The origins and development of blood-letting in Chinese and Western Medicine: a narrative review of the literature
By Nicola Wood - MSc in Acupuncture
Abstract
Research question:
How and why did bloodletting practises in Western and Chinese medicine, once so similar, become so different over time?
This study investigates the origins and development of bloodletting in Greece and China, then offers some analysis and interpretation of the similarities and differences found between the two traditions. The study also attempts to give reasons for the divergence in the practise of bloodletting in China and the West. This is done using an extensive literature review. Bloodletting was chosen as, certainly by medieval times, if not long before, there was a radically different approach to it’s practise in China and the West, yet originally, as this study will show, the practise of bloodletting was very similar in the two traditions.
Although specifically about bloodletting the study also aims to explore the wider issue of the diversity of medicine and the reasons behind such distinctions as “Chinese medicine” and “Western medicine”. After all, almost certainly, the same biological principles that governed the body in the China during the Han dynasty still hold true for the body in contemporary Britain. In these terms the body is timeless and universal. This study uses bloodletting as a vehicle to explore some of the possible fundamental differences between Chinese and Western medicine.
The study does reach some conclusions, although they are by no means definitive ones. It is clear that the use of systematic dissection in Graeco-Roman antiquity played a large part in the development of medical theories and practises, as did the use of rhetoric and competition between physicians. More specifically, Galen’s over-riding fear of plethora (excess) gave bloodletting more importance that it had previously been given. The study compares this with events in ancient China where systematic dissection was not carried out and, in the main, physicians strove to reach a consensus allowing different theories to co-exist side by side.
