[Wu Youxing and pestilential epidemics : a medical expert in late Ming China].
FACED WITH THE TERRIBLE MORTALITY OF THE EPIDEMICS DURING THE LAST YEARS OF THE MING DYNASTY: (1368-1644) AND THE INEFFICACY OF THE TREATMENTS APPLIED, WU YOUXING: (ca 1580-1660), the author of the Wenyilun (Treatise on warm factor epidemics), completed in 1642, proposed a new etiological explanation of these diseases, with a highly critical attitude towards his predecessors. Reception to the book was mixed; it sometimes encountered opposition due to the audacity of some of Wu Youxing's conceptions, but also, most likely, to the discrepancy between the author's assertions and the failures in actual application.
Obringer
Frédéric
F
Ecole des hautes études en sciences sociales, Centre d'études sur la Chine moderne et contemporaine, Paris, France. obringer@ehess.fr
D002681:China; D006666:History of Medicine; D049669:History, 16th Century; D049670:History, 17th Century; D010930:Plague / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000266:history*