Transmitting the Body

Benjamin Hobson, Quanti Xinlun, and the Dawn of Western Anatomy in China

Bibliographic Data

ID20249596
AuthorsShuang Ma (0000-0001-7125-5279, Shanghai International Studies University), Ningjun Li (0009-0001-4172-0085, Fudan University), Wenwei Mao (0009-0005-5368-3938, Shanghai International Studies University, corresponding author)
Year2025
Volume17
Issue1
Pages4
Publication date2025-12-20
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueReligions (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2077-1444 • E-ISSN: 2077-1444
PublisherMDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT)
DOI10.3390/rel17010004
OpenAlexW7116961808
LanguageEN
References cited14

This study focuses on Quanti Xinlun (1851), translated and compiled by the Protestant missionary Benjamin Hobson in the late Qing dynasty, examining how the Western anatomical knowledge it introduced challenged and reshaped the traditional Chinese conception of the body grounded in Visceral Manifestation theory. The research finds that the book’s influence was achieved through multiple mechanisms, including conceptual innovation, visual representation, and the creation of terminology. Although Hobson’s original motivation for translation was rooted in Natural Theology, its scientific core was selectively appropriated by the late Qing intellectual community, becoming a tool to address indigenous academic and ideological predicaments. This study argues that Quanti Xinlun facilitated a significant paradigm shift: on the level of the conception of the body, it used the physical body to challenge the traditional perception of a functional, qi-based organism; on the epistemological level, it invoked the authority of empirical positivism to challenge the scholarly method of text-based classicism. This fundamental shift in epistemology not only spurred the medical trend of thought known as “Convergence of Chinese and Western Medicine” but also laid the cornerstone for the modernization of modern Chinese medical education and even the entire knowledge system

Appropriation · China · Cornerstone · Exceptionalism · Ideology · Modernization theory · Positivism · Protestantism · Western culture · Westernization · Chinese history and philosophy · Diverse Historical and Scientific Studies · History of Science and Natural History

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Open DOIOpen Access