Medicine, Disease, and the Body in East Asia

Catalog description

This course focuses on theoretical and applied medical knowledge as it developed in ancient China, spread to Japan and Korea, and developed over time to the modern era. The course also examines the closely related topics of evolving concepts of the human body and responses to outbreaks of epidemic disease. Course participants will examine the social and scientific contexts of East Asian medicine, and relationships between medical theory and practice and the natural environment and major religious traditions. Students will explore the multiple approaches that historians have taken in interpreting East Asian medical history and will consider how such approaches shape the production and reception of historical scholarship.