Healing with Poisons

"Healing with Poisons contradicts the romantic fallacy of viewing traditional medicines as toxin-free remedies and proposes a new scope to reconceptualize the poisons used in medieval China. His study inspires us to rethink the relationships among drugs, cultures, and human bodies in the past and present."

"Liu writes with an accessible, clear and inviting voice. It will prove to be excellent material for teaching in cross-cultural contexts... This nimble and accessible book will surely lay the foundation for more adventurous studies to follow."

"Based on a comprehensive study of the most significant Chinese texts, Liu offers a clear exposition for advanced students and specialists of the development of these medicines and provides a list of some of the most important drugs and their uses."

"Scholars will find this fascinating exploration of Chinese pharmacology a pleasure to read, with short, well-structured chapters and a coherent arc to the argument throughout."

"Liu Yan offers a most remarkable and so far uniquely informative account of the social, economic, political and structural context of medicine and pharmaceutical learning and practice in China in the first millennium CE."

"Healing with Poisons masterfully weaves together the histories of medicine and the body."

"Liu has adroitly interwoven histories of politics, religions, social, and economic histories at opportune moments to elucidate how medicine, particularly potent substances, worked within emerging intellectual frameworks of xuanxue (mysterious or dark learning) and competing religious traditions of Buddhism and Daoism."

"This scholarly, well-referenced work explores China’s formative era of pharmacy (200–800 CE) when poisons were considered potent healing agents. Toxic plants provided cures for everything from simple abdominal pain to epidemic diseases. Practitioners devised techniques to transform them into effective medicines, incorporating the concept of du, or “potency.” Many old methods are still employed today. Liu...gives insight into the Medieval healing philosophy and its influence on modern Chinese medicine."

"Beautifully written, this book makes a major contribution to Chinese medical history."

"Blows the lid off the myth that Chinese medicine is the opposite of Western medicine in every conceivable regard, showing that medieval Chinese doctors not only treated acute illnesses but also commonly used potent drugs, fully aware of the potential to damage the health of the body."