UDTR Global Rights of Nature Radar

Natural history connects medical concepts and painting theories in China

Identification

Public canonical key

doi:10.31390/gradschool_theses.1932

Authors

Henderson, Sara Madeleine

Reported year

2007

Reported language

en

Source type

dissertation

First detected

2026-11-10T13:56:29.801054+00:00

Last metadata observation

2026-11-10T13:56:29.801237+00:00

Last HTTP verification

Not checked

Institutions reported by the source

Louisiana State University

Documentary abstract — original language

The earliest decipherable Chinese history traces back to the Shang Dynasty (B.C. 1766 – 1154). This period was considered prehistory until the discovery of artifacts describing divination rites in this era, practices that forge a culture. Divination rites included patterns in nature (natural law, li) such as the Five Elements and the Eight Trigrams. The Eight Trigrams were the first attempt at writing ancient philosophies. Eight symbols represent categories that are not static, but the changing patterns in nature are captured by organizing events and forms in nature relative to seven other influences. Later this idea expanded eight-fold, embracing the patterns of nature as well as human nature, thus creating Sixty-four Hexagrams. Such categories illuminating ‘likeness’ and ‘kind’ in nature originated in ritualistic practices and were the theoretical foundations of Chinese traditional art and medicine still in practice today. This thesis finds that ancient philosophies and rituals are the roots of Chinese culture, medicine and art. One ancient concept that is still prevalent in medical theories today is that of the body as a microcosm reflecting the macrocosmic universe. Medical concepts about the body illuminate a view of nature based on the concept of largeness in smallness. The technique of ‘depicting things as they are’ asks artists to capture the likeness of forms in nature. This is a time-honored aim of Chinese artists. Artists should strive to capture ‘likeness’ representing nature’s complexity, such that there is largeness in the smallest forms (such as humans) and space in nothingness (such as mist).

Identifiers

OPENALEX

W2889028231

DOI

10.31390/gradschool_theses.1932

Documentary context

Documentary family

Thesis

Source-reported types

dissertation

Jurisdictions studied — explicit sources

CN

Entity mentions are not evidence of legal recognition. Jurisdiction studied is separate from author affiliation country.

Sources

OpenAlex · Record 1 · Record 2

• DOI · https://doi.org/10.31390/gradschool_theses.1932
• OpenAlex · https://openalex.org/W2889028231

Documented bibliographic relations

Source-declared references and links; they do not establish legal support or UGLC qualification. Up to 20 outgoing references are displayed.

• openalex:w1486486346 · CITES
• openalex:w1486828313 · CITES
• openalex:w1508100393 · CITES
• openalex:w1508490425 · CITES
• openalex:w1531526260 · CITES
• openalex:w1533756349 · CITES
• openalex:w1547075691 · CITES
• openalex:w1566938536 · CITES
• openalex:w1581722718 · CITES
• openalex:w1585725949 · CITES
• openalex:w1973329817 · CITES
• openalex:w1987062523 · CITES
• openalex:w1996667908 · CITES
• openalex:w1998493993 · CITES
• openalex:w2001601922 · CITES
• openalex:w2002747484 · CITES
• openalex:w2011594609 · CITES
• openalex:w2022315656 · CITES
• openalex:w2023978419 · CITES
• openalex:w2032784988 · CITES

0 incoming references within the detected corpus

Documentary status

Relevance pending

Library

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