Paper short abstract:

Elite physicians in early Han China, I argue, medicalised emotion. Their language of emotion alluded to qi, which was thought to accumulate in viscera that were conceived as seats of emotion. The heart and liver became important in medicine, not because of ‘proto-anatomy’, but because doctors became interested in the psychology of their elite clientele.

Paper long abstract:

One of the prime achievements of elite medical practitioners in early Han China was that they medicalised emotion. They became interested in determining the state of the viscera, which probably became important in medicine, not so much as proto-anatomical entities, as some have suggested, but because they were conceived of as seats of emotion. Once the physicians became interested in excessive emotion, primarily as a cause of illness, they had to know about their patients' visceral states. The language of emotion was one that alluded to qi, and qi accumulated in the seats of emotion, i.e. it was stored in the viscera. Rather than relying on visual inspection of vessels (mai), as diviners and doctors had done in the late Warring States to detect exuberance and insufficiency, Han elite physicians started to palpate the vessels, which connected to the viscera and were affected by their agitations and impulsions, qi. The paper argues that tactility in diagnostics gained in importance among the ranks of the elite as, in a regulatory fashion, excessive emotion was medicalised.