Chinese Medicine in Early Communist China, 1945-1963: A Medicine of Revolution

by Kim Taylor

Overview

Using original sources, this significant text looks at the transformation of Chinese medicine from a marginal, side-lined medical practice of the early twentieth century, to an essential and high-profile part of the national health-care system under the Chinese Communist Party. The political, economic and social motives which drove this promotion are analyzed and the extraordinary role that Chinese medicine was meant to play in Mao Zedong's revolution is fully explored for the first time, making a major contribution to the history of Chinese medicine.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780415345125
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	12/09/2004
Series:	Needham Research Institute Series
Pages:	252
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

About the Author

Kim Taylor is an affiliated scholar at the Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge. Her research interests include the history of disease, medicine and the imperial world and nineteenth and twentieth-century Chinese medicine.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements Introduction 1. A New, Scientific and Unified Medicine: Civil War in China and the New Acupuncture, 1945-1949 2. Pathway for the New Medicine: The Unification of Chinese and Western Medicine, 1949-1953 3. Modernising the Old: The Creation of a 'Traditional' Chinese Medicine, 1953-1956 4. Establishing a National Treasure Trove of TCM: The Standardisation of Chinese Medicine, 1957-1963 Conclusion

Editorial Reviews

'Kim Taylor's book, Chinese Medicine in Early Communist China, is a gratifying addition to the list of genuinely new historical studies.' - China Quarterly

'Taylor has written a significant work thath makes real contributions to our understanding of changing pedagogic and therapeutic practices in Chinese medicine.' - China Journal

'The first coherent analysis of non-"Western" medicine in the People's Republic ... a welcome contribution to a timely topic, of high academic standard and succinctly written in accessible language.' - Asian Affairs

What Taylor offers is a dense descriptive investigation illuminating the
dimensions of political rhetoric within the processes of the development and
canonization of medical knowledge in the early years of the People’s Republic of
China. - Angelika C. Messner

From the Publisher