Glorify God in Our Bodies: Vernacular Physiology Primers in the Late Qing

Physiology was a popular school subject in late Qing China. The demand for physiology knowledge manifested Chinese intellectuals’ anxiety about the stereotype “Dongya bingfu東亞病夫(Sick man of East Asia).” Under this condition, physiology was situated in the national discourse concerning nation and ethnicity, rather than simply related to personal health. On the other hand, Western missionaries placed physiology in the religious context and associated it with Christian truth. The acquirement of physiological knowledge enabled converts to know and take good care of their body, and thus could love the Lord with all their soul and strength. Missionaries produced a series of vernacular physiology primers for students in elementary church schools. They were different from traditional Chinese medical books in two ways. First, they were completely written in vernacular Chinese, which helps children to build a sound image of physiological terms in their mother tongue. Second, they provide illustrations to explain complex concepts in a visual way. Based on the textual comparison of two editions of Henry D. Porter’s Xingshen zhizhang省身指掌(Elementary Physiology), this paper aims to examine how missionaries convey physiological knowledge to local children through vernacular physiology primers.