Dr. Wan-Chun Cheng

Internationales Kolleg für Geisteswissenschaftliche Forschung "Schicksal, Freiheit und Prognose. Bewältigungsstrategien in Ostasien und Europa"


Curriculum Vitae

Dr. Wan-Chun Cheng holds a Ph. D. from the Department of Chinese Medicine at the Chinese Medical University, Taiwan. She has obtained a Master of Arts degree from the Department of East Asian Studies at the National Taiwan Normal University (2012) and a Bachelor's of Arts degree from the Department of Chinese Literature and the Department of Japanese Language and literature at the Soochow University, Taiwan (2009). Prior to her stay in Erlangen, she was a recepient of a Ph.D student scholarship of the Institute of History and Philology at the Academia Sinica.

 

IKGF Research Project:

"Orientation and Avoidance: Prenatal Spatial Arrangement of Divination in the Tang-Song Dynasties"
 
Dr. Cheng's research focuses on how doctors in the Tang and Song dynasties used fortune-telling techniques to arrange locations and the facing directions of delivery rooms. Her research relies on archive materials, such as the medical books of the Tang-Song Dynasties which include Medical Secrets of an Official ( 《外臺秘要》), Peaceful Holy Benevolent Prescriptions (《太平聖惠方》) , etc. Dunhuang manuscripts are also utilized, such as Dun Huang calendars (S. 276), (P.2973). Moreover, Dr. Cheng' also uses classical texts such as the Huáng Dì Lóng Shǒu Jīng (The Yellow Emperor Dragon Head Canon, 《黃帝龍首經》), and the Wǔ Xíng Dà Yì (《五行大義》) to analyze Liu Ren (六壬) divination, which is a systematic knowledge according to which Tang-Song medical doctors selected good and lucky locations to protect pregnant women from deities and evil spirits.  
 
People have prayed for luck and avoided misfortune ever since, especially for medical practitioners and pregnant women. A successful delivery not only relies on professional assistance from medical doctors or midwives, but also requires perfect timing in the right place. Liu Ren divination provides a prediction about the best combination of time and space with luck for each delivery. Moreover, various divinations and taboos from Liu Ren style, such as the tiān yī rì yóu (天一日遊) and yuè kōng (月空), have been widely recorded in the Tang-Song medical books. By guidelines from Liu Ren divination, the doctors drew twelve-monthly delivery pictures and posted them on the northern wall of the delivery room in the Tang-Song dynasties.

List of Publications:

Journal articles:
Essays
2019 〈子午流注中醫預測模型的建構〉(Building a TCM Predictive Model of “Midnight-Midday Ebb Flow”)，《科技、醫療與社會》第28期（Taiwanese Journal for Studies of Science, Technology and Medicine） No.28, pp.89-123.
2019 〈東亞視野下醫學典範的建構與在地化──以五輸穴針灸技術發展史為例〉(Technological Developmental History of Five Transport Points in Acupuncture as an Example)，《科技、醫療與社會》（Taiwanese Journal for Studies of Science, Technology and Medicine） No. 30, pp.67-111.
2019 〈心經之謎：從「手少陰脈獨無腧」談起〉(The Enigma of Heart Meridian: On “Only Heart Meridian does not have acupuncture)，《思與言：人文與社會科學雜誌》（Thought and Words: Journal of the Humanities and Social Science）No. 58 (3): 83-123.
2019 〈《黃帝蝦蟇經》版本比較研究──以「隨月生毀人形圖」為考察中心〉(The Comparative Version Study of the Toad Classic of Yellow Emperor (Huangdi Xiamajing) with Focus on Monthly Changing Human Figures)，《故宮學術季刊》No. 36 (3): 1-38.

Mongraphs and Volume Articles:
2020 《鍼灸醫學之五輸穴理論研究》（新北：喆閎人文）。
(On the Theory of Five Transport Points in Acupuncture Medicine)

2012 〈漢唐時期之醫療術數研究──以行年、人神為中心〉，收入輔仁大學宗教學系臺灣民間宗教學術中心主編《中華傳統術數文化第一集》，頁55-87。新北：輔仁大學宗教學系臺灣民間宗教學術中心。