Refutation of the Claim That the Ancient Chinese Described the Circulation of Blood: a Critique of Scientism in the Historiography of Chinese Medicine
نویسندگان
چکیده
Many scholars and historians of Chinese medicine and science, in China as well as in the West, have claimed that the ancient Chinese, in particular the unknown authors of the medical classic Huangdi Neijing , anticipated William Harvey’s monumental discovery of the circulation of the blood ( xueye xunhuan) by more than two thousand years. This view has been widely accepted in both China and the West. In this article I will first review the historical origin and contemporary popularity of this claim. Then, I will illustrate how unfounded the claim is by examining the historical evidence it is based on. Lastly, I will point out the epistemological reasons for such an obvious mistake and offer a preliminary critique of scientism ( weikexue zhuyi), one of the dominant ideologies in twentiethcentury historiography of Chinese medicine.
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