Good Formulas: Empirical Evidence in Mid-Imperial Chinese Medical Texts

The strategy of documenting medical practices through personal experience rose to prominence in China between the ninth and thirteenth centuries due to a publishing boom and wider availability of medical texts. This shift allowed medical authors to convince a more socioculturally diverse readership to believe their claims and win intertextual debates with contemporaneous authors. Ruth Yun-Ju Chen's book, Good Formulas, provides new insights into the histories of medicine, knowledge production, and publishing in China and offers rich examples for scholars interested in the development of empirical evidence in the premodern world.

Format: Hardback
Length: 236 pages
Publication date: 06 June 2023
Publisher: University of Washington Press

The strategy of documenting medical practices through personal experience gained prominence in China during the ninth and thirteenth centuries. This question forms the core of Good Formulas, the first comprehensive study of the use of empirical evidence in Chinese medicine between these centuries. The emergence of this new approach to substantiating knowledge, which had previously appeared only sporadically in earlier medical literature, offers a valuable insight into the transformations in the construction of textual authority in mid-imperial China.

In her book, Ruth Yun-Ju Chen delves into medical genres and extensively analyzes notebooks (biji), which were crucial tools for recording and disseminating medical knowledge during this period. Chen demonstrates that the adoption of empirical evidence became particularly prominent during a publishing boom that made medical texts and treatises more widely accessible to a broader socioculturally diverse readership. To persuade their readers and engage in intertextual debates with contemporary authors, many Song medical authors turned to empirical methodologies.

Good Formulas reveals a fascinating correlation between publishing cultures and changes in persuasion strategies in medical genres. By examining the use of empirical evidence in Song medical literature, Chen offers fresh insights into the histories of medicine, knowledge production, and publishing in China. The book also provides valuable examples for scholars interested in the development of empirical evidence in the premodern world.

Through her meticulous research and analysis, Chen sheds light on the complex interplay between medical practices, textual authority, and cultural contexts in mid-imperial China. Her book contributes to our understanding of the historical development of empirical evidence and its significance in shaping medical knowledge and practice in the premodern era.

Weight: 522g
Dimension: 229 x 152 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780295751382