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Chinese Medicine in Early Communist China, 1945-1963: A Medicine of Revolution (Needham Research Institute Series) 1st Edition

by Kim Taylor (Author)
4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 4 ratings
See all formats and editions
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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.
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  1. ISBN-10
    041534512X
  2. ISBN-13
    978-0415345125
  3. Edition
    1st
  4. Publisher
    Routledge
  5. Publication date
    December 9, 2004
  6. Part of series
    Needham Research Institute
  7. Language
    English
  8. Dimensions
    6.36 x 0.67 x 9.46 inches
  9. Print length
    252 pages
  10. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

'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



'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

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.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Routledge; 1st edition (December 9, 2004)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 252 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 041534512X
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0415345125
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.25 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.36 x 0.67 x 9.46 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 4 ratings

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Kim Taylor

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4.3 out of 5 stars
4 global ratings

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Top reviews from the United States

  • pin-chen yang
    4.0 out of 5 stars Eye opening reading experience!
    Reviewed in the United States on June 4, 2024
    Verified Purchase
    Recommend to one who is interested in Chinese medicine but confused by its theories and diagnostic system. Will feel relieved after reading this book .
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  • dopeybrowndog
    5.0 out of 5 stars Finally, the truth emerges
    Reviewed in the United States on October 26, 2005
    Verified Purchase
    For the past several decades, westerners have been exposed to the great "promise" of what has been termed "traditional Chinese medicine," (TCM). Kim Taylor's book is a thorough, readable, dispassionate and historical account of the evolution of this great charade. TCM is convincingly shown to be a modern invention, one that is being rejected by the modern Chinese, even as has been embraced by some westerners who have bought into the concept. It is mandatory reading for anyone with an interest in the field.
    11 people found this helpful
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  • Rhandhali
    5.0 out of 5 stars One Of the Only Useful Books on TCM
    Reviewed in the United States on April 30, 2012
    Dr. Taylor has put together one of the most important books on "traditional" Chinese "medicine" in English. TCM has been creeping into the public consciousness, insidiously at first and now more blatantly than ever. TCM is portrayed as an ancient system of medical precepts dating back thousands of years, perhaps the oldest continually used therapeutic modality. This appeal to antiquity, combined with a bit of orientalist mystique has made it very appealing and increasingly popular outside of China. This book is a brilliantly researched treatise on the true origins of TCM. The upshot is that it's definitely not traditional and it's definitely Chinese.

    A mishmash of folk traditions based on humoral philosophical precepts that have more in common with Aleister Crowley or Arthur Waite than with Louis Pasteur or Noguchi Hideyo, TCM turns out to be little more than a Party creation. TCM is a purely modern fabrication. A reasonable western analogue would be to take the works of Hippocrates and Galen, treated them as the be all end all of medical knowledge and then built a medical system out of them, calling it "Traditional Western Medicine".

    The core argument of Taylor's book is that TCM really isn't all that traditional. China was bereft of a functional medical system after over two decades of civil war and foreign occupation. An entire generation grew up under a grossly damaged medical infrastructure. In an effort to provide basic medical services in an act of sheer desperation the Chinese government was was forced to turn to the various herbalists, bonesetters and shamans that practiced folk medicine in the countryside. There were a handful of scientifically trained personnel on hand but their number was vanishingly small at the time. So, the decision was made to bring in the quacks and try to systematize their training and begin to inject more scientific, evidence based medical practice. Basic things like germ theory, sterile technique, anatomy and so forth.

    Somewhere along the way, however, things went wrong. Thus was born TCM, an unholy abomination of pre-scientific philosophy and a scientific drive to systematize, to catalog and modernize. Instead of turning the quacks into real doctors, the quacks took over and organized their collective practices into what we now know as TCM. It's something that resembles neither what it came from nor what it was intended to be. Party politics are to blame, in part, but so are strong anti-Western feelings following both the civil war and the Sino-Soviet split. To the government, the valuable part of TCM was the C, not the M. There were enough quacks to inflict one on very village, there weren't enough doctors or nurses, it was as simple as that.

    So emerges TCM, a centrally approved mishmash of dead ideas whose entire basis of practice has nothing to do with anatomy, physiology, microbiology, genetics, microbiology or reality in general as we now understand it. A few needles here, some cups there and a bunch of dried plants mashed together, all done according to Party approved texts and you have a treatment system. TCM survives the Cultural Revolution largely intact because, even though it is really a Fifth Old, it still had the aura of being "Chinese" and was sufficiently different on the surface from its superstitious roots for Red Guards to worry more about the hidden rightists than government approved quacks.

    The only faults that I can give this book is that is one, it's a little dry for a lay audience. This is unfortunate as Taylor has an important message that should be disseminated. The other is that the book doesn't take a hard stance on TCM as medicine. This might be beyond the scope of the book, but it would be telling and quite useful to define exactly how spectacularly TCM has failed as a medical system. It's been a phenomenal commercial and political enterprise - this book leaves no doubts as to that.
    3 people found this helpful
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  • Grieve Hardie
    5.0 out of 5 stars TCM Unserstood
    Reviewed in the United States on October 26, 2010
    TCM is misunderstood. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is 60 years old (Taylor, 2005). TCM aims to synthesise aspects of so-called traditional Chinese medical ideas and practices with scientific methodology. Chinese/western, TCM/WM, traditional/modern are thus false dichotomies and 'TCM is different to western medicine (whatever "it" is) and therefore misunderstood...yet in some cases supported by it' is not valid.
    2 people found this helpful
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