The Evolution of Chinese Medicine: Song Dynasty 960-1200

[...]a large number of literati, dejected by their failure in the civil service examinations, took up medicine to become literati physicians (ruyi ...) The first part of the book consists of four chapters analyzing the changes in Chinese medicine during the Northern Song, taking broader contemporary changes into account; the second part includes two chapters focusing on the consequences of the changes mentioned in the first part. ("History of the Song Dynasty") records extremely cold weather in Kaifeng in 1054, and says that the government used pulverized tongtianxi ...(rhinoceros horn) to treat patients. Furthermore, Goldschmidt mentions that an increasing number of recorded epidemics originated in southern regions (p. 69), and that a new epidemiological frontier was created by contact with them: the ongoing population shift to South China; the rising volume of trade with the South; the lengthening of trade routes; and intensifying urbanization, when the southern regions hosted a larger number of endemic diseases than North China (p. 70). If the southward shift of population had been the main cause of the increase in the incidence of disease, one would have expected medical research to focus on treating nüe and zhang rather than shanghan.7 More solid substantiation is required if Goldschmidt is to prove several of his other arguments. [...]emperors of the preceding Tang dynasty, who took an interest in medical studies,8were the forerunners. KawaiFan, "Foot Massage in Chinese Medical History," Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine: Research on Paradigm, Practice, and Policy 12:3 (2006), pp. 1-3 10.