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<p>This review examines Li’s <i>Body Maps: Improvising Meridians and Nerves in Global Chinese Medicine</i> (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2025), a groundbreaking interdisciplinary work that traces the history of meridian images from the tenth to the twentieth century. Li’s central theoretical contribution lies in her conceptualization of <i>tu</i> (圖) as functional “action templates” rather than anatomical illustrations pursuing mechanical objectivity. Through meticulous archival research across multiple languages, the book reveals how visual representation actively participates in knowledge production rather than merely reflecting it. While the critical cartography framework and contemporary clinical dimensions warrant further exploration, <i>Body Maps</i> offers invaluable methodological insights for understanding the constitutive role of images in cross-cultural medical knowledge and demonstrates that acknowledging “incommensurability” between meridians and nerves is not an epistemological dead end but rather the starting point for genuine dialogue.</p>

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Li, L.A., Body Maps: Improvising Meridians and Nerves in Global Chinese Medicine

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2026年7月20日

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  • Qi Dong

摘要

This review examines Li’s Body Maps: Improvising Meridians and Nerves in Global Chinese Medicine (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2025), a groundbreaking interdisciplinary work that traces the history of meridian images from the tenth to the twentieth century. Li’s central theoretical contribution lies in her conceptualization of tu (圖) as functional “action templates” rather than anatomical illustrations pursuing mechanical objectivity. Through meticulous archival research across multiple languages, the book reveals how visual representation actively participates in knowledge production rather than merely reflecting it. While the critical cartography framework and contemporary clinical dimensions warrant further exploration, Body Maps offers invaluable methodological insights for understanding the constitutive role of images in cross-cultural medical knowledge and demonstrates that acknowledging “incommensurability” between meridians and nerves is not an epistemological dead end but rather the starting point for genuine dialogue.