Even with the overlay of Japanese culture during
years of imperial rule ( the "Japanese Era")
ending in 1945, the people were basically Chinese
in their ethos and culture. Traditional medicine is
entwined within Chinese culture and therefore considering
the greatness of that culture, has inherent value
and appeals to the people. The pharmacological actions
of medical agents – herbal, animal, and mineral -
do not depend upon laboratory experimentation but
on the subjective response of the human animal. A
patient drinks a decoction of herbs and roots and
says, "its good" or it works. Traditional
medicine in every country is based upon empirical
observation.
The two systems of thought , traditional
and scientific, regarding the cause of disease, differ
deeply, the former conception being, in Taiwan for
instance, a disturbance in the balance between the
Ying and the Yang of the body. In the latter it is
the morbid change in the structure or function of
the cells of the body. The concept of Chinese herbal
doctors is Philosophic rather than scientific ( Chen
- Yuan Lee ).
So in 1865, scientific medicine came
as a completely new thing to the people of Taiwan.
My lecture is a review of the 30 years before the
Japanese came ( the "Chinese Era") and the
50 years of the Japanese era.
Introduction
May I briefly remind you that
Taiwan lies about 100 miles from the coast of Fukien
(Fujian) province in South China. The Dutch Occupied
it from 1624 to 1661. A supporter of the Ming dynasty
(1368- 1643), a powerful sea pirate drove out the
Dutch in 1661. His name was Kuo Hsing- Yeh or Koxinga.
His real name was Cheng Cheng Kung.
From then onwards steady emigration
of Chinese took place in South Fukien , bringing their
South Fukien dialect and culture with them, to the
whole west side of Taiwan, including north and south.
However, 10- 15% of the immigrants were Hakka Chinese,
from the Kwang – Tung province.
In the mid 19th century
the Chinese population was about 2,000,000. Taiwan
was regarded as a raw frontier area, administered
as a prefecture of Fukien. Much of the mountianous
interior was the home of unsubjugated Malayan aboriginal
outside of Chinese control (though some had been assimilated
into Chinese society).
