Design Description

The composition presents three focal points showcasing the diverse development and intellectual ferment of Qing Dynasty medicine: The upper-left area focuses on the four great physicians who advanced the wenbing (warm disease) studies, including Ye Tianshi, Wu Jutong, Wang Mengying, and Xue Xue. The imagery also presents the important theoretical and practical achievements of the warm disease studies, including:  weiqi yingxue bianzheng (pattern identification according to defence, qi, nutrient and blood) proposed in Ye Tianshi’s Wenre Lun (Treatise on Warm-Heat Disorders); the sanjiao bianzheng (pattern identification according to the triple energiser) summarised in Wu Jutong’s Wenbing Tiaobian (Systematic Differentiation of Warm Diseases); and scenes depicting Qing physicians’ epidemic relief efforts, emphasising the significant role of the warm disease school in epidemic prevention and treatment.

The lower-right area features Wang Qingren and his work Yilin Gaicuo (Correcting Errors in the Forest of Medicine) as representative of Qing medicine’s emphasis on the classics whilst pursuing truth through practice. The right side depicts the eastward spread of Western learning in the late Qing, and the thought of integrating Chinese and Western medicine advocated by reform-minded Chinese medicine physicians; the background includes Chinese and Western medical instruments and other elements, symbolising Chinese medicine’s absorption and integration of Western medical knowledge. Zhang Xichun, as a representative physician of the Chinese-Western medicine integration school, demonstrates his practical approach in Yixue Zhongzhong Canxi Lu (Records of Medicine: Upholding the Chinese and Referencing the Western), which also reflects the innovation of his medical thought. Moreover, Zhang Xichun founded Chinese medicine hospitals and schools, making significant contributions to the transmission of Chinese medicine at the time.

The overall composition outlines the developmental trajectory of Qing medicine from epidemic response to modern Chinese-Western integration, embodying a historical landscape of medical thought flourishing in diversity and continuous innovation.