Treating the emperors in the Qing Palace : the tension between the Manchu rulers' public power and private frailty
- Publication Type:
- Thesis
- Issue Date:
- 2009
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This thesis examines the medical case records of the Imperial Qing Palace. The
case records were examined with a view to see how Chinese medicine was
practised in the Qing period in China. I also analysed the role of medical cases as
another way of adding to an understanding of history.
My primary sources were the archive medical case records of the Qing Imperial
Palace as compiled by Chen Keji. I also used selected secondary sources,
particularly research by Chang Che-Chia on the Qing cases.
I concentrated my research on selected emperors and the Empress Dowager. I
analysed the case records of Kangxi, Qianlong, Tongzhi, Guangxu and Cixi.
Each of these figures were analysed using medical analysis and historical
analysis. Using clinical knowledge, I analysed each of these political figures
considering the historical and social context of the time.
While analysing selected cases I also analysed the medical approach and style of
one doctor of the nineteenth century, Ma Peizhi. This physician was selected as
representative of elite doctors in China in the late Qing period. Using the
methodology of textual analysis I supplemented analysis of the primary sources
with examination of secondary sources such as biographies and other journals.
In medical terms, I found that the practice of Chinese medicine changes
according to social and historical circumstances. In line with the social norms of
the elite at the time in Qing China, medicine was practised with the approach of
gentleness and balance. This distinctive style, practised by Ma Peizhi, saw the
root of physical disease in mental unease.
In historical terms, I found that the medical records provided primary evidence
for trends in Qing history. The Kangxi emperor looked askance at Chinese
medicine, while avidly practising his Manchu shamanic rituals. His grandson,
Qianlong, in contrast, presented himself as a patron of Chinese classical learning,
of which he saw Chinese medicine as an important component. This was
evidence that the sinification of the Manchu conquerors was almost complete.
A key finding of the thesis was that the realities of the Qing emperors and the
Empress Dowager Cixi differed from the personas they had projected to the
public. The Qing emperors and the Empress Dowager were, on the whole, frail in
health, psychologically vulnerable and suffering from chronic anxiety, if not
depression.
The Qing images of power did not fit the reality.
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