Confucian Medicine: A Medical Handbook of 19th Century England

Abstract

This article takes the "A Medical Handbook" as an example to try to reveal how Western missionaries and Chinese translators jointly translated Western medical knowledge when it was introduced into the East during the 19th century. In this process, the fusion of Chinese and Western medical knowledge led to the Chinese version of A Medical Handbook. Not only did Western missionaries unilaterally promote their medical knowledge, but Chinese local elites also played an indispensable role in the dissemination of Western medical knowledge. In the early days of Western knowledge spreading into China, Western medical knowledge was incorporated into the knowledge pedigree of traditional Chinese medicine to a certain extent, which enabled the Chinese public to accept the use of Western medicine. The collision between Chinese and Western cultures at the level of medical knowledge affected the integration of Western medical knowledge systems into the local Chinese medical knowledge system.