Journal paper

Issue No.	Issue 69
Title	An Exploration into Doctor Profiles and Perspective on Medical Ethics of the Song Dynasty: An Investigation into Classical Chinese Tales
Author	LU, HSIU-MAN
Page	83～116
Abstract	This paper aims to explore a range of doctor profiles and the kind of medical ethics emphasized in the Song dynasty through a compilation and analysis of doctors’ stories and medical stories contained in classical Chinese tales of the Song dynasty. Firstly, this study investigated the overall development of medicine in the Song dynasty that was vividly described by some classical tales of the time. Then these descriptions were compared to those found in tales written prior to the Song dynasty. This comparison helps to identify a few key characteristics of the evolution of medicine in the Song dynasty: an increasing diversity in medicine and the prevalence of compilations of prescription and dispense records. Secondly, this study examined several factors that contributed to the broad variety of doctor profiles of that era. These factors included the different ethnic backgrounds of the doctors, the growing number of female doctors around the Song dynasty, and how the medical profession was challenged and called into question. Lastly, this study summarized stories and anecdotes and shed light on how the people of the Song dynasty viewed medical ethics from the perspective of karma.
Keyword	Song dynasty, classical Chinese tales, doctor profiles, perspective on medical ethics
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