title: The Adaptation ofthe Treatise on Cold Damagein Eighteenth-century Japan: Text, Society, and Readers.
abstract: This paper examines how theShanghanlun, translated as theTreatise on Cold Damage(i.e., theTreatise), one of the most revered Chinese medical texts of the Han dynasty, was used in Japanese traditional medicine (Kanpō ), and particularly how it was reconfigured to fit with the societal shifts of the Edo period in Japan. The versatility of theTreatisein the formation of Kanpō is exemplified by the medicine of Yoshimasu Tōdō, an innovative eighteenth-century Japanese doctor. In this analysis of Tōdō's unique interpretation of theTreatise, some of his transitional ideas about medicine, the human body, and illness, as well as the transcultural influence from China, will be elucidated. To this end, first Tōdō's application of theTreatisewill be re-defined within the historical context of changing medical needs in the consumer society of the Edo period. Secondly, by focusing on the idea of poison that forms the core of Tōdō's theory and practice, I show how his pathology resonated with the period's popular notions of the human body and illness, although it was said at the time to be drawn from Chinese classics. Associating Tōdō's use of theTreatisewith such phenomena as the commercialisation and popularisation of medical treatment and the popular imagination of illness, I show the applicability of theTreatiseto the evolution of Kanpō in the context of the surrounding social structure and cross-cultural intellectual ebb and flow across East Asia.
authors.forename: Keiko
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Daidoji
keywords: Edo period Japan; Japanese traditional medicine (Kanpō); Shanghanlun (Treatise on Cold Damage); Yoshimasu Tōdō; clinical experience (shinshi jikken)