Healing with Poisons: Potent Medicines in Medieval China

During China's pharmacy formative era (200–800 CE), poisons were used as healing agents to cure illnesses. "Healing with Poisons" explores how physicians, religious devotees, court officials, and laypeople used powerful substances to treat intractable illnesses and enhance life. It illustrates how the Chinese concept of "du" led practitioners to devise techniques to transform dangerous poisons into efficacious medicines. The study cautions against arbitrary classifications and emphasizes the importance of paying attention to the technical, political, and cultural conditions in which substances become meaningful.

Format: Hardback
Length: 276 pages
Publication date: 27 June 2021
Publisher: University of Washington Press

Medicine and poison may appear to be opposing forces at first glance, but during China's formative era of pharmacy (200–800 CE), poisons were strategically employed as healing agents to treat a wide range of ailments, from chills to pains to epidemics. Healing with Poisons delves into the fascinating ways physicians, religious devotees, court officials, and laypeople utilized powerful substances to not only alleviate intractable illnesses but also enhance overall well-being. It showcases how the Chinese concept of "du," which encompasses a core meaning of "potency," guided practitioners to develop diverse techniques to transform dangerous poisons into effective medicines.

The book explores scandals and controversies surrounding poisons from the Era of Division to the early Tang period, shedding light on how the concept of "du" played a central role in the medieval Chinese perception of both their bodies and the body politic. Yan Liu also examines a diverse range of "du"-possessing minerals, plants, and animal products in classical Chinese pharmacy, including the highly poisonous herb aconite and the popular arsenic drug Five-Stone Powder. By recovering alternative modes of understanding wellness and the body's interaction with potent medicines, this study cautions against arbitrary classifications and emphasizes the significance of considering the technical, political, and cultural contexts in which substances acquire true meaning.

Healing with Poisons is freely accessible in an open-access edition thanks to TOME (Toward an Open Monograph Ecosystem) and the generous support of the University at Buffalo Libraries. The book's DOI is 10.6069/9780295749013.

Weight: 544g
Dimension: 229 x 152 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780295749006