The Daode Jing and its Influence on Chinese Medicine

12 Week Course Beginning on September 2

Among the most popular and most frequently translated books in the world, the Daode jing—or Laozi, as it is usually called in Chinese—has influenced poets, philosophers, and ordinary people for over two millennia for good reason. In spite of being intentionally enigmatic and often paradoxical, it is beautiful and profound and can offer meaningful advice on how to live in a difficult world. It also had an influence on the development of Chinese medicine, but not in the way most people believe. Chinese medicine did not emerge out of Taoism for the simple reason that Taoism did not exist at that time, but its basic approach to health, illness, treatment, and the world as a whole were deeply influenced by the Daode jing through another avenue: the Huang-Lao movement of the early Han dynasty (206 BCE-220 CE) which claimed to combine the teachings of the Yellow Emperor and Laozi.

In this class, we will look at the historical context in which the Daode jing was written and how it became the text we know today. We will then discuss what kind of text it is and how it should be read before beginning our own close reading of all eighty-one chapters. We will conclude by looking at different ways it was understood in Chinese antiquity and how we see its influence in the Yellow Emperor’s Inner Classic, the foundational text of Chinese medicine.

Meets on Zoom Wednesdays from 12 - 1:30pm EST

Cost:

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Translation Course Add-On

This is an optional add-on class in which we will read in the original Chinese the entire Daode jing and parts of other texts including the Mawangdui and Guodian versions of the Daode jing, the Huangdi neijing, the Huangdi sijing, and the Heshangong and Xiang'er commentaries to the Daodejing. You must be enrolled in the main course "The Daode jing and its Influence on Chinese Medicine" to enroll in this course.

Meets on Zoom Fridays from 12 - 1pm EST

Stephen Boyanton is a writer, translator, and historian who focuses on the history and literature of Chinese medicine. He received his PhD in East Asian History from Columbia University in 2015, and he has studied at both Beijing University of Chinese Medicine and Chengdu University of Chinese Medicine. His work has appeared in the Journal of Chinese Medicine and AsianMedicineZone.com and will be in the forthcoming Routledge Handbook of Chinese Medicine. He is currently part of a group of scholars preparing a book of readings translating a wide variety of important East Asian medical texts. He normally lives in Chengdu, China, but is currently stranded in the U.S. due to the pandemic.