明清时期男性关系网络主导下的女性择医

Women’s Selection of Physicians in Male Dominated Social Networks in the Ming and Qing Dynasties

现有对中国古代女性医疗史的研究主要集中于女性作为救治者或妇科语境下对女性身体的认知,鲜有从社会医疗史的角度讨论女性作为被救治者所面对的诊疗生态。本文以明清时期女性择医问题作为研究对象,发现在中国古代空间和性别意识的交互影响下,明清时期的男性关系网络对于女性病患的择医行为起着主导性作用。通过对比不同阶层女性的求医渠道,可以发现不同社会地位的女性患者在求医问诊过程中对于男性关系网络的依赖程度大不相同,社会地位较低的女性病患对于这种关系网络的依赖性较弱。以此为延伸,本文对中上阶层女性病患在就诊过程中的缄默问题也做了进一步阐释。

The existing research on the female medical history in ancient China has paid special attention to women as the medical rescuers or gynecology and its cognition of the female body.However,limited discussions have been devoted to the ecology in which women as the rescued were treated from the perspective of social history of medicine.This article finds that under the interactive influence of space and gender consciousness in ancient China,the male dominated social networks played a paramount role in women's selection of physicians in the Ming and Qing Dynasties.By comparing the channels through which females of different class backgrounds sought medical treatment,the article shows that female patients of different social standings had varying levels of reliance on male relational networks.Women with lower social status had less dependence on male relational networks.By an extension,it is self-explanatory that females of middle and upper classes remained silent during their medical treatment as there was a strong presence of male networks.