝文志), is widely related to ‘Liuyi (六藝)’, ‘Zhuzi (諸子)’, ‘Bingshu (兵 書)’, ‘Shushu (數術)’, ‘Fangji (方技)’ and others (Liu, 2004: 48-61). Among them, in ‘Fangji’, most of texts are rich in details about early Chinese medicine, thus can be used as reference about the development of Chinese medicine in the Pre-Qin Period (Ma, 2005: 277; Liu, 2004: 103- 112). Their main content include internal medicine, surgery, moxibustion, massage and so on. They reflect the medical achievements of the Warring States Period, which mostly reflects the various medical thinking modes of the ancients in the Pre-Qin Period, and most of them belong to the works of Pre-Qin China (Zhao, 1983: 25; Ma, 1992a: 22-23; 2005b: 277).2) Found especially in the Recipes for Fifty-two Ailments, ‘Fangji’ section, 2) According to the research results of the predecessors, the author treats it as the Pre-Qin literature in the narration of this article. 758│ 醫史學 CHO Yongjun : A Research on the Shamanistic Medical Activities as Seen in the Recipes for Fifty- two Ailments (五十二病方) Written in the Mawangdui (馬王堆) Silk Manuscript although there is no title at all, the basic format of the text is that before each disease is first written its name, and then various prescriptions or other therapies are recorded separately. There are fifty-two titles, which are consistent with the manuscript ‘fan 52 (凡五十二)’ in the first volume. The book is about 500 lines and 11,000 words long. It is copied on an about 24-centimeter high and 45-centimeter long area. It is not very well preserved. This manuscript covers 103 cases, 283 prescriptions and 247 medicines. This manuscript is the oldest medical prescription document in China (Qiu et al, 2014: 213-214; Lu and Liao, 1998: 85-86). Some scholars participated in the research on the shamanistic medical activities seen in the Recipes for Fifty-two Ailments written in the Mawangdui Silk Manuscript, and some of their research results mentioned relevant issues (Harper, 1983; Liu, 2004; Li, 2005: 73-76; Ma, 1992a; Ma, 2005b; Li, 2008: 30-33; Liu and Jia, 2009: 173-176; Qiu et al, 2014; Chen, 2018: 94-97; Lin, 2019). However, these studies still lack comprehensive and systematic in-depth research, and there are still no research results to investigate its specific characteristics alone. Therefore, based on the previous research results, the author tries to make a systematic discussion on the shamanistic medical activities as seen in the Recipes for Fifty-two Ailments written in the Mawangdui Silk Manuscript. In addition, the evolution of Chinese medicine begins with shamanism, later the mixture of shamanism and medicine appear, and then the separation of shamanism and medicine begins (Chen, 1954: 7-10). As mentioned above, the Recipes for Fifty-two Ailments written in the Mawangdui Silk Manuscript truly reflect the development level of clinical medicine and prescription pharmacy in Pre-Qin era of China, as well as some contents of shamanistic medical activities. Therefore, it is necessary 제28권 제3호(통권 제63호) 755-786, 2019년 12월 │759 CHO Yongjun : A Research on the Shamanistic Medical Activities as Seen in the Recipes for Fifty- two Ailments (五十二病方) Written in the Mawangdui (馬王堆) Silk Manuscript to discuss the content of shamanistic medical activities as seen in the Recipes for Fifty-two Ailments written in the Mawangdui Silk Manuscript in order to understand the embryonic stage of early Chinese medicine. 3. ‘Zhuyou (祝由)’ Activities The ‘zhuyou’ shamanistic activities are ancient Chinese medicine techniques using a prayer charm.