22/01/2026
Nine months after the sudden passing of the talented historian of Chinese medicine, Hao Chen 陳昊 (1983–2025), his posthumous work: The Return of Longing: Knowledge, Emotion, and the “Yuan-Bai Moment” in Chinese Medical History, was published by Shanghai Guji Publishing House.
唯有思君治不得，膏銷雪盡意還生。
Abstract:
What does emotion signify for ancient Chinese medical knowledge? This appears to be an overlooked question. If si (pensive longing/contemplation 思) plays a role in illness—or indeed, if si itself can become an illness—then it is intrinsically linked to knowledge, emotion, and even desire.
Distinct from the substantiality of my previous two academic monographs, this manuscript adopts a seemingly narrow entry point to cut into the medical history of Medieval China, conducting a deep dissection and observation. By examining the poetic exchanges (changhe 唱和) concerning ailments between Yuan Zhen 元稹, Bai Juyi 白居易, and their circle, this book discusses how Tang dynasty poets composed verse while in a state of illness, how they alluded to, described, and manifested the condition of disease within their poetry, and the social expressions underlying these acts.
The "moment" constructed by Yuan and Bai’s exchange of medicine and poetry—and the si therein, which connects knowledge, emotion, and desire—constitute the focal points of this book. Furthermore, this study proposes that researchers must reflect on the context in which the literati read and wrote medical texts and related works; only by understanding the complexities within these expressions can we seek the possibility of a rewriting of history.
情感对于中国古代的医学知识意味着什么？这似乎是一个被忽视的问题。思，如果在疾病中扮演着角色，或者说，思可以成为一种疾病，那么它与知识、情感乃至欲望都有所关联。本稿与前两部学术著作的厚重不同，采取了一个看似细小的切口，切入中古中国的医学史，进行深入的解剖和观察。本书通过对元稹、白居易以及他们其他友人之间关于疾痛的唱和的研究，讨论唐代的诗人如何在疾病的状态下书写诗歌，如何在诗歌中提及、描述乃至展现疾病的状态，以及其背后的社会性表达。元白交换药物和诗歌所构建的“时刻”，以及其中与知识、情感乃至欲望都有所关联的“思”，是本书关注的要点。本书进而提出，研究者需要反思士人们读写医学文献以及与医学相关的各种写作的情境，去理解他们在这些表达中的种种复杂性，以求找到重新写作的可能性。
