Ingot Medicines, Duanwu Rituals, and Bodily Care in the Eighteenth-Century Qing Imperium

Abstract: This article analyzes the eighteenth-century Qing court's transformation of ingot medicine (Ch. dingzi yao or yaoding ; Ma. dingdzi okto ) into empire-wide gifts for the Duanwu Festival. While earlier periods used medical ingots on a more limited scale, the Yongzheng Emperor institutionalized their production and distribution, elevating them into objects imbued with both therapeutic and political significance. Drawing on records from the Imperial Workshops and official memorials, I argue that Yongzheng's personal Daoist inclinations, the developed material network in High Qing, and the political necessities of consolidating the imperial authority together contributed to the formalization of this ritual. Crafted to be visually exquisite, pharmacologically potent, and symbolically protective, these medical ingots embodied the emperor's care for his subjects. As they circulated through the empire, they enacted imperial authority and care at a bodily level and reified the ideal of a unified realm transcending geographic and ethnic divisions.