The study of medicine in ancient China is as important as it is challenging. The period witnessed the inception of Chinese medical tradition and the establishment of its foundational theories and techniques, yet our understanding of the early development of Chinese medicine is constrained by limited and fragmented sources. In recent decades, the field has been developing rapidly thanks to the discovery of newly excavated manuscripts and the deployment of new historiographical tools for textual analsis. This allows historians of medicine to produce new findings in diverse domains, including the origins of acupuncture and mo k, the experience of the body, and the interplay between medicine and occult culture (Yamada 1998; Li 2001; Kuriyama 1999; Harper 1998). Chin Shih-ch'i's Medicine, Medical History, and Politics in Ancient China (Zhongguo gudai de yixue yishi yu zhengzhi, one of the latest achievements in the field, moves to a new direction by exploring the discursive function of ancient medical writings with an emphasis on the role of politics in these texts.
