Magic Matters: Engaging with Nathan Sivin on the History of Divination, Medicine, and Popular Religion in China

Abstract

In this essay, the author seeks to highlight some of the many ways that Nathan Sivin’s academic work and personal advice have helped to shape his current book project, titled Magic Matters: Science and Medicine in Chinese Popular Culture, 1800 to 1850). Smith’s essay discusses the conceptual framework of Magic Matters, focusing on the ways that Chinese commoners perceived, represented, and understood the natural world, in all of its variety and complexity. It identifies the historical and cultural context in which traditional Chinese medicine and the mantic arts flourished, even after the introduction of new scientific and medical ideas and practices from the West and Japan post-1850. Along the way, Smith identifies a number of Asian and Western scholars who, together with Sivin, have done extremely productive and stimulating work on Chinese science, medicine and technology. He also provides bibliographical suggestions for further China-focused and comparative research on these topics.