The Global Circulation of Chinese Materia Medica, 1700-1949

A Microhistory of the Caterpillar Fungus
2023
ISBN: 978-3-031-24725-5
Verlag: Springer Nature Switzerland

Buch, Englisch, 294 Seiten, Format (B × H): 148 mm x 210 mm, Gewicht: 401 g

Reihe: Medicine and Biomedical Sciences in Modern History

This book explores the dissemination of knowledge around Chinese medicinal substances from the eighteenth to twentieth centuries in a global context. The author presents a microhistory of the caterpillar fungus, a natural, medicinal substance initially used by Tibetans no later than the fifteenth century and later assimilated into Chinese materia medica from the eighteenth century onwards. Tracing the transmission of the caterpillar fungus from China to France, Britain, Russia and Japan, the book investigates the tensions that existed between prevailing Chinese knowledge and new European ideas about the caterpillar fungus. Emerging in eighteenth and nineteenth-century Europe, these ideas eventually reached communities of scientists, physicians and other intellectuals in Japan and China. Seeking to examine why the caterpillar fungus engaged the attention of so many scientific communities across the globe, the author offers a transnational perspective on the making of modern Europeannatural history and Chinese materia medica.

Zielgruppe

Research

Autoren/Hrsg.

Lu, Di

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Asiatische Geschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Wissenschafts- und Universitätsgeschichte
• Medizin | Veterinärmedizin Medizin | Public Health | Pharmazie | Zahnmedizin Medizin, Gesundheitswesen Geschichte der Medizin

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1. Introduction.- 2. The Spread of a Sino-Tibetan Marvel.- 3. The Caterpillar Fungus Travels Overseas.- 4. The Caterpillar Fungus Teases.- 5. New Caterpillar Fungus Emerges and Negotiates.- 6. Conclusion.

Über Autor(innen)

Di Lu is a historian of medicine and modern science. He studied at the University of Kent and University College London, and served as a Thomas Arthur Arnold Fellow, Dan David Scholar, and Zvi Yavetz Fellow at Tel Aviv University. His research explores the transnational history of medicine and natural history, with a specific focus on cross-cultural exchanges of medicinal substances and species between East Asia and the West from the eighteenth to twentieth centuries.