Grasping Heaven and Earth(Qian Kun Zai Wo):The Body-as-Technology in Classical Chinese Medicine

作     者：Marta Hanson Marta Hanson

作者机构：Independent ScholarAffiliate Max Planck Institute for the History of ScienceBerlin 14195Germany 

出 版 物：《中医药文化(英文)》 (Chinese Medicine and Culture)

年 卷 期：2023年第6卷第3期

页      面：233-246页

学科分类：1005[医学-中医学] 1002[医学-临床医学] 100501[医学-中医基础理论] 0712[理学-科学技术史(分学科，可授理学、工学、农学、医学学位)] 10[医学] 

基　　金：International Consortium for Research in the Humanities(IKJF),University of Erlangen-Nürnberg(2011-2012,2014,2016) Elizabeth and J.Richardson Dilworth Fellow,Institute for Advanced Study,Princeton(2017-2018) National Endowment for Humanities Fellowship,US Government(2019) Visiting Scholar,Max Planck Institute for the History of Science,Berlin(2021-2022) 

主　　题：Arts of memory Body-as-technology Extended cognition Hand mnemonics 

摘      要：Shifting focus from the patient’s body to the healer’s body,this essay focuses on how Chinese physicians instrumentalized their bodies to heal(ie,body-as-technology)and their hands to think with(ie,hand-memory techniques or simply,hand mnemonics).When physicians used their hands to memorize concepts related to clinical practice,calculate with time variables,and carry out ritual gestures intended to reduce risk,improve fortune,and even cure,their hands became extensions of their *** essay has three parts that follow the discovery process of the author’s research on hand-memory techniques found in Chinese medical *** first part“Divination and Revelationexplains the significance of how the author first learned about Chinese divination practices that used hand *** second part“Original Frameintroduces the scholarship on arts of memory in Europe that informed interpretations of the earliest hand mnemonics found in Chinese medical *** third part“Expanded Framedeploys some concepts from cognitive science to help situate Chinese medical hand mnemonics more broadly as an example of extended *** essay concludes with an important distinction:sometimes Chinese healers’hands were used separately from their bodies to think through things and sometimes hand and body had to be integrated in order for the healer’s body-as-technology to act as a therapeutically effective instrument.