Oogiantheorem: Examining the History of Sci & Med

Characters:

• Tsang Kwan: The father of a dying son. A state official.
• Tsang Min: Tsang Kwan’s wife. The mother of a dying son.
• The Doctor: A physician trained in the medical teachings of the Yellow Emperor and other classical medical texts.
• The Dying Son: Silently suffering a flourishing ailment that could have been prevented by getting the right medical help.
• The Servant: A man in debt to the Tsang family. Their servant until his debts are paid.

Setting:

• Chengdu, Sichuan province. (Western China at that time.)
• Northern Song Dynasty (Between 960–1127)
• The Estate Of a State Official

Point of the Dialogue:

• In China, depending on where one lived, different teas were available more than others for use as medicine. This could contribute to life-or-death situations in a very negative way if a household did not have the right tea.

Part 1: Diagnosis and Prescription

Part 2: Treating Ailments with Tea

This first dialogue in how trade influenced the evolution of tea as a medicine is scene of a Song Dynasty physician treating a dying young man with green tea. Both characters are purposefully unnamed as they could be any Song Dynasty doctor and patient. I chose to write this as my first dialogue out of three because China was where tea started its healthful journey. The dialogue takes place in China’s Song Dynasty because it was a booming time of financial growth in both the Southern and the western parts of China. Tealeaves were a very commonly traded by this time, and recognized for their phlegm removing properties as medicine. Trade was however sporadic, and not as fast as it is in present day, so sometimes medical ingredients, and even tea would not reach it’s destination at a time when it was needed. However, according to “The True History of Tea” by Victor H. Mair and Erling Hoh, Buddhist monks drank tea and sometimes even carried it around with them as they walked about the land – a phenomenon most likely in common knowledge, so it is likely that physicians could use it to their advantage, such as in the circumstances in the dialogue.#  I chose to leave the dialogue without giving away the knowledge of whether the son will live or die because it would depend on trade – the influence it had on the dying son’s life in getting the green tea on time to save his life.

The main primary sources for this two-part dialogue are Cheng Maoxian’s narratives in which he helps patients with herbal infusions. The secondary source is The True History of Tea by Victor H. Mair and Erling Hoh. According to The True History of Tea, tealeaves were cheaper than infusions and commonly used by poorer folk. They were however less strong – and that’s why a rich family used them in this dialogue. Cheng Maoxian’s narratives were mainly used as a reference for how a patient should be diagnosed. Even if Maoxian used infusions, and not tealeaves, a patient would be treated very similarly with both – having the hot liquids in doses as medicine. The reader should understand green tea as a curer of symptoms, not just a drink to quench thirst.

Characters:

• Henry: An upper middle class gentleman.
• Muriel: Henry’s wife, Lily’s mother. Obsessed with gaining a good reputation in society.
• Lily: Henry and Muriel’s Daughter. She’s getting a bit too old to be without a husband (which means that she’s 18).
• Lord Herbert Fitzwilliam: A lord who went to the orient to trade for tea. He has made a small fortune in the tea trade.
• Hatty: A servant paid for by Henry.

Setting:

• Birmingham, England
• Victorean Era (in this case, after the 1840’s)
• The Estate Of a State Official

Point of the Dialogue:

• Although the British of the Victorian era believed that tea had the medical capability to stimulate the senses, they did not know why. This could be attributed to the very small part of China that they were allowed to trade in. Their ignorance as to how advanced a culture the Chinese were by 1840 can also be attributed to this fact (besides imperialism, nationalism).

“Tea thaws the freezing Veins, of Limbs and tongue,/And makes the Feeble eloquent and strong:/The aged Lady, here, renews her Youth,/And pretty misses learn to speak the truth…”

It obviously has some sort of medical property that warms from the inside out increasing the body’s youthful qualities, and bringing out the best in people, even you Lily. I like your curiosity and I see that you’ve been drinking tea for the last half hour.

Lily: Why thank you, my lord.

Muriel to Henry: I sure hope that was a sign of a wedding in the future. And with his background, I expect a low dowry. Thank God, for what tea will do for this family.

Explanation:

This second two-part dialogue takes place in Victorian Era Britain. I chose the Victorian era because it was a period of much trade of tea. It was also the first time in over four and a half thousand years that tea was seen in a different way and was consumed by others besides those in Asia. This time tea was seen as a stimulant, somewhat like coffee, and become a popular drink, especially among woman. It should be noted that tealeaves were the main ingredients in tea in Britain, and that like, milk and sugar were added to it. The china tea set mentioned in the first for the two-part dialogue would have been a new and expensive thing in Europe – and another item traded from China. Although tea was seen as a stimulant, and an overall healthy drink to enjoy socially, there were other factors alluded to in the primary source for this dialogue.  Duncan Campbell’s, A poem Upon Tea, states that “Tea thaws the freezing Veins, of Limbs and tongue,/And makes the Feeble eloquent and strong:/The aged Lady, here, renews her Youth,/And pretty misses learn to speak the truth…” and each line in that part of the poem can be seen as a symptom that tea cured. In the poems, the warming qualities of tea are shown, as a result giving the drinker more focus and strength, letting the elderly feel rejuvenated, and bringing about good behavior from the young. The other primary sources for the dialogue were from the names of the teas. Hyson and Myron teas were sent from China by the chest, and were sold by the chest in newspapers such as The Daily Advertiser – a newspaper with a name stating its exact purpose, to advertise daily. Tea is common among the goods advertised in the newspaper, but expensive depending on which tea a person wanted.

Characters:

• Customer in the first dialogue: A customer wanting fair trade green tea.
• Clerk in the first and second narratives: Interested more in a sale than the products being sold.
• Customer in the second dialogue: Wants to fix the information on a tea label.

Setting:

• Vancouver, Canada
• Present day
• Select Tea Shops (unnamed)

Point of the Dialogue:

• Nowadays sales often beat out quality and truth in the mind of corporations trying to sell tea for it’s “healthy properties.”