The Dangers of 'Warming and Replenishing' (wenbu) during the Ming to Qing Epistemic Transition

Through a case study of Zhao Xianke's One Principle through Medicine (Yiguan ) (1617?) and Xu Dachun's (1693-1771) denouncements of this text, my article zooms in on divergent discourses on the safety and efficacy of medicinal substances and compounds in late imperial China. Although Xu Dachun's fierce attacks on the popular 'warming and replenishing' (wenbu ) therapies can be situated in an epistemic shift from the cosmology of 'Song learning' (songxue ) towards the philology of 'Han learning' (hanxue ) and 'evidential research' (kaozheng ), I argue that more complex issues were at stake as well. Changed political, social, ethical, and economic realities shaped new and multifaceted perceptions of the nature of medicine, the medical profession, and the usage of medicinals in the aftermath of the Ming to Qing transition.