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| Title | Between Living and Non-living: Materiality of the Placenta in Ming China |
| Creator | 陳秀芬 Chen, Hsiu-fen |
| Contributor | 歷史系 |
| Key Words | placenta; human body drug; materiality; Ming China |
| Date | 2024-12 |
| Date Issued | 14-Feb-2025 10:19:58 (UTC+8) |
| Summary | This study explores materiality and material cultures of human placenta in Ming China (1368–1644), for it perfectly displays Chinese ambiguous attitudes towards the human body parts between living and non-living. For a long time, the Chinese had widely applied human body parts in medical treatments and ritual healings. Numerous evidences in relation to their collection, production, efficacy and application are widely recorded in medical works, in particular those found in materia medica. In the sixteenth century, the Bencao gangmu (Systemic Materia Medica, 1596) illustrates thirty-five “human body drugs.” Of those, the placenta was believed effective for curing illnesses, nourishing the body and prolonging life. The questions to be answered include: how is the placenta perceived in medical and religious discourses? What is its “materiality” and “efficacy” when it becomes a drug? What ethical issues and moral concerns are involved with eating the placenta? Last but not least, how was the placenta ritually buried after childbirth in premodern China? In so doing, this essay aims to provide a better understanding of the placenta situated in both material and cosmological worlds. It helps us rethink the multiple relations of human body part to part, part to whole, and body to body. |
| Relation | Berichte zur Wissenschaftsgeschichte, No.47, No.4, pp.382-395 |
| Type | article |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1002/bewi.202400002 |
| dc.contributor | 歷史系 | |
| dc.creator (作者) | 陳秀芬 | |
| dc.creator (作者) | Chen, Hsiu-fen | |
| dc.date (日期) | 2024-12 | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 14-Feb-2025 10:19:58 (UTC+8) | - |
| dc.date.available | 14-Feb-2025 10:19:58 (UTC+8) | - |
| dc.date.issued (上傳時間) | 14-Feb-2025 10:19:58 (UTC+8) | - |
| dc.identifier.uri (URI) | https://nccur.lib.nccu.edu.tw/handle/140.119/155673 | - |
| dc.description.abstract (摘要) | This study explores materiality and material cultures of human placenta in Ming China (1368–1644), for it perfectly displays Chinese ambiguous attitudes towards the human body parts between living and non-living. For a long time, the Chinese had widely applied human body parts in medical treatments and ritual healings. Numerous evidences in relation to their collection, production, efficacy and application are widely recorded in medical works, in particular those found in materia medica. In the sixteenth century, the Bencao gangmu (Systemic Materia Medica, 1596) illustrates thirty-five “human body drugs.” Of those, the placenta was believed effective for curing illnesses, nourishing the body and prolonging life. The questions to be answered include: how is the placenta perceived in medical and religious discourses? What is its “materiality” and “efficacy” when it becomes a drug? What ethical issues and moral concerns are involved with eating the placenta? Last but not least, how was the placenta ritually buried after childbirth in premodern China? In so doing, this essay aims to provide a better understanding of the placenta situated in both material and cosmological worlds. It helps us rethink the multiple relations of human body part to part, part to whole, and body to body. | |
| dc.format.extent | 102 bytes | - |
| dc.format.mimetype | text/html | - |
| dc.relation (關聯) | Berichte zur Wissenschaftsgeschichte, No.47, No.4, pp.382-395 | |
| dc.subject (關鍵詞) | placenta; human body drug; materiality; Ming China | |
| dc.title (題名) | Between Living and Non-living: Materiality of the Placenta in Ming China | |
| dc.type (資料類型) | article | |
| dc.identifier.doi (DOI) | 10.1002/bewi.202400002 | |
| dc.doi.uri (DOI) | https://doi.org/10.1002/bewi.202400002 |