COLLECTION NAME:
National Palace English
Record
Work ID:
M01E00182
Title:
The Village Doctor
Creation Date:
Song Dynasty
Start Year Date:
A.D.960
End Year Date:
A.D.1279
Dynasty:
39 Song Dynasty (A.D. 960~1279)
Creator:
Li Tang
Creation Place:
China
Measurements:
68.8 x 58.7 cm
Material:
Ink and color on silk
Form:
Li-zhou (hanging scroll)
Type:
Painting
Subject:
Figure
Repository:
The National Palace Museum, Taipei
Description:
In ancient cultures illness was always a major concern for people. Thus, techniques for fighting illness emerged quite early. One remedy was to engage the services of a shaman who used prayer and incantations to dispel evil spirits that caused the sickness. But following the maturing of rational thought and experience, people began discovering little by little that medicines proved more effective than prayers or incantations. Thus, pharmacology developed, and from then on shamans and doctors no longer were one and the same thing.After the period of the Tang and Song Dynasties and with the added participation of the government, the accumulation of clinical experience in traditional Chinese medicine-that is, all the medical knowledge in the form of diagnoses, treatments, and prescriptions-began to be systematically organized and published. Given the wealth of traditional Chinese medical texts, the accomplishments in this field are considerable.The Village Doctor vividly records the traditional Chinese medicinal process of preparing wormwood.
ImageV ID:
M01E00182AS001
Rights:
Lee & Lee Communications