The Seminar on “Body, Medicine and Narration” and the Second Youth Workshop of the Knowledge Science of Ancient Novels were held successfully by Peking University School of Health Humanities on 29th August 2020 in the form of online meetings. This seminar widely attracted the attention of Chinese and foreign scholars from the fields of narrative medicine and Chinese ancient novels. A total of 24 experts from Peking University, Beijing Normal University, Renmin University of China, University of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, University of Macau, Korea University and other well-known universities participated in the discussion and comment of the seminar. 57 people attended the online seminar.

The seminar officially started at 9 am, with the theme report named “The Current Situation and Prospect of Narrative Medicine” presented by Professor Guo Liping from PKU School of Health Humanities. Professor Guo introduced the theories and practices of narrative medicine, and expressed her best wishes to this seminar. As the representative of novel researchers, Professor Jing Yugui from University of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences elaborated the origin and development of knowledge science of novel. The reports were divided into three groups according to their topics: “The Writing of Medicine and Diseases in Ancient Novels”, “Body Narration and Life Discourse”, and “The Research of Ancient Novel under the Field of Knowledge Science”. There were four to five papers in every group, with about 25 minutes for the presentation and comment of each paper. The scholars conducted fully detailed and fierce academic discussions around topics such as “body”, “medicine” and “narration”. With the aim of enhancing the pertinence of discussion and comment, the seminar carried out a double-reviewer system (one person to talk with and one person to comment). Professor Liu Yongqiang from PKU Department of Chinese Language and Literature was specially invited to be a commenter and to make concluding remarks. The critical and pertinent comments from Professor Liu and other experts promoted the academic level of this seminar. In the Q&A, the online audiences raised incisive and accurate questions, making the interaction efficient. The seminar was closed at 6 pm as the heated discussion finally ended.

Editors from several periodicals such as Chinese Medical Humanities, Chinese Medical Culture, Narrative Medicine and so on were invited to attend the seminar. Among the papers presented in the seminar, “The characteristics and value of medical knowledge in the classical Chinese novels of Ming Dynesty” (Liu Tianzhen), “The disease experience of Wu Jingzi and the disease writing of The Scholars <Ru Lin Wai Shi>” (Liu Haiyan) and “Discussion on the ignorance narration under the field of knowledge science of novels” (Jing Yugui) were invited for publishing by journal editors. These well prepared meeting papers are highly valued by academia of narrative medicine and Chinese medical culture, reflecting that this seminar achieved the goals of interacting narrative medicine with the research of ancient novels, and creating new ideas. More interdisciplinary researches are needed in the future, to excavate and assort the body and medicine narration in classic ancient literatures, discover its practical significance, and prompt deep researches in this interdisciplinary field. After the seminar, some scholars considered that the Seminar on “Body, Medicine and Narration” was well organized and carefully prepared, with high-qualified meeting papers and important academic values and social benefits. This seminar was organized and handled by Li Yuanda.

 (This report is provided by The Department of Language and Culture in Medicine.)