Court Life in China: The Capital, Its Officials and PeopleHeadland, Isaac Taylor
History
Court Life in China: The Capital, Its Officials and People
Headland, Isaac Taylor
China -- Court and courtiers; Cixi, Empress dowager of China, 1835-1908; Empresses -- China -- Biography; Women -- China
One of the most attractive of all my Chinese lady friends and patients
is the niece of the great Viceroy, Li Hung-chang, the daughter of his
brother, Li Han-chang, who is himself a viceroy. I have been her
physician for eighteen years or more and hence have become intimately
acquainted with her. She has visited me very often in my home and, of
all the women I have ever known, of any race or people, I have never
met one whom I thought more cultured or refined than she. This may seem
a strange statement, but the quiet dignity that she manifested on all
occasions and her charming manners are not often met with. I have never
felt on entering a drawing-room such an atmosphere of refinement as
seemed to surround her.
That the Chinese take very kindly to foreign medicine there is no
doubt, though it is sometimes amusing how they go back to their own
native methods.
One day my husband brought home a physiological chart about the size of
an ordinary man. It was covered with black spots and I asked him the
reason for them.
"That is what I asked the dealer from whom I bought it," he replied,
"and he told me that those spots indicate where the needle can be
inserted in treatment by acupuncture without killing the patient."
When a Chinese is ill the doctor generally concludes that the only way
to cure him is to stick a long needle into him and let out the pain or
set up counter irritation. If the patient dies it is evident he stuck
the needle into the wrong spot. And this chart has been made up from
millions of experiments during the past two or three thousand years
from patients who have died or recovered.
This was practically illustrated by a woman who was brought to the
hospital. Having had pain in the knee she sent for a Chinese physician
who concluded that the only method of relieving her was by acupuncture.
He therefore inserted a needle which unfortunately pierced the synovial
sac causing inflammation which finally resulted in complete destruction
of the joint. Such cases are not infrequent both among adults and
children in all grades of society, due to this method of treatment.
One day I was called to see a lady who was in immediate need of
surgical treatment. She had three sons who were in high official
positions in the palace, and if their mother died they would have to
withdraw from official life and go into mourning for three years. When
men are thus compelled to resign the new incumbent is not inclined to
restore the office when the period of mourning is over. They were
therefore doubly anxious to have their mother recover. They had tried
all kinds of Chinese physicians and finally sent for me.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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