Lo, Vivienne;
(2023)
Looms of Life:
Weaving a New Medical Imaginary.
Asian Medicine
, 18
(1-2)
pp. 148-166.
10.1163/15734218-12341531.
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Abstract
The classics of Chinese medicine are redolent with allusions to weaving as they describe a new imperial anatomy and physiology of the medical body. The superior physician in the Yellow Emperor’s corpus manipulated ji 機, the trigger mechanisms at strategic points on the surface of the body, which provided remote relief from the symptoms of illness. Through stimulating these points, medical practice with needle and moxibustion could control the many spirits that inhabited the body, weaving them into a numinous fabric. This paper explores the spatiotemporal geographies of meaning expressed in the manuscripts and artifacts excavated at the Laoguanshan tomb sites. In particular, an analysis of the medical texts, models of mechanical pattern shaft looms, and a tiny lacquered medical figurine recovered there suggest that local translational knowledge transfer between medicine, weaving, and water technologies occurred in the upper reaches of the Yangzi Valley. The resulting innovations were at the heart of a new imperial Chinese medicine.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Looms of Life: Weaving a New Medical Imaginary |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1163/15734218-12341531 |
| Publisher version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/15734218-12341531 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the CC BY 4.0 license, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
| Keywords: | Medical innovation; Yangzi Valley; weaving and medicine; looms; acupuncture channels; body as machine |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS > Dept of History |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10186187 |
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