Mapping Drugs across Epistemic and Geographic Domains: A case study for Early Medieval China

Abstract

It’s a long-held cultural belief that Daoists 道士, or more specifically, transcendents 仙人, were among the primary stakeholders in the early Chinese drug market. They held secret drug recipes, they made money by picking plants in the mountains and selling them in markets, and they used this knowledge not only to heal individuals, but to achieve miraculous longevity. How can we assess this claim, and come to a better understanding of the roles Daoists played in the medical marketplace, and the medical practice of religious figures generally?