Origins and characteristics of Chinese medicine -- The lack of existential autonomy -- The longing for existential autonomy -- Quotations from the medical classics -- The banality of violence -- The Mawangdui texts -- Anatomy, physiology, and pathology in the new medicine -- Deficiencies in the credibility of the new medicine -- The alternative model : the view from illness -- Radical healing : life as a form of disease -- Between antiquity and the modern age -- Two medical authors of the Ming and Qing dynasties : Wan Quan and Xu Dachun -- The confrontation with the western way of life -- The persuasiveness of Chinese medicine -- The opinions of intellectuals and politicians -- The selection -- The surprise -- The creative reception of Chinese medicine in the west -- The objectification of the discussion : opportunity and challenge.