The embodiment and enactment of shen 神 in the Huangdi neijing 《黃帝內經》 by contemporary healers (yi 醫)
The modern history of medicine in China is disposed to position Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) as a feudal tradition if not an afterthought. If the republicans of modern China had their way, Traditional Chinese Medicine would have been relegated to the various curios in museums (Hsu 2008; Lei 2014; Unschuld 2018). That tendency is reflective of early struggles by the disparate practitioners of Chinese Medicine to have the medical practice hold its own in modern China, and to offer itself not as a mere historical artefact but as a living albeit evolving and effective alternative and complement to modern medicine. However, its modern history remains highly contested (Lei 2014, 18). In the process of attempting to legitimise its practice, the practitioners of Chinese Medicine began to re-read some of the medical classics such as the Huangdi neijing 《黃帝內經》 (HDNJ), variously translated as ‘Huang Di’s Inner Classic’ (Unschuld, Tessenow, and Zheng 2011a) or ‘Yellow Emperor’s Canon of Medicine’ (Li and Liu 2005), in terms of modern medicine. One of the longstanding ideas from the HDNJ is the imperative for healers (yi 醫) to view and give primacy to shen 神. The latter idea is equated with ‘mental health’ in a number of anglophone textbooks on TCM, which I disagree with. The main aim of this research is to examine if and how present-day CM practitioners (yi 醫) embody and enact the shen 神in the HDNJ. In order to fulfil that aim, I structured the components of my research accordingly, to: i. examine the significance and nuances of the standalone term, ‘shen 神’, in the HDNJ; ii. compare and contrast ‘shen 神’ with contemporary TCM interpretations, by authors of TCM textbooks and manuals in English, as well as practitioners; iii. investigate the understanding of ‘shen 神’ by some contemporary CM practitioners (yi 醫), and compare it with some of the ideas about ‘shen 神’ in the HDNJ; and, building on these, to iv. explore the embodiment and enactment of shen 神 in the clinical practice of said practitioners (yi 醫). The contribution of this research bridges the divide between a philosophical understanding of Chinese Medicine, in particular, of shen 神 in the HDNJ, and the practice of healers (yi 醫) to better incorporate such philosophical inquiry in their work.
Chinese Medicine, Huangdi neijing 《黃帝內經》, shen 神, yi 醫, enacting theory, physicians, healers, process thinking, praxis, spirit, practice, Traditional Chinese Medicine, TCM clinical practice, practitioners
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