Is there a historical connection between the Daode jing (Tao-teh-ching) and Chinese medicine? Are any of its famous concepts actually part of modern Chinese medical clinical practice?
The answer to both of these questions is yes, but the story is more complex than most people realize, involving a detour through the seldom-discussed Huang-Lao movement, a set of three core medical concepts that have remained largely unrecognized, and the pulling together of diverse strands of Han Dynasty thought to produce the most sophisticated work of correlative cosmology in Chinese history: the Yellow Emperor's Inner Classic.
Join me for a free talk in which we will explore the relationship of the Daode jing, one of the world's most popular philosophical texts, and the Yellow Emperor's Inner Classic, the oldest text in the Chinese medical canon and one of the fountainhead's of all later Chinese medical thought, and if you find this as fascinating as I do, you can also join me for a 12-week course this fall in which we will study the history of the Daode jing, examine how it has been understood in different eras, and read the entire text along with Wang Bi's seminal commentary.
Dr. Boyanton will also be leading a 12 week course on the Daode Jing beginning in September.
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.
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