The Physician as Philosopher of the Way: Zhu Zhenheng (1282-1358)

Zhu Zhenheng (1282-1358), the subject of Charlotte Furth's study, is today known as the last and greatest of the "Four Masters of the Jin-Yuan" dynasties, physicians whose innovations shaped learned medicine between the thirteenth and seventeenth centuries. Furth approaches Zhu's life and work from three perspectives, examining him as a clinical innovator still admired by practitioners of Chinese medicine today; a Confucian gentleman (ru) and follower of Zhu Xi's "Learning of the Way" (Daoxue); and a synthesizer of medical and Daoxue doctrines. Furth considers the social complexities of the identity of a "Confucian physician" (ruyi), as well as the intellectual impact of neo-Confucianism on medicine. She then suggests that the commonalities between Zhu Zhenheng's and Zhu Xi's understandings of physical and emotional life can illuminate how Daoxue philosophers saw the Way embodied.