Food, Medicine and Philosophy in China

1
Food, Medicine and Philosophy in China

• Lectures by Ole Bruun

2
(No Transcript)
3
Chinas recent history

• - 1800s, China in crises, Opium War, Unequal
  Treaties, attack on Beijing
• - 1890s reform movement, Chinese philosophy
  criticized, discarded, modified or replaced.
  Western science and philosophy gain importance
• - 1920s, New culture / Chinese renaissance
  movement. Vicious attacks on Chinese traditional
  culture and religion, call for new public
  morality, equality, democracy. Both liberal and
  Marxist philosophy are at play. Urban citizens
  adopt Western ways and lifestyles.
• - 1949, Communist takeover, Mao Zedong new
  leader. Collectivization and attacks on Chinese
  philosophy and religion, Maoism only philosophy
  permitted.
• - 1966-76, Cultural Revolution, everything of the
  old society smashed, insane persecution of class
  enemies, scholars, religious specialists.
• - 1980- , Reform, open door, pragmatic policies,
  phenomenal growth, greater freedom of belief and
  lifestyle.

4
What is Chinese food?

• 1. The food eaten by the Chinese
• 2. The Chinese food eaten by Westerners
• 3. Food prepared according to Chinese local
  traditions
• 4. The Chinese Kitchen a distinct way of
  preparing food according to Chinese traditional
  philosophy.

5
What is Chinese traditional Medicine?

• A range of philosophical ideas, based on the
  classics, their commentaries and a persistent
  literature
• Specific approaches and forms of inquiry holism,
  resonance, correspondences, schematics, analogy,
  metaphor
• A range of diagnoses observation, pulse, breath,
  Qi, inspection of skin, sweat, eyes etc.
• A range of therapies massage, acupuncture, moxa,
  zone-therapy,
• Herbal medicine
• Special techniques / systems such as meditation,
  qigong, fengshui, shamanism, spirit mediation
• The particular practices and interpretations of
  individual doctors

6
(No Transcript)
7
(No Transcript)
8
Basic concepts of Chinese philosophy

• Yijing The Book of Changes. An ancient classic
  with profound influence on Chinese philosophy and
  traditional sciences a source of cosmology,
  morality and divination.
• Yin and Yang. The complementary and interchanging
  aspects of the cosmos, signifying the rhythm of
  pulsation and change in all phenomena, f.ex.
  male-female, hot-cold, light-dark, summer-winter
• Bagua The Eight Trigrams. The constellations
  three lines of either yin (broken line) or yang
  (full line) forming eight different symbols
  used for divination as much as for investigating
  and explaining nature.
• Heaven and Earth. Heaven was worshipped from
  ancient times and the interaction between heaven
  and earth was seen as a creative force in an
  organic universe.
• The concept of Qi. The breath of nature, a
  life-giving flow of energy in both the universe
  as such and in living beings. There are many
  forms and meanings of Qi.
• The Five Elements / Five Phases. A comprehensive
  scheme of correlations between all aspects of the
  universe, five being the sacred number in Chinese
  cosmology.