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In the Western world, Wāng Áng 汪昂 (1615–1695) has remained little known author in the history of Chinese medicine. During his life, he was not well known even in China. He was not seen as one of the great scholars of his time, as he was mostly self-taught in the classics and most of his writings were collections and reorganizations of classical ideas. He based his medical works heavily on authors like Lǐ Dōng-Yuán 李東垣 (aka. Lǐ Gǎo 李杲 1180–1251), Lǐ Shízhēn 李時珍 (1518–1593) and Han-dynasty (202 BC–220 AD) texts like Huángdì Nèijīng Sùwèn 黃帝內經素問 and Huángdì bāshíyī Nánjīng 黃帝八十一難經. Maybe it was his lack of higher education that made his works more easy accessible to the general public, lay practitioners and students of medicine.

Theorising on Social and Embodied Aspects of Contemplative Practices Workshop was held in University of Tampere (Finland) during 13-14 July 2016. As an acupuncturist I considered the conference very important and thought provoking. The presentations were carefully planned, organized and very easy to follow. These short comments are thoughts risen during the presentations. Besides the commented speeches there were many other fantastic presentations. These few were selected as I felt them more “directly” related to my profession. For full program please refer to this page

Sūn Sīmiǎo (孫思邈)Sūn Sīmiǎo (孫思邈) is one of the best known of ancient Chinese doctors. According historians Sūn Sīmiǎo lived between 581-682. Legends however tell that he lived more than 140 years and his body did not decay after his death. When he was buried his body was light as plain clothes. He, like many other great doctors, was also alchemist and scholar of classical Daoist scriptures like Dàodéjīng (道德經) and Yìjīng (易經).