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SUMMARY:Shifting formats\, changing priorities in the modern Chinese mater
 ia medica genre: from Zhao Yuhuang's single items to drugs in acupuncture 
 channels - Lena Springer (Needham Research Institute)
DTSTART:20170504T120000Z
DTEND:20170504T130000Z
UID:TALK72181@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Richard Staley
DESCRIPTION:Materia medica are a written genre which has a long cultural h
 istory in Chinese. It has continuously integrated vernacular names for med
 icinal materials and drugs from orally transmitted practice. Furthermore\,
  in the twentieth century\, a fundamental shift occurred in modern science
  when 'old' and 'new' studies were combined in China to list single items 
 of materia medica as an esteemed contribution to world science. Journal ar
 ticles and early reference works serve as material in Lena Springer's talk
  to demonstrate how broad the range of options for selected content in the
  scientific entries was during the Republican period until the 1930s. A se
 cond change took place when the craze for particularly Chinese medicine dr
 ugs in the 1950s added another layer to the political claims and meanings 
 attached to the materia medica entries: now scientists and historians rega
 rded the well-tried Chinese drugs as a promising model for world revolutio
 n. As a model for ethnic development anywhere\, the previously disregarded
  Chinese theory\, of acupuncture channels for instance\, returned into the
  scientific literature.
LOCATION:Seminar Room 2\, Department of History and Philosophy of Science
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