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A Brief Analysis of the Incantatory Expulsion Recipe for “Treatment of Acute Heart Pain” in the Tianhui Medical Slips

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Among the medical recipe slips from the Western Han tomb at Hujia caochang 胡家草場, one recipe for weiling 威靈 records newborn rabbit and toad as two items. In the Tianhui medical manuscript Methods of Decoctions with Blended Formulas, an incantatory expulsion recipe to treat acute heart pain has the text of an incantation, which includes the phrase “rabbit and toad eat the heart of the moon.” In the Hujia caochang weiling recipe, the shamanic performer utilizes the items rabbit and toad, waits for the harmful event of lunar eclipse, and then carries out the operation and chants the incantation to achieve the efficacious result of incantatory expulsion. In the Methods of Decoctions with Blended Formulas recipe for acute heart pain, a connection is made between lunar eclipse – eating the moon – and heart pain that exhibits a kind of sympathetic-magic thinking in shamanic arts.

Source: Bamboo and Silk

DOI: 10.1163/24689246-20250014

Author: Qi Zhou

Institutions: China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine

Language: English

Topic: Historical, Religious, and Philosophical Studies

Subfield: Archeology

Field: Arts and Humanities

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Good health and well-being

Open Access status: hybrid

Funder: National Social Science Fund of China