History Course - Medicine and Healing in China

Episode Description: What is acupuncture from a historical context? How has medicine in China evolved over the past 3,000 years? TJ Hinrichs is a Harvard Ph.D educated, Cornell University Associate Professor, who teaches classes on the history of Chinese Medicine in China. Her newest book, Chinese Medicine and Healing: An illustrated History, covers those topics and so much more. We get to pick her brain (much much larger than our collective brains at Yin Yang Podcast) for about an hour today!

"The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it."
---Terry Pratchett

TJ Hinrichs

TJ Hinrichs and Linda Barnes have written THE book about the history of Chinese Medicine. In it are the treasures of Chinese medical history. Its origins, its thoughts, its fears, and its answer to widespread epidemics are covered in incredible detail with fascinating facts that many of us never learned in school. Or more exactly, never even heard about from our teachers because they probably didn’t know it as well. Chinese Medicine and Healing begins with Pre-Han dynasty medicine and history and the book continues to the present day. It is filled with details from each historical dynasty and the relevant details taking place at that time that shaped the formation and evolution of Chinese medicine. For example, during the Song Dynasty (960-1126 C.E. for the Northern and 1127-1279 C.E. for the Southern Song) the gradual introduction of printing and publishing provided not only government treatises on disease and treatment, but also made public one of the most pivotal books in all of Chinese medicine, the Shang Han Lun. TJ Hinrichs knowledge is unfathomable. She will throw historical information out and challenge you on what you think you might know. She is also a very entertaining speaker and can talk about any subject from the historical and legendary physicians to the exigencies of the film Forbidden City Cop. She is an engaging historian, storyteller, and quite a proficient at Martial Arts. She is fascinating and fun to read and her book is a must for those who practice Chinese medicine.

 "I think the more diversity that one has in his life, the happier he can be, as long as he is able to do whatever he chooses to do at that given time well."
---Steven Seagal