Travel and Transformation
A Diachronic Study of the Changing Concept of Weisheng in Chinese Journals, 1880-1930
in Contributions to the History of Concepts
ABSTRACT
Few concepts in the medical history of China have been more entangled with modernization and nation-building than weisheng. Originally a concept inextricably bound up with traditional Chinese medicine, it underwent drastic changes and became a near equivalent of modern hygiene. Drawing on the notion of traveling concepts, this article traces the travel and transformation it experienced in journal articles between 1880 and 1930, focusing on how the new concept gradually took shape and became established in public discourse, the enabling and resisting agents, as well as their agendas.