"Bones, Brains, and Meridians: Animated Anatomy and Image-Text Analysis"is the title of this Classical Chinese text-reading with Lan Li of Rice University.

"Bones, Brains, and Meridians: Animated Anatomy and Image-Text Analysis"

This discussion interrogates the representation of the brain in a 1956 reproduction of the early modern print Zang Fu Mingtang Tu 臟腑明堂圖. Despite its vague genealogy, this 20th century version of Zang Fu Mingtang Tu 臟腑明堂圖 was often associated with either a set of meridian maps from the early fourteenth century, or with an even earlier set of Inner Canon (neijing 內經) or Inner Vision (neijing 內景) treatises. What is curious about this image are the inscriptions in the head, which read: “The ocean of Yin bone marrow penetrates all the way down” 髄海至隂之在通尾骶. This suggests that inside the head/brain through the spine/back was bone marrow, not the brain--that inside the skull was not a wet, chunky lump of grey matter, but suihai 髓海 or “bone marrow sea,” which was one of the “four seas” listed in the Yellow Emperor’s Inner Cannon. By bringing together approaches in the history of medicine, art history, and science studies, this discussion opens a visual and philological study to understand the ontological implications of the brain in 臟腑明堂圖. What kinds of things were solid? What kinds of things were fluid? Was the distinction between solid and fluid a matter of scale? A matter of relative movements? How does this elaborate on the history of anatomy in classical Chinese texts?

All are welcome, with any level of experience with classical Chinese.

At each session, a participant presents a classical Chinese text. Attendees discuss historical, literary, linguistic, and other aspects of the text, working together to resolve difficulties in comprehension and translation.

No preparation is required, all texts will be distributed at the meeting.