Abstract
The purpose of this paper is twofold. On the one hand, I use Wang Honghan as an example to examine how local Christianized literati, who were the main supporting force to the Western missionaries in local society after the Ming, appropriated Western learning and Christianity. On the other hand, I discuss what happened when Western medical knowledge trespassed its cultural boundaries in seventeenth-century China.
I argue that Wang Honghan gained access to Western anatomical knowledge mainly through proselytizing materials which describe how the human body can function as an interface between this-worldly factual knowledge and the other-worldly truth of God. Although this kind of writing presents the body according to Galen’s theory, it does not discuss how to cure disease. For healing, Wang had to turn to the Chinese medical tradition. Nevertheless, Wang transplanted Western anatomical knowledge to the Confucian concept of gewu and thus shaped his identity as a christianized Confucian literatus as well as a Chinese medical practitioner. This identity enhanced his reputation as a Confucian physician (ruyi) in the highly competitive medical market of the Jiannan area.
Keywords
Wang Honghan, Christianity, Jesuits, the history of medicine, anatomy
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