Between the Lines: Discovering Chinese Medicine in Literature
Chinese medicine holds more than the wisdom of healing and nourishing life; it is woven deeply into literary creation and everyday life. Between the Lines: Discovering Chinese Medicine in Literature takes literature as its warp and medicine as its weft, guiding visitors across a thousand years to explore the many faces of Chinese medicine in classical poetry and song, fiction and drama, Taiwanese literature, and contemporary popular culture.
The exhibition sets out from the plant imagery of the Classic of Poetry (Shijing) and the Songs of Chu (Chuci), travels through the medical writing of Tang and Song poetry and the scenes of diagnosis and healing in Ming and Qing fiction and drama, and searches out the ailments, dietary cures, and marvelous remedies of literary characters. It then turns to Taiwanese literature, where native herbs and memories of the land reveal a local landscape woven from nature, lived experience, and medical culture. Finally, it reaches modern poetry and popular music, where Chinese medicine takes on fresh forms in contemporary creative work.
We invite you to leaf through these literary pages, follow the fragrance of herbs, discover medicine between the lines, and feel—through the stories literature tells—the enduring vitality of Chinese medicine across the ages.
The exhibition sets out from the plant imagery of the Classic of Poetry (Shijing) and the Songs of Chu (Chuci), travels through the medical writing of Tang and Song poetry and the scenes of diagnosis and healing in Ming and Qing fiction and drama, and searches out the ailments, dietary cures, and marvelous remedies of literary characters. It then turns to Taiwanese literature, where native herbs and memories of the land reveal a local landscape woven from nature, lived experience, and medical culture. Finally, it reaches modern poetry and popular music, where Chinese medicine takes on fresh forms in contemporary creative work.
We invite you to leaf through these literary pages, follow the fragrance of herbs, discover medicine between the lines, and feel—through the stories literature tells—the enduring vitality of Chinese medicine across the ages.
Online guided tour