From Passive to Active: Medical History of Women in Imperial China

Abstract

This paper reviews scholarly articles and books from the 1980s to the present, dividing the study of imperial Chinese women’s medical history into three phases according to major arguments, research methods, and sources. Academic research on the medical history of women has continued to deepen, from the beginnings of exposing the general absence of women in medical texts to examining the specific problems of the female body and exploring the relationship between medicine and religion. Under the influence of current feminist theory and gender studies, as well as the discovery of various sources reflecting women’s consciousness, scholars have increasingly emphasized women’s feelings and their contributions to medicine and explored women’s voices in medicine.