Needham Research Institute Studies. 4
A Chinese Physician - Wang Ji and the 'Stone Mountain medical case histories'
Joanna Grant
Cambridge University Press
, 2003
ISBN 0415297583
A Chinese Physician is the portrait of Wang Ji, a sixteenth-century medical writer and clinical practitioner. Three methodologies - loosely termed socioeconomic/biographic, textual analysis, and gender analysis - and a variety of sources, from hagiographical biographies to medical case histories, are used to tell three very different but complementary stories about what it was to practise medicine in sixteenth-century China.
Woven together, these stories combine to create a multi-dimensional portrayal that brings to life the very human experiences, frustrations and aspirations of a well-respected and influential physician who yet struggled to win respect from fellow practitioners and loyalty from patients. In so doing, the author creates a vibrant and colourful picture of contemporary medical practice that at the same time deepens our understanding of the interrelationship between gender culture and medicine.