Portraying the Clinical Margins

Abstract Illustrations of “human-derived drugs” ( renyao ) were rare, if not entirely absent, in premodern Chinese medical texts until forty-three such illustrations, rendered in different styles, appeared across four medical volumes in the late Ming period. A long-established consensus on the representation of human-derived drugs was transformed by a surge in visual representations during the late-Ming boom in commercial medical publications. These illustrations, serving various functions, challenged conventional moral views on pharmaceutical therapies and prevailing conceptions of filth and evil. These illustrations sought to normalize human-derived drug therapeutic practice by narratively depicting controversial drugs, increasing the aura of the mundane through the plain representation of social stratification, as well as catering to the aesthetic sensibilities of a potential audience from various socioeconomic backgrounds.