analysis of poem - 1342 Words

To analyze a poem stylistically, we can analyze the poetic device, which is usually deviation and foregrounding, that the poet used in the poem. The term foregrounding refers to an effect brought about in the reader by linguistic or other forms of deviation in the literary text (Leech, 1985).In poem, devices of foregrounding and deviation are always used to draw reader’s attention and impress the readers. In the aspect of deviation and foregrounding, there are some perspectives on the nature of poetic language. The first one is on the phonological level (phonological deviation). It is the sound system of a given language and the formal rules of pronunciation. (Aslam, Mukhtar Sarfaraz, 2014) The second one is on the graphlogical level†¦show more content†¦These repeated phrases also make the poem informal and sound like close to over spoken language. It also make the meaning of the poem straight forward. Readers may put less effort to understand the meaning. On the ot her hand, the sound of all repeated phrase are exactly the same and produce a full rhyme to them. If you read aloud, you may found that the repeated phrases play a role that make the poem rhythmic. Besides, alliterations are used in line 5 ‘quick get’ and line 7 ‘quick quick get’. Both these groups of alliteration have the same starting sound /k/. Alliteration in poetry can give an alternative rhythm or meter to the poem. (Wise GEEK, 2010) Alliteration does not affect the meaning of the poem but like repetition, it helps the readers to remember the poem in an easier way because it gives both a visual and an aural function. This make the literary more beautiful and grand. For Myers’s poem, she used alliteration to embellish her words and emphasize the meaning of ‘being quick’ because the main character (or the author) is being late. Thirdly, Myers also used some assonance in her poem. For example, in line 9 ‘made’ and ‘ gate’ they have the same vowel /e/ in the middle of the word, in lineShow MoreRelatedPoem Analysis : Langston Hughes Poem1258 Words   |  6 Pages Research Paper and Poem Analysis: Langston Hughes Poem Analysis: Langston Hughes’ poem â€Å"Mother To Son† is a twenty line poem that seems to be from the perspective of a prudent mother that is giving her son, and possibly the readers, some helpful and supportive advice, telling them that, no matter how many adversities they may face, they can not give up. I believe that this is the main theme of the poem, perseverance. â€Å"So, boy, don’t you turn back./ Don’t you set down on the steps./ ‘Cause youRead MoreAnalysis Of The Poem The 1641 Words   |  7 PagesBeautiful. That is how I would describe her. Rayah Lou’ren Gibson was the absolute light of my life. She was born on Thursday, August 14th, 2008. She was not my biological daughter, but she was and always will be my baby girl—my little princess. I often called her my angel. She loved dancing and singing, she loved the movie Frozen, the song, â€Å"Do You Want To Build A Snowman?†, and her favorite color was purple. She loved her frien ds, especially Alina. â€Æ' She really loved grocery shopping with me forRead MoreAnalysis Of The Poem 896 Words   |  4 PagesThe Deformity The bright lights and unknown voices travelled around me. It surly wasn’t the first time I had experienced this, but it was the first time I could actually recognize what was going on. They tried to ease my nervousness with their soothing words, but being so anxious nothing could soothe me. It all started at birth. My deformity was nothing new to the medical world, but in my parent’s eyes it was something out of fiction. My feet were turned in like hockey sticks. In medical jargonRead MoreAnalysis Of The Poem The Essay1253 Words   |  6 PagesQuiajah Freeman Professor Barberan English 29 October 2016 Recitatif If twentieth-century studies of Recitatif focus primarily on extremes—the white and black ends of the binary—instead of plumbing the depths of the murky space in between, twenty-first century scholarship on Recitatif better explicates how the story works on our preconceptions about race. For instance, referencing postmodernist understandings of race. (Philadelphia: Univ.of Penn. PressRead MoreThe Schoolboy Poem Analysis771 Words   |  4 PagesThe Schoolboy – Close critical analysis â€Å"The Schoolboy† is a poem about how education systems hinder youths from behaving naturally. For example, in this poem, the boy â€Å"love(s) to rise in a summer morn, When the birds sing on every tree†. However, he has â€Å"to go to school in a summer morn† and this â€Å"drives all (his) joy away†. Hence, from here we can see that societal norms destroy the innocence of youth as they repress their souls with so-called education. By doing so, the author is telling us toRead MoreAnalysis Of The Poem The Fish 1047 Words   |  5 PagesModernist Poetry Analysis February 25, 2015 â€Å"The Fish† Imagism is a style of poetry that employs free verse and the patterns and rhythms of common speech. The poet is free to write about whatever they want. The goal is to unify voice and image into a talking picture. Poets then have the power to make words into things. This then creates a picture for the reader. Marianne Moore is able to perfectly get her point across without directly stating it but making it clear enough. Moore’s poem â€Å"The Fish† usesRead MorePoem Analysis836 Words   |  4 PagesExperiments suggested that linearly increasing perturbation rate is more desirable over other introduced perturbation rates. It was proposed that some more perturbation rate varying schemes such as adaptive, chaotic, non-linear etc. will be explored and their performance will be examined in near future. To enhance the local search ability of spider monkeys in the original SMO, K. Gupta, et al., [30] propounded a Quadratic Approximation operator in her research â€Å"Improving the local search abilityRead MoreAnalysis Of The Poem Beowulf 851 Words   |  4 Pagesoffers literary analysis of Beowulf, the oldest epic poem that has survived in English literature. It is also widely known as the earliest surviving piece of literatures in vernacular European Literature. The language of this poem is Old English, spoken by Saxon people. This poem depicts a traditional story that is a part of oral Germanic tradition. As per experts, this is work of a single poet and was composed in then England. It has been determined by the scholars that this poem was written betweenRead MoreAnalysis Of The Poem The Dead 1416 Words   |  6 Pages The Dead Muse: A Critical Analysis of The Raven Your Name Your University â€Æ' The Dead Muse: A Critical Analysis of The Raven The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe is a very famous poem which intricately weaves layer upon layer of meaning through singsong verses. Combining allusions to literature, mythology and religion, the poem tells many stories at once while evoking a feeling of nonsense and a descent into insanity. It is hard to understand what the poem is about—if anything at all, and Poe does notRead MoreAnalysis Of The Poem Howl 1406 Words   |  6 PagesHistoric Analysis of ‘’ Howl ‘’ ‘’Howl’’ was a poem written by  Allen Ginsberg in 1956. For us to understand the poem it is necessary for us to understand the history behind the poem. ‘’ Howl ‘’ was published in 1956, right after the devastating World War II. After WWII that’s when the American dream was in full force throughout the whole world. Many Immigrants were trying to migrate to the US at that time for a better living. At the same time media was becoming big and powerful gaining trust from

The Unexpected Downside of Science Explored in Aldous...

The Unexpected Downside of Science Explored in Aldous Huxleys Brave New World Since the first day that humans were put on this earth, they have been curious and have searched for ways to become more efficient. Throughout the years they have created tools to better serve them, created clothing to keep them warm, built homes to protect them from the elements, and produced transportation methods to transport them across the world. In Aldous Huxleys Brave New World (1932), the human race has evolved to being extremely efficient in everything that they do. This efficiency includes producing new human beings. Science has taken over and altered the society. Imagine not having a family to care for you or you for them. In Huxleys book,†¦show more content†¦Each class is specified in Greek letters. The upper class is the Alpha class, followed by the Beta class and so on. One would think that a person of a lower class would prefer to be an Alpha, but in Huxleys book the well conditioning of humans since birth allows the lower class to be thankful that they are not a part of any other class. Most of the mental conditioning occurs during the sleeping hours of the children. While the children sleep, speakers that are scattered throughout the room repeat a phrase over and over. The children then repeat the exact phrase over and over in their sleep. A conditioning phrase giving to the Beta class would state, Alpha children wear grey. They work much harder than we do, because theyre so frightfully clever. Im really glad Im a Beta, because I dont work so hard. And then we are much better than the Gammas and Deltas. Gammas are stupid. They all wear green, and Delta children wear khaki. Oh no, I dont want to play with Delta children. And Epsilons are still worse. Theyre too stupid to be able to read or write. Besides they wear black, which is such a beastly colour. Im so glad Im a Beta (18). The director running the conditioning of the new humans stated that, Theyll have that repeated [. . .] A hundred and twenty times three times a week for thirty months. After which they go on to a more advanced lesson. Till at last the childs mind is these suggestions, and the sum of the

Essay of Ancient China Free Essays

Ancient China In ancient Chinese cosmology, the universe was created not by divinities but self-generated from the interplay of nature’s basic duality: the active, light, dry, warm, positive, masculine yang and the passive, dark, cold, moist, negative yin. All things, animate and inanimate, and all circumstances were a combination of these fundamentals. The ultimate principle of the universe was the tao, â€Å"the way,† and it determined the proper proportions of yin and yang in everything. We will write a custom essay sample on Essay of Ancient China or any similar topic only for you Order Now Anything that altered the natural relation of yin to yang was considered bad, and right living consisted of carefully following the tao. If one observed the tao by moderation, equanimity, and morality, as taught in the Tao-te Ching, by Lao-tzu (sixth century B. C. ), one would be impervious to disease and resistant to the ravages of aging; disregard of the tao led to illness, which was not so much a punishment for sin as the inevitable result of acting contrary to natural laws. However, illness also could be caused by forces beyond one’s control: â€Å"Wind is the cause of a hundred diseases,† and atmospheric conditions could upset the harmonious inner balance of the yang and yin. One had to be alert to this possibility and combat its effects as well as modify internal imbalances of the vital forces. Longevity and health were the rewards. Chinese medicine, in league with Taoism, was focused on the prevention of illness; for, as the legendary Huang Ti, father of Chinese medicine, observed, â€Å"the superior physician helps before the early budding of disease. † Although Taoist hygiene called for temperance and simplicity in most things, sexual mores were governed by the yin-yang aspect of Chinese philosophy. Ejaculation in intercourse led to diminution of a man’s yang, which, of course, upset the inner balance of his nature. On the other hand, one was strengthened by absorption of the yin released by the orgasm of one’s female partner—unless she was over thirty, the point where female essence lost its efficacy. The tao was important in Confucianism also, as the path of virtuous conduct, and for centuries the precepts of Confucius (K’ung Fu-tzu, 550-479 B. C. ) set the most prevalent standards of behavior. In early Chinese philosophy, there was a tendency to accept and combine aspects of all religions and to make way for new ideas. Nevertheless, the ancient Chinese were profoundly conservative once an institution, custom, philosophy, mode of dress, or even a furniture style was firmly established, and it remained relatively unchanged over centuries. As Confucius said: â€Å"Gather in the same places where our fathers before us have gathered; perform the same ceremonies which they before us have performed; play the same music which they before us have played; pay respect to those whom they honored; love those who were dear to them. † Although ancient China’s development was relatively isolated, there was early contact with India and Tibet. Buddhism came to China from India, and medical concepts and practices were an important part of its teachings. The gymnastic and breathing exercises in Chinese medical methodology also came from India and were closely related to the principles of Yoga and to aspects of Ayurvedic medicine. There were also contacts with Southeast Asia, Persia, and the Arabic world. In the second century B. C. , the Chinese ambassador Chang Chien spent more than a decade in Mesopotamia, Syria, and Egypt, bringing back information on drugs, viticulture, and other subjects. Over the centuries, knowledge of humoral medicine and of numerous new medicaments filtered into China. The introduction of the wisdom of the Mediterranean world was greatly facilitated in the fifth century by the expulsion and wide dispersion from Constantinople of the heretical Nestorian Christians. The mother of Kublai Khan (1216-94), founder of the Mongol dynasty, was a Nestorian and asked the Pope to send European doctors to China. Early Medical Writings Classical Chinese medicine was based primarily on works ascribed to three legendary emperors. The most ancient was Fu Hsi (c. 2900 B. C. , who was said to have originated the pa kua, a symbol composed of yang lines and yin lines combined in eight (pa) separate trigrams (kua) which could represent all yin-yang conditions. This system is followed even today in the I Ching (Book of Changes), though as a game or superstition in the West. Shen Nung, the Red Emperor (Hung Ti), compiled the first medical herbal, the Pen-tsao (c. 2800 B. C. ), in which he reported the effects of 365 drugs, all of them personally tested. One legend explains that a magic drug made his abdominal skin transparent, so he could observe the action of the many plants he evaluated. Another story tells that he cut open his abdomen and stitched in a window. Shen Nung is also said to have drawn up the first charts on acupuncture, a medical procedure presumably even older than the legendary emperors. The fame of Yu Hsiung (c. 2600 B. C. ), the Yellow Emperor (Huang Ti), rests on his great medical compendium, the Nei Ching (Canon of Medicine). Transmitted orally for many centuries, this seminal work was possibly committed to writing by the third century B. C. Its present form dates from the eighth century A. D. when the last extensive revision was done by Wang Ping. The major portion of the Nei Ching, the Sun-Wen (Simple Questions), records the discourse of the Yellow Emperor with Ch’i Po, his prime minister, on virtually all phases of health and illness, including prevention and treatment. The section called Ling-Hsu (Spiritual Nucleus), deals entirely with acupuncture. Yu Hsiung also was said to be responsible for another great compendium, The Discourses of the Yellow Emperor and the Plain Girl, which thoroughly covered the subject of sex from the Taoist point of view. Among other notable sources for ancient medical lore, one might mention the Shih Ching (Book of Odes), which perhaps predates Homer’s epics, and the Lun-yu, discourses of Confucius probably written down shortly after his death, which affected patterns of behavior for many generations. During the long Chou dynasty (c. 1050-255 B. C. ), a lengthy compilation of medical works, Institutions of Chou, was completed and became the criterion for subsequent dynasties on the duties and organization of physicians. In the Han dynasty (206 B. C. -A. D. 20), there was a noted clinical author named Tsang Kung, who pioneered in the description of many diseases, including cancer of the stomach, aneurysm, and rheumatism. Chang Chung-ching, the Chinese Hippocrates, in the third century A. D. , wrote the classic treatise Typhoid and Other Fevers. Ko Hung, a famed alchemist and a careful observer, wrote treatises describing beriberi (a vitamin B deficiency), hepatitis, and plague, and gave one of the earliest reports on smallpox: â€Å"As the New Year approached there was a seasonal affection in which pustules appeared on the face and spread rapidly all over the body. They looked like burns covered with white starch and reformed as soon as they were broken. The majority died if not treated. After recovery purplish black scars remained. † Sun Szu-miao (A. D. 581-682) wrote Ch’ien Chin Yao Fang (A Thousand Golden Remedies), which summarized in thirty volumes much of the known medical learning, and he headed a committee which produced a fifty-volume collection on pathology. An extensive codification of forensic medicine, Hsi Yuan Lu, was done in the Sung dynasty and became the prime source for knowledge of medical jurisprudence. Anatomy and Physiology Ideas of anatomy in ancient China were reached by reasoning and. by assumption rather than dissection or direct observation. Since the doctrines of Confucius forbade violation of the body, it was not until the eighteenth century, long after Vesalius, that the Chinese began systematic, direct anatomical studies. Even as late as the nineteenth century, in the Viceroy’s Hospital Medical School, anatomy was taught by diagrams and artificial models rather than dissection. Physiological functions were constructed into a humoral system much like Greek concepts of the sixth century B. C. and Galenic views of the second century A. D. , except that there were five instead of four essential humors. (The number five had mystical value for the Chinese and was used for most classifications: five elements, five tastes, five qualities, five kinds of drugs, five treatments, five solid organs, five seasons, five emotions, five colors, etc. ) The medical compendium Nei Ching stated that each emotion had its seat in a particular organ. Happiness dwelt in the heart, thought in the spleen, sorrow in the lungs, and the liver housed anger as well as the soul. Ideas in the Nei Ching concerning movement of the blood (â€Å"All the blood is under control of the heart. † â€Å"The blood current flows continuously in a circle and never stops. â€Å") have been thought to approach an understanding of its circulation antedating Harvey by thousands of years; however, some body vessels were believed to convey air, and there is little evidence that commentators perceived the blood-carrying vessels as a contained system. Diagnosis The Chinese methods of diagnosis included questioning, feeling the pulse, observing the voice and body, and in some circumstances touching the affected parts. In almost all times and cultures physicians have used a similar approach, for all healers have sought to know as much as possible about a patient in order to understand his or her illness and advise treatment. However, in some respects ancient physicians saw each patient more completely as a reflection of his surroundings (indeed, the entire universe) than does the doctor of today. The Chinese doctor wanted to learn ow the patient had violated the tao, and to do this he took into account the patient’s rank; changes in his or her social status, household, economic position, sense of well-being, or appetite; the weather; and the dreams of the patient and his or her family. Perhaps the most important diagnostic technique of the ancient Chinese was examination of the pulse. The physician felt the right wrist and then the lef t. He compared the beats with his own, noting precise time as well as day and season since each hour affected the nature of the pulsations. Each pulse had three distinct divisions, each associated with a specific organ, and each division had a separate quality, of which there were dozens of varieties. Moreover, each division or zone of the pulse had a superficial and deep projection. Thus literally hundreds of possible characteristics were obtainable. In one treatise, Muo-Ching, ten volumes were necessary to cover all the intricacies of the pulse. A patient had only to extend his or her arm through drawn bed curtains for the physician to determine the symptoms, diagnosis, prognosis, and proper treatment by intensive palpation of the pulse. Whenever possible the examiner also felt the skin of the ill person. However, it was considered bad form for a man to intimately examine a woman, so special ceramic, ivory, and wooden dolls were pointed to by the invalid to indicate where discomfort was felt. Treatment According to the Nei Ching, there were five methods of treatment: cure the spirit, nourish the body, give medications, treat the whole body, and use acupuncture and moxibustion. The physician had to put the patient back on the right path, the tao. Assuming that specific mental states caused changes in specific organs, the healer linked certain objectionable behavioral and constitutional factors with illness and attempted to have the patient rectify these. For instance, dissolute and licentious ideas led to diseases of the lungs, but acting out such thoughts brought on heart trouble. A doctor had to determine the cause of disharmony in the body and act accordingly. Exercises were developed to keep the body fit and to restore well-being. Hua T’o, the great surgeon, worked out an ingenious system of physical therapy by advising mimicry of the natural movements of animals. Massage—kneading, tapping, pinching, and chafing—was also a regular method of treatment, as were the application of plasters and evacuation of the intestinal tract by cathartics. In nourishing a patient’s body, the physician resorted to complex combinations of foods according to their potential amounts of yang and yin. Foods also had to fit the seasons, and each of the five tastes had benefits for a particular element of the body: sour for the bones, pungent for the tendons, salty for the blood, bitter for respiration, and sweet for muscle. Medications The Chinese pharmacopoeia was always rich, from the time of the Pen-tsao, the first medical herbal, to the later dynasties when two thousand items and sixteen thousand prescriptions made up the armamentarium. Drugs were considered more likely to be good if they tasted bad. As one would expect, they were classified into five categories: herbs, trees, insects, stones, and grains. The therapeutic minerals and metals included compounds of mercury (calomel was employed for venereal diseases), arsenic, and magnetic stones. Animal-derived remedies, in addition to â€Å"dragon teeth† (powdered fossilized bones), included virtually anything obtainable from living creatures: whole parts, segments of organs, urine, dung. Two plant substances especially associated with China may be singled out. One is ephedra (ma huang), the â€Å"horsetail† plant described by the Red Emperor, which was used for thousands of years as a stimulant, as a remedy for respiratory -diseases, to induce fevers and perspiration, and to depress coughs. Ephedra entered the Greek pharmacopoeia and eventually was disseminated throughout most of the world. It only became a factor in Western medicine in the late nineteenth century after Japanese investigators isolated and purified the active principle, ephedrine, and established its pharmacologic action. A second medicinal herb, always highly popular among the Chinese, is ginseng (â€Å"man-shaped root†). To the Chinese, preparations containing ginseng were almost miraculous in delaying old age, restoring sexual powers, stimulating the debilitated, and sedating the overwrought. In addition it improved diabetes and stabilized blood pressure. In recent years this root has been under scrutiny by Western pharmacologists attempting to evaluate its true benefits. Multitudes in Asia, and even some Westerners, are so convinced of its effectiveness that high-grade wild roots have brought fabulous prices (even reaching thousands of dollars apiece). Although many items in the Chinese materia medica have either faded into bscurity or been labeled fanciful, others subsequently have been found to possess sound pharmacologic bases: seaweed, which contains iodine, was used in treating enlargement of the thyroid; the willow plant, containing salicylic acid, was a remedy for rheumatism; the Siberian wort has antispasmodics for menstrual discomfort; and mulberry flowers contain rutin, a treatment for elevated blood pressure. Whether opium was used as a drug before quite late in Chinese history is still in dispute. Acupuncture and Moxibustion These modalities have been an inte gral part of Chinese medical therapy for thousands of years. The Yellow Emperor is said to have invented them, but they may well have existed long before his time. The aim of these treatments was to drain off excess yang or yin and thus establish a proper balance, but external energy also could be introduced into the body. In acupuncture the skin is pierced by long needles to varying prescribed depths. Needles are inserted into any of 365 points along the twelve meridians that traverse the body and transmit an active life force called ch’i. Each of these points is related to a particular organ. For instance, puncture of a certain spot on the ear lobe might be the proper way to treat an abdominal ailment. Virtually every illness, weakness, and symptom is thought to be amenable to correction by acupuncture. Acupuncture spread to Korea and Japan by the end of the tenth century A. D. , to Europe about the seventeenth century, and recent years have seen a wider interest in this Chinese medical practice in the West. Individual paramedical healers and even some medical practitioners have been swamped with requests for acupuncture, especially for problems apparently little benefited by conventional practices. The eventual acceptability of this practice in standard Western medicine remains to be seen. Moxibustion is as old as acupuncture, and the same meridians and points govern placement of the moxa. However, in this treatment a powdered plant substance, usually mugwort, is fashioned into a small mound on the patient’s skin and burned, usually raising a blister. Dentistry The treatment of tooth disorders was confined mainly to applying or ingesting drugs—pomegranate, aconite, ginseng, garlic, rhubarb, and arsenic, as well as animal products such as dung and urine. The Nei Ching classified nine types of toothaches, which included some obviously due to infections and tooth decay. Like the Mesopotamians and Egyptians, the ancient Chinese believed that worms were often responsible for dental problems. Toothpicks and tooth whiteners were used, and loose teeth were stabilized with bamboo splints. Gold was sometimes used to cover teeth, but the purpose was decorative rather than protective. Surgery Although surgery was not one of the five methods of treatment listed in the Nei Ching, the knife was known and used. Hua T’o, one of the few names mentioned in connection with surgery, treated an arm wound of the famous general Kuan Yu by cutting his flesh and scraping the bone. Physicians knew how to deal with wounds, and at least two classics were devoted entirely to their treatment. The proper attitude toward pain was to bear it without a sign of emotion, and much was made of the insouciance of the general treated by Hua T’o; he played chess while the surgeon operated. Nevertheless, apparently some kind of anesthesia was often used. Wine and drugs like hyoscyamus were probably mainstays, but the use of opium and Indian hemp is still in question. Eunuchs and Footbinding Another surgical procedure, though hardly therapeutic, was the frequent castration of certain males seeking advancement at court. Though originally a severe punishment, the total removal of penis and testicles came to be a pledge of absolute allegiance to the monarch, since it released the eunuch from conflict with Confucian admonitions of first loyalty to family and the obligation of siring a son for posterity. Footbinding is also of medical interest, for it caused the development of artificially clubbed feet. Over a period of one thousand years, every young girl of proper family willingly permitted herself to be crippled by her mother and aunts to achieve the tiny foot of ideal feminine beauty. Her toes were gradually folded under the sole, and by increasingly tight bandaging her heelbone and forefoot were brought closer together. Without Golden Lotuses, as the best-shaped bound feet were called, a girl was unmarriageable, nor was the life of a courtesan open to her, for tiny feet were a woman’s most desirable feature. For a man, a bound-foot wife had profound sexual significance, but she was also a status symbol inasmuch as her helplessness indicated that he was wealthy enough to support a woman, or women, in idleness. There was also an advantage to him in her restricted mobility, for it kept her home and made illicit amorous adventures difficult. Although China’s Manchu conquerors forbade the practice in the nineteenth century, it was not until the early twentieth that footbinding was completely abandoned. Diseases Some epidemic diseases were understood well enough to allow the development of protective measures. In the eleventh century, inoculation against smallpox was effected by putting scabs from smallpox pustules into the nostrils, a method which may have come from India. Wearing the clothing of someone who had the disease was another means of prevention. The relationship of cowpox (as a protective) to smallpox may have been perceived, since ingesting powdered fleas from infected cows was also recommended to stave off smallpox. But other devastating pestilences were neither understood nor held in check. During the Han dynasty an epidemic of what appears to have been typhoid fever killed two-thirds of the population of one region. Precise descriptions of leprosy in the Nei Ching and later works attest to the diagnostic accuracy of the early Chinese healers, but their explanation of the disease’s causes and their treatment follow preconceived notions of the time. â€Å"The wind and chills lodge in the blood vessels and cannot be got rid of. This is called li-feng. For the treatment prick the swollen parts with a sharp needle to let the foul air out. † Fourteenth-century writings referred to chaulmoogra oil, a pressing from seeds of an East Indian tree, as a specific for leprosy, and this oil remained the principal antileprous drug even in the West until recent decades. An illness that may have been tuberculosis was recognized as contagious: â€Å"Generally the disease gives rise to high fever, sweating, asthenia, unlocalized pains making all positions difficult and slowly bringing about consumption and death, after which the disease is transmitted to the relations until the whole family has been wiped out. † Venereal diseases, although not well differentiated, received a variety of therapies, including the use of metallic substances for internal medication. In the Secret Therapy for the Treatment of Venereal Disease, the seventeenth-century physician Chun Szi-sung reported using arsenic, which, until the development of penicillin, was the modern medication for venereal disease, in the form of Salvarsan and derivatives synthesized by Paul Ehrlich. There seem always to have been places in China where the sick poor could go for medical care. With the advance of Buddhism in the Han and T’ang dynasties, in-patient hospitals staffed by physician-priests became common. However, in the ninth century, when anti-Buddhists were in control, hospitals as well as 4,600 temples were destroyed or emptied. Nevertheless, by the twelfth century hospitals had again become so numerous that virtually every district had at least one tax-supported institution. The upper classes preferred to be treated and cared for in their homes, thus leaving public hospitals to the poor and lower classes. The Practitioners In the Institutions of Chou, compiled hundreds of years before Christ, the hierarchy of physicians in the kingdom was delineated. The five categories were: chief physician (who collected drugs, examined other physicians, and assigned them); food physicians (who prescribed six kinds of food and drink); physicians for simple diseases (such as headaches, colds, minor wounds); ulcer physicians (who may have been the surgeons); and physicians for animals (evidently veterinarians). Physicians were also rated according to their results, and as early as the Chou and T’ang dynasties each doctor had to report both successes and failures—to control his movement up or down in the ranks. In the seventh century A. D. examinations were required for one to qualify as a physician, some four centuries earlier than the first licensing system in the West. Medical knowledge was thought of as a secret power that belonged to each practitioner. Whereas in other societies, both advanced and primitive, closely knit guilds might control the spread of medical lore, the Chinese physician kept his secrets to himself—passing them on only to sons or, sometimes, specially selected qualifiers. In early times, a physician gave his services out of philanthropy, for since the original healers were rulers, sages, nobles, and, perhaps, priests, economic and social incentives were absent. Later, direct fees or salaries were instituted, and the court and certain prosperous households kept physicians on retainer. Formal schools may have existed as early as the tenth century, and in the eleventh century an organization for medical education was set up under imperial auspices. Under the Ming dynasty in the fourteenth century, the school system became fixed. It changed little over the next centuries, xcept for a gradual decline, and by 1800 there was only one medical school left in Peking. Teachers were held strictly accountable for the performance of their students, and fines were imposed if the professor failed to enforce attendance or if his pupils did poorly on exams. The examination system was complex: a pyramidal structure provided a process of elimination which continued until those with the highest scores emerged. The top students could be heart doctors, the next level were assistant examiners, and lower scores could mean limited assignment in teaching. Specialization may have occurred early. While physicians and apothecaries were separate for a long time, they were both regarded as healers. In the Chou dynasty there were nine specialties, and they grew to thirteen by the Mongol period, early in the fourteenth century. The subdivisions became even more complex, with doctors for the great blood vessels, small vessels, fevers, smallpox, eyes, skin, bones, larynx, and mouth and teeth. There were also gynecologists, pediatricians, and pulsologists for internal diseases, external medicine, the nose and throat, and for children’s illnesses. Some healers specialized in moxibustion, acupuncture, or massage. Even the experts in incantation and dietetics were considered medical specialists and were often held in higher regard than other doctors; surgeons were generally of low rank. Furthermore, each of the practitioners in each category had assistants and students—all of whom had to qualify by examination. Obstetrics was in the hands of midwives for many centuries; it is not known when the first women doctors were in practice. One female physician is mentioned by name in documents from the Han dynasty (206 B. C. -A. D. 220), but women may have been doctors at an earlier date. By the fourteenth century women were officially recognized as physicians. Throughout the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), the practicing medical theorists could be divided into six main philosophic schools. The Yin-yang group focused on insufficiencies of one of these forces. The Wen-pou doctors attributed illnesses to a preponderance of yang and frequently prescribed ginseng and aconite. The Radical group used drastic medication. The Conservatives relied entirely on the authorities of the past, reedited the classic works, and made no deviations from strict authoritarianism. The Eclectic physicians, as their name implies, used a variety of principles from the other sects. The sixth school based all therapy on bringing the five elements and six vapors into harmony. Spread of Chinese Medicine to Korea, Japan, And Tibet Ancient Chinese medicine was well-developed long before the beginning of the Christian era, and its influence appears to have spread into adjacent Korea by the sixth century A. D. At that time, after a severe epidemic had ravaged Japan, Korean doctors who were invited to counsel Japanese physicians introduced them to Chinese medical classics and commentaries. By the seventh century, Japanese scholars and doctors were going directly to China for their information and experience. In the eighth century, a Chinese Buddhist monk named Chien Chen came to Japan and achieved a prominent position in the imperial court at Nara, where, given the Japanese name Kanjin, he taught, practiced medicine, and translated Chinese materia medica. Late in that century, Chinese medicine was well-established in Japan, and a medical school based on its methodology was founded by the Japanese physician Wake Hiroya. Early in the next century (806–10), the Emperor Heijo vainly attempted to combat foreign influence and restore traditional Japanese medical practice, but the methods of Chinese healing were too firmly entrenched. In the tenth century, acupuncture reached Japan, followed by moxibusti on (the word moxa is Japanese), and the full complement of Chinese medicine was accepted in Japan. With medical training closely based on Chinese systems, the Japanese exacted exceptionally intensive and prolonged study before permitting entrance into the profession by governmental examination. As in ancient China, high social standing was a requirement for admission to medical school, but separate instruction by assigned teachers was apparently also arranged to accommodate the more lowly. The authority of Chinese medicine, not to mention Chinese culture and philosophy, moved east as well as west by the seventh and eighth centuries. However, Arabic and Indian missionaries of Islam and Buddhism made influence a two-way exchange as they traveled to China seeking converts. Since their missions necessitated the translation of Sanskrit and Arabic writings into Chinese and vice versa, medical knowledge inevitably was passed back and forth. Consequently, the crossroads areas of Southeast Asia and Tibet developed a medical system combining aspects of Chinese, Indian, and Arabic practice. Arabic influence, which stemmed in part from Greek teachings, was evident in the doctrine of four humors (phlegm, blood, bile, and wind), whereas Indian deas were seen in the Yogic placement of the soul in the core of the spinal column and reliance on breathing exercises. Traveling Buddhist priests, who were quite successful in spreading their faith, for a long time also practiced medicine. During this early period, the two wives (one Chinese) of a Tibetan king converted him to Buddhism, and thereafter scholars were invited to bring Chi nese writings into Tibet, which resulted in collections in Tibetan called Kanjur and Tanjur, the latter containing medical information. In the thirteenth century, the Mongol conqueror Kublai Khan wanted this body of knowledge available again in Chinese but was unable to carry through the translation. Nevertheless, his grandson in the next century arranged for scholars from Tibet, Mongolia, and Central Asia to accomplish the task. Ironically, while the Mongols were in control they allied themselves with non-Chinese such as Uighars, Jews, Christians, and Moslems, and they preferred Arabic medicine to Chinese. How to cite Essay of Ancient China, Essay examples

Essay of Ancient China Free Essays

Ancient China In ancient Chinese cosmology, the universe was created not by divinities but self-generated from the interplay of nature’s basic duality: the active, light, dry, warm, positive, masculine yang and the passive, dark, cold, moist, negative yin. All things, animate and inanimate, and all circumstances were a combination of these fundamentals. The ultimate principle of the universe was the tao, â€Å"the way,† and it determined the proper proportions of yin and yang in everything. We will write a custom essay sample on Essay of Ancient China or any similar topic only for you Order Now Anything that altered the natural relation of yin to yang was considered bad, and right living consisted of carefully following the tao. If one observed the tao by moderation, equanimity, and morality, as taught in the Tao-te Ching, by Lao-tzu (sixth century B. C. ), one would be impervious to disease and resistant to the ravages of aging; disregard of the tao led to illness, which was not so much a punishment for sin as the inevitable result of acting contrary to natural laws. However, illness also could be caused by forces beyond one’s control: â€Å"Wind is the cause of a hundred diseases,† and atmospheric conditions could upset the harmonious inner balance of the yang and yin. One had to be alert to this possibility and combat its effects as well as modify internal imbalances of the vital forces. Longevity and health were the rewards. Chinese medicine, in league with Taoism, was focused on the prevention of illness; for, as the legendary Huang Ti, father of Chinese medicine, observed, â€Å"the superior physician helps before the early budding of disease. † Although Taoist hygiene called for temperance and simplicity in most things, sexual mores were governed by the yin-yang aspect of Chinese philosophy. Ejaculation in intercourse led to diminution of a man’s yang, which, of course, upset the inner balance of his nature. On the other hand, one was strengthened by absorption of the yin released by the orgasm of one’s female partner—unless she was over thirty, the point where female essence lost its efficacy. The tao was important in Confucianism also, as the path of virtuous conduct, and for centuries the precepts of Confucius (K’ung Fu-tzu, 550-479 B. C. ) set the most prevalent standards of behavior. In early Chinese philosophy, there was a tendency to accept and combine aspects of all religions and to make way for new ideas. Nevertheless, the ancient Chinese were profoundly conservative once an institution, custom, philosophy, mode of dress, or even a furniture style was firmly established, and it remained relatively unchanged over centuries. As Confucius said: â€Å"Gather in the same places where our fathers before us have gathered; perform the same ceremonies which they before us have performed; play the same music which they before us have played; pay respect to those whom they honored; love those who were dear to them. † Although ancient China’s development was relatively isolated, there was early contact with India and Tibet. Buddhism came to China from India, and medical concepts and practices were an important part of its teachings. The gymnastic and breathing exercises in Chinese medical methodology also came from India and were closely related to the principles of Yoga and to aspects of Ayurvedic medicine. There were also contacts with Southeast Asia, Persia, and the Arabic world. In the second century B. C. , the Chinese ambassador Chang Chien spent more than a decade in Mesopotamia, Syria, and Egypt, bringing back information on drugs, viticulture, and other subjects. Over the centuries, knowledge of humoral medicine and of numerous new medicaments filtered into China. The introduction of the wisdom of the Mediterranean world was greatly facilitated in the fifth century by the expulsion and wide dispersion from Constantinople of the heretical Nestorian Christians. The mother of Kublai Khan (1216-94), founder of the Mongol dynasty, was a Nestorian and asked the Pope to send European doctors to China. Early Medical Writings Classical Chinese medicine was based primarily on works ascribed to three legendary emperors. The most ancient was Fu Hsi (c. 2900 B. C. , who was said to have originated the pa kua, a symbol composed of yang lines and yin lines combined in eight (pa) separate trigrams (kua) which could represent all yin-yang conditions. This system is followed even today in the I Ching (Book of Changes), though as a game or superstition in the West. Shen Nung, the Red Emperor (Hung Ti), compiled the first medical herbal, the Pen-tsao (c. 2800 B. C. ), in which he reported the effects of 365 drugs, all of them personally tested. One legend explains that a magic drug made his abdominal skin transparent, so he could observe the action of the many plants he evaluated. Another story tells that he cut open his abdomen and stitched in a window. Shen Nung is also said to have drawn up the first charts on acupuncture, a medical procedure presumably even older than the legendary emperors. The fame of Yu Hsiung (c. 2600 B. C. ), the Yellow Emperor (Huang Ti), rests on his great medical compendium, the Nei Ching (Canon of Medicine). Transmitted orally for many centuries, this seminal work was possibly committed to writing by the third century B. C. Its present form dates from the eighth century A. D. when the last extensive revision was done by Wang Ping. The major portion of the Nei Ching, the Sun-Wen (Simple Questions), records the discourse of the Yellow Emperor with Ch’i Po, his prime minister, on virtually all phases of health and illness, including prevention and treatment. The section called Ling-Hsu (Spiritual Nucleus), deals entirely with acupuncture. Yu Hsiung also was said to be responsible for another great compendium, The Discourses of the Yellow Emperor and the Plain Girl, which thoroughly covered the subject of sex from the Taoist point of view. Among other notable sources for ancient medical lore, one might mention the Shih Ching (Book of Odes), which perhaps predates Homer’s epics, and the Lun-yu, discourses of Confucius probably written down shortly after his death, which affected patterns of behavior for many generations. During the long Chou dynasty (c. 1050-255 B. C. ), a lengthy compilation of medical works, Institutions of Chou, was completed and became the criterion for subsequent dynasties on the duties and organization of physicians. In the Han dynasty (206 B. C. -A. D. 20), there was a noted clinical author named Tsang Kung, who pioneered in the description of many diseases, including cancer of the stomach, aneurysm, and rheumatism. Chang Chung-ching, the Chinese Hippocrates, in the third century A. D. , wrote the classic treatise Typhoid and Other Fevers. Ko Hung, a famed alchemist and a careful observer, wrote treatises describing beriberi (a vitamin B deficiency), hepatitis, and plague, and gave one of the earliest reports on smallpox: â€Å"As the New Year approached there was a seasonal affection in which pustules appeared on the face and spread rapidly all over the body. They looked like burns covered with white starch and reformed as soon as they were broken. The majority died if not treated. After recovery purplish black scars remained. † Sun Szu-miao (A. D. 581-682) wrote Ch’ien Chin Yao Fang (A Thousand Golden Remedies), which summarized in thirty volumes much of the known medical learning, and he headed a committee which produced a fifty-volume collection on pathology. An extensive codification of forensic medicine, Hsi Yuan Lu, was done in the Sung dynasty and became the prime source for knowledge of medical jurisprudence. Anatomy and Physiology Ideas of anatomy in ancient China were reached by reasoning and. by assumption rather than dissection or direct observation. Since the doctrines of Confucius forbade violation of the body, it was not until the eighteenth century, long after Vesalius, that the Chinese began systematic, direct anatomical studies. Even as late as the nineteenth century, in the Viceroy’s Hospital Medical School, anatomy was taught by diagrams and artificial models rather than dissection. Physiological functions were constructed into a humoral system much like Greek concepts of the sixth century B. C. and Galenic views of the second century A. D. , except that there were five instead of four essential humors. (The number five had mystical value for the Chinese and was used for most classifications: five elements, five tastes, five qualities, five kinds of drugs, five treatments, five solid organs, five seasons, five emotions, five colors, etc. ) The medical compendium Nei Ching stated that each emotion had its seat in a particular organ. Happiness dwelt in the heart, thought in the spleen, sorrow in the lungs, and the liver housed anger as well as the soul. Ideas in the Nei Ching concerning movement of the blood (â€Å"All the blood is under control of the heart. † â€Å"The blood current flows continuously in a circle and never stops. â€Å") have been thought to approach an understanding of its circulation antedating Harvey by thousands of years; however, some body vessels were believed to convey air, and there is little evidence that commentators perceived the blood-carrying vessels as a contained system. Diagnosis The Chinese methods of diagnosis included questioning, feeling the pulse, observing the voice and body, and in some circumstances touching the affected parts. In almost all times and cultures physicians have used a similar approach, for all healers have sought to know as much as possible about a patient in order to understand his or her illness and advise treatment. However, in some respects ancient physicians saw each patient more completely as a reflection of his surroundings (indeed, the entire universe) than does the doctor of today. The Chinese doctor wanted to learn ow the patient had violated the tao, and to do this he took into account the patient’s rank; changes in his or her social status, household, economic position, sense of well-being, or appetite; the weather; and the dreams of the patient and his or her family. Perhaps the most important diagnostic technique of the ancient Chinese was examination of the pulse. The physician felt the right wrist and then the lef t. He compared the beats with his own, noting precise time as well as day and season since each hour affected the nature of the pulsations. Each pulse had three distinct divisions, each associated with a specific organ, and each division had a separate quality, of which there were dozens of varieties. Moreover, each division or zone of the pulse had a superficial and deep projection. Thus literally hundreds of possible characteristics were obtainable. In one treatise, Muo-Ching, ten volumes were necessary to cover all the intricacies of the pulse. A patient had only to extend his or her arm through drawn bed curtains for the physician to determine the symptoms, diagnosis, prognosis, and proper treatment by intensive palpation of the pulse. Whenever possible the examiner also felt the skin of the ill person. However, it was considered bad form for a man to intimately examine a woman, so special ceramic, ivory, and wooden dolls were pointed to by the invalid to indicate where discomfort was felt. Treatment According to the Nei Ching, there were five methods of treatment: cure the spirit, nourish the body, give medications, treat the whole body, and use acupuncture and moxibustion. The physician had to put the patient back on the right path, the tao. Assuming that specific mental states caused changes in specific organs, the healer linked certain objectionable behavioral and constitutional factors with illness and attempted to have the patient rectify these. For instance, dissolute and licentious ideas led to diseases of the lungs, but acting out such thoughts brought on heart trouble. A doctor had to determine the cause of disharmony in the body and act accordingly. Exercises were developed to keep the body fit and to restore well-being. Hua T’o, the great surgeon, worked out an ingenious system of physical therapy by advising mimicry of the natural movements of animals. Massage—kneading, tapping, pinching, and chafing—was also a regular method of treatment, as were the application of plasters and evacuation of the intestinal tract by cathartics. In nourishing a patient’s body, the physician resorted to complex combinations of foods according to their potential amounts of yang and yin. Foods also had to fit the seasons, and each of the five tastes had benefits for a particular element of the body: sour for the bones, pungent for the tendons, salty for the blood, bitter for respiration, and sweet for muscle. Medications The Chinese pharmacopoeia was always rich, from the time of the Pen-tsao, the first medical herbal, to the later dynasties when two thousand items and sixteen thousand prescriptions made up the armamentarium. Drugs were considered more likely to be good if they tasted bad. As one would expect, they were classified into five categories: herbs, trees, insects, stones, and grains. The therapeutic minerals and metals included compounds of mercury (calomel was employed for venereal diseases), arsenic, and magnetic stones. Animal-derived remedies, in addition to â€Å"dragon teeth† (powdered fossilized bones), included virtually anything obtainable from living creatures: whole parts, segments of organs, urine, dung. Two plant substances especially associated with China may be singled out. One is ephedra (ma huang), the â€Å"horsetail† plant described by the Red Emperor, which was used for thousands of years as a stimulant, as a remedy for respiratory -diseases, to induce fevers and perspiration, and to depress coughs. Ephedra entered the Greek pharmacopoeia and eventually was disseminated throughout most of the world. It only became a factor in Western medicine in the late nineteenth century after Japanese investigators isolated and purified the active principle, ephedrine, and established its pharmacologic action. A second medicinal herb, always highly popular among the Chinese, is ginseng (â€Å"man-shaped root†). To the Chinese, preparations containing ginseng were almost miraculous in delaying old age, restoring sexual powers, stimulating the debilitated, and sedating the overwrought. In addition it improved diabetes and stabilized blood pressure. In recent years this root has been under scrutiny by Western pharmacologists attempting to evaluate its true benefits. Multitudes in Asia, and even some Westerners, are so convinced of its effectiveness that high-grade wild roots have brought fabulous prices (even reaching thousands of dollars apiece). Although many items in the Chinese materia medica have either faded into bscurity or been labeled fanciful, others subsequently have been found to possess sound pharmacologic bases: seaweed, which contains iodine, was used in treating enlargement of the thyroid; the willow plant, containing salicylic acid, was a remedy for rheumatism; the Siberian wort has antispasmodics for menstrual discomfort; and mulberry flowers contain rutin, a treatment for elevated blood pressure. Whether opium was used as a drug before quite late in Chinese history is still in dispute. Acupuncture and Moxibustion These modalities have been an inte gral part of Chinese medical therapy for thousands of years. The Yellow Emperor is said to have invented them, but they may well have existed long before his time. The aim of these treatments was to drain off excess yang or yin and thus establish a proper balance, but external energy also could be introduced into the body. In acupuncture the skin is pierced by long needles to varying prescribed depths. Needles are inserted into any of 365 points along the twelve meridians that traverse the body and transmit an active life force called ch’i. Each of these points is related to a particular organ. For instance, puncture of a certain spot on the ear lobe might be the proper way to treat an abdominal ailment. Virtually every illness, weakness, and symptom is thought to be amenable to correction by acupuncture. Acupuncture spread to Korea and Japan by the end of the tenth century A. D. , to Europe about the seventeenth century, and recent years have seen a wider interest in this Chinese medical practice in the West. Individual paramedical healers and even some medical practitioners have been swamped with requests for acupuncture, especially for problems apparently little benefited by conventional practices. The eventual acceptability of this practice in standard Western medicine remains to be seen. Moxibustion is as old as acupuncture, and the same meridians and points govern placement of the moxa. However, in this treatment a powdered plant substance, usually mugwort, is fashioned into a small mound on the patient’s skin and burned, usually raising a blister. Dentistry The treatment of tooth disorders was confined mainly to applying or ingesting drugs—pomegranate, aconite, ginseng, garlic, rhubarb, and arsenic, as well as animal products such as dung and urine. The Nei Ching classified nine types of toothaches, which included some obviously due to infections and tooth decay. Like the Mesopotamians and Egyptians, the ancient Chinese believed that worms were often responsible for dental problems. Toothpicks and tooth whiteners were used, and loose teeth were stabilized with bamboo splints. Gold was sometimes used to cover teeth, but the purpose was decorative rather than protective. Surgery Although surgery was not one of the five methods of treatment listed in the Nei Ching, the knife was known and used. Hua T’o, one of the few names mentioned in connection with surgery, treated an arm wound of the famous general Kuan Yu by cutting his flesh and scraping the bone. Physicians knew how to deal with wounds, and at least two classics were devoted entirely to their treatment. The proper attitude toward pain was to bear it without a sign of emotion, and much was made of the insouciance of the general treated by Hua T’o; he played chess while the surgeon operated. Nevertheless, apparently some kind of anesthesia was often used. Wine and drugs like hyoscyamus were probably mainstays, but the use of opium and Indian hemp is still in question. Eunuchs and Footbinding Another surgical procedure, though hardly therapeutic, was the frequent castration of certain males seeking advancement at court. Though originally a severe punishment, the total removal of penis and testicles came to be a pledge of absolute allegiance to the monarch, since it released the eunuch from conflict with Confucian admonitions of first loyalty to family and the obligation of siring a son for posterity. Footbinding is also of medical interest, for it caused the development of artificially clubbed feet. Over a period of one thousand years, every young girl of proper family willingly permitted herself to be crippled by her mother and aunts to achieve the tiny foot of ideal feminine beauty. Her toes were gradually folded under the sole, and by increasingly tight bandaging her heelbone and forefoot were brought closer together. Without Golden Lotuses, as the best-shaped bound feet were called, a girl was unmarriageable, nor was the life of a courtesan open to her, for tiny feet were a woman’s most desirable feature. For a man, a bound-foot wife had profound sexual significance, but she was also a status symbol inasmuch as her helplessness indicated that he was wealthy enough to support a woman, or women, in idleness. There was also an advantage to him in her restricted mobility, for it kept her home and made illicit amorous adventures difficult. Although China’s Manchu conquerors forbade the practice in the nineteenth century, it was not until the early twentieth that footbinding was completely abandoned. Diseases Some epidemic diseases were understood well enough to allow the development of protective measures. In the eleventh century, inoculation against smallpox was effected by putting scabs from smallpox pustules into the nostrils, a method which may have come from India. Wearing the clothing of someone who had the disease was another means of prevention. The relationship of cowpox (as a protective) to smallpox may have been perceived, since ingesting powdered fleas from infected cows was also recommended to stave off smallpox. But other devastating pestilences were neither understood nor held in check. During the Han dynasty an epidemic of what appears to have been typhoid fever killed two-thirds of the population of one region. Precise descriptions of leprosy in the Nei Ching and later works attest to the diagnostic accuracy of the early Chinese healers, but their explanation of the disease’s causes and their treatment follow preconceived notions of the time. â€Å"The wind and chills lodge in the blood vessels and cannot be got rid of. This is called li-feng. For the treatment prick the swollen parts with a sharp needle to let the foul air out. † Fourteenth-century writings referred to chaulmoogra oil, a pressing from seeds of an East Indian tree, as a specific for leprosy, and this oil remained the principal antileprous drug even in the West until recent decades. An illness that may have been tuberculosis was recognized as contagious: â€Å"Generally the disease gives rise to high fever, sweating, asthenia, unlocalized pains making all positions difficult and slowly bringing about consumption and death, after which the disease is transmitted to the relations until the whole family has been wiped out. † Venereal diseases, although not well differentiated, received a variety of therapies, including the use of metallic substances for internal medication. In the Secret Therapy for the Treatment of Venereal Disease, the seventeenth-century physician Chun Szi-sung reported using arsenic, which, until the development of penicillin, was the modern medication for venereal disease, in the form of Salvarsan and derivatives synthesized by Paul Ehrlich. There seem always to have been places in China where the sick poor could go for medical care. With the advance of Buddhism in the Han and T’ang dynasties, in-patient hospitals staffed by physician-priests became common. However, in the ninth century, when anti-Buddhists were in control, hospitals as well as 4,600 temples were destroyed or emptied. Nevertheless, by the twelfth century hospitals had again become so numerous that virtually every district had at least one tax-supported institution. The upper classes preferred to be treated and cared for in their homes, thus leaving public hospitals to the poor and lower classes. The Practitioners In the Institutions of Chou, compiled hundreds of years before Christ, the hierarchy of physicians in the kingdom was delineated. The five categories were: chief physician (who collected drugs, examined other physicians, and assigned them); food physicians (who prescribed six kinds of food and drink); physicians for simple diseases (such as headaches, colds, minor wounds); ulcer physicians (who may have been the surgeons); and physicians for animals (evidently veterinarians). Physicians were also rated according to their results, and as early as the Chou and T’ang dynasties each doctor had to report both successes and failures—to control his movement up or down in the ranks. In the seventh century A. D. examinations were required for one to qualify as a physician, some four centuries earlier than the first licensing system in the West. Medical knowledge was thought of as a secret power that belonged to each practitioner. Whereas in other societies, both advanced and primitive, closely knit guilds might control the spread of medical lore, the Chinese physician kept his secrets to himself—passing them on only to sons or, sometimes, specially selected qualifiers. In early times, a physician gave his services out of philanthropy, for since the original healers were rulers, sages, nobles, and, perhaps, priests, economic and social incentives were absent. Later, direct fees or salaries were instituted, and the court and certain prosperous households kept physicians on retainer. Formal schools may have existed as early as the tenth century, and in the eleventh century an organization for medical education was set up under imperial auspices. Under the Ming dynasty in the fourteenth century, the school system became fixed. It changed little over the next centuries, xcept for a gradual decline, and by 1800 there was only one medical school left in Peking. Teachers were held strictly accountable for the performance of their students, and fines were imposed if the professor failed to enforce attendance or if his pupils did poorly on exams. The examination system was complex: a pyramidal structure provided a process of elimination which continued until those with the highest scores emerged. The top students could be heart doctors, the next level were assistant examiners, and lower scores could mean limited assignment in teaching. Specialization may have occurred early. While physicians and apothecaries were separate for a long time, they were both regarded as healers. In the Chou dynasty there were nine specialties, and they grew to thirteen by the Mongol period, early in the fourteenth century. The subdivisions became even more complex, with doctors for the great blood vessels, small vessels, fevers, smallpox, eyes, skin, bones, larynx, and mouth and teeth. There were also gynecologists, pediatricians, and pulsologists for internal diseases, external medicine, the nose and throat, and for children’s illnesses. Some healers specialized in moxibustion, acupuncture, or massage. Even the experts in incantation and dietetics were considered medical specialists and were often held in higher regard than other doctors; surgeons were generally of low rank. Furthermore, each of the practitioners in each category had assistants and students—all of whom had to qualify by examination. Obstetrics was in the hands of midwives for many centuries; it is not known when the first women doctors were in practice. One female physician is mentioned by name in documents from the Han dynasty (206 B. C. -A. D. 220), but women may have been doctors at an earlier date. By the fourteenth century women were officially recognized as physicians. Throughout the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), the practicing medical theorists could be divided into six main philosophic schools. The Yin-yang group focused on insufficiencies of one of these forces. The Wen-pou doctors attributed illnesses to a preponderance of yang and frequently prescribed ginseng and aconite. The Radical group used drastic medication. The Conservatives relied entirely on the authorities of the past, reedited the classic works, and made no deviations from strict authoritarianism. The Eclectic physicians, as their name implies, used a variety of principles from the other sects. The sixth school based all therapy on bringing the five elements and six vapors into harmony. Spread of Chinese Medicine to Korea, Japan, And Tibet Ancient Chinese medicine was well-developed long before the beginning of the Christian era, and its influence appears to have spread into adjacent Korea by the sixth century A. D. At that time, after a severe epidemic had ravaged Japan, Korean doctors who were invited to counsel Japanese physicians introduced them to Chinese medical classics and commentaries. By the seventh century, Japanese scholars and doctors were going directly to China for their information and experience. In the eighth century, a Chinese Buddhist monk named Chien Chen came to Japan and achieved a prominent position in the imperial court at Nara, where, given the Japanese name Kanjin, he taught, practiced medicine, and translated Chinese materia medica. Late in that century, Chinese medicine was well-established in Japan, and a medical school based on its methodology was founded by the Japanese physician Wake Hiroya. Early in the next century (806–10), the Emperor Heijo vainly attempted to combat foreign influence and restore traditional Japanese medical practice, but the methods of Chinese healing were too firmly entrenched. In the tenth century, acupuncture reached Japan, followed by moxibusti on (the word moxa is Japanese), and the full complement of Chinese medicine was accepted in Japan. With medical training closely based on Chinese systems, the Japanese exacted exceptionally intensive and prolonged study before permitting entrance into the profession by governmental examination. As in ancient China, high social standing was a requirement for admission to medical school, but separate instruction by assigned teachers was apparently also arranged to accommodate the more lowly. The authority of Chinese medicine, not to mention Chinese culture and philosophy, moved east as well as west by the seventh and eighth centuries. However, Arabic and Indian missionaries of Islam and Buddhism made influence a two-way exchange as they traveled to China seeking converts. Since their missions necessitated the translation of Sanskrit and Arabic writings into Chinese and vice versa, medical knowledge inevitably was passed back and forth. Consequently, the crossroads areas of Southeast Asia and Tibet developed a medical system combining aspects of Chinese, Indian, and Arabic practice. Arabic influence, which stemmed in part from Greek teachings, was evident in the doctrine of four humors (phlegm, blood, bile, and wind), whereas Indian deas were seen in the Yogic placement of the soul in the core of the spinal column and reliance on breathing exercises. Traveling Buddhist priests, who were quite successful in spreading their faith, for a long time also practiced medicine. During this early period, the two wives (one Chinese) of a Tibetan king converted him to Buddhism, and thereafter scholars were invited to bring Chi nese writings into Tibet, which resulted in collections in Tibetan called Kanjur and Tanjur, the latter containing medical information. In the thirteenth century, the Mongol conqueror Kublai Khan wanted this body of knowledge available again in Chinese but was unable to carry through the translation. Nevertheless, his grandson in the next century arranged for scholars from Tibet, Mongolia, and Central Asia to accomplish the task. Ironically, while the Mongols were in control they allied themselves with non-Chinese such as Uighars, Jews, Christians, and Moslems, and they preferred Arabic medicine to Chinese. How to cite Essay of Ancient China, Essay examples

Wordschmidt Essay Example For Students

Wordschmidt Essay the translator, the actor and the poet are of imagination all compactat least for Paul Schmidt they are. A true renaissance man of the theatre, Schmidt seems anomalous in our late 20th-century world of micro-specialization: a poet who translates, a translator who acts, an actor who writes plays, a playwright who writes poems. But lest this conjure up an image of some dusty relic in knee-breeches and powdered wig, consider a few of his thoroughly modem accomplishments: acting roles in the Wooster Groups Brace Up! and Tom Kalins experimental film Swoon; a racy poem which accompanied Robert Mapplethorpes controversial X portfolio; a stage adaptation of Alice in Wonderland directed by Robert Wilson with music by Tom Waits; a Ph.D. from Harvard and an Equity card; theatre translations of Brecht, Chekhov, Genet and Khlebnikov for Liz Diamond, Elizabeth LeCompte, Joanne Akalaitis and Peter Sellars. We will write a custom essay on Wordschmidt specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now A tall, handsome man with a dignified bearing and liquid speaking voice, its easy to see why the 59-year-old Schmidt gets occasional work acting on television soaps. He is a literate, entertaining conversationalisthis careful diction and lively vocabulary are clues to a consuming passion for language. It is this love of wordsor perhaps more accurately, this love of the spoken wordwhich is at the bottom of all his artistic pursuits, especially his translations. Liz Diamond, who directed Schmidts translation of Brechts St. Joan of the Stockyards, calls him a poet of the theatre who loves language and the sound of rhythmic speech, in particular in the theatre. When Schmidt talks about translation, his views are never abstract and theoretical, but refreshingly pragmatic, rooted in his own theatrical experience. He likens the translators craft to the actors: For me, translating is performing and performing is translating. You have to be able to let someone elses words come through you, and not impose your voice. You have to find a voice. And to do that, says Schmidt, you need to use your ear rather than your dictionaryto listen for the playwrights voiceprint. If that voiceprint exists, say, in Russian, he continues, and I know enough Russian to be able to hear that voiceprint in my ear, then what I have to do is to recreate in American English a voice which echoesand I mean that rather metaphoricallywhich echoes the same way the Russian voice echoes in the Russian language. Thats an elaborate process, its very complex. One of the things that makes translating for the stage particularly tricky is that the translator must negotiate between three parties: the playwright, the actor and the audience. Whatever language I speak as the translator must either be the language of the audience, Schmidt maintains, or if it isnt their current language, be recognizable to them as an echo of what they already know. Theatre only works if the actors speak the same language as the audience. The language must be as natural in the actors mouth as it is in the audiences ear. And for Schmidt, that common language is American English. One of the constant stumbling blocks to staging foreign plays in this country has been the fact that most of the published translations are British. A play that is marked as British is, to my American ear, foreign. There can be a strangeness or a charm to the foreignness, but its there. When he worked on St. Joan, which Brecht set in the Chicago stockyards he had found in Upton Sinclairs The Jungle, he faced a particular challenge: Whats interesting about working with Brecht in English in his American plays is that hes already doing this fictional |American. In St. Joan, for instance, you have stockbrokers talking in dactylic hexameter, and so you have to keep the meter and still make them sound like American stockbrokers. .u982f88eee52deb3fc501ee81744150e5 , .u982f88eee52deb3fc501ee81744150e5 .postImageUrl , .u982f88eee52deb3fc501ee81744150e5 .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .u982f88eee52deb3fc501ee81744150e5 , .u982f88eee52deb3fc501ee81744150e5:hover , .u982f88eee52deb3fc501ee81744150e5:visited , .u982f88eee52deb3fc501ee81744150e5:active { border:0!important; } .u982f88eee52deb3fc501ee81744150e5 .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .u982f88eee52deb3fc501ee81744150e5 { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .u982f88eee52deb3fc501ee81744150e5:active , .u982f88eee52deb3fc501ee81744150e5:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .u982f88eee52deb3fc501ee81744150e5 .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .u982f88eee52deb3fc501ee81744150e5 .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .u982f88eee52deb3fc501ee81744150e5 .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .u982f88eee52deb3fc501ee81744150e5 .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .u982f88eee52deb3fc501ee81744150e5:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .u982f88eee52deb3fc501ee81744150e5 .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .u982f88eee52deb3fc501ee81744150e5 .u982f88eee52deb3fc501ee81744150e5-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .u982f88eee52deb3fc501ee81744150e5:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: Dialogue in Bethlehem Essayas a fourth-generation New Yorker, Schmidt knows what America sounds like. Of Irish and German ancestry, he started experimenting with languages in high school: I remember reading the Aeneid and translating a passage into English, and then my focus shifted at one moment from understanding the Latin to writing something in English. It was one of those moments where you think, ahh, thats interesting. During his college years he continued acquiring languages at Colgate University not for career reasons, but because it was fun for him. I never had at any point a real clear sense of what I wanted to do, Schmidt confesses. His wandering interests led him to try acting, and after a year of graduate work in Russian at Harvard, he shocked his parents with the news he was quitting school to be an actor. Which is what he did, working in the Boston area, and landing his first Equity job in a summer Shakespeare festival in Cambridge. Then, in 1956, the 22-year-old Schmidt followed his muse to Paris, where he stayed for two years. While perfecting his French, he fell in with a group of actors from the Combdie Francaise and went to the theatre almost every night. Just when he had been accepted into a French conservatory to study acting, Schmidt was drafted into the U.S. Army and had to return to the States. It was the late |50s, between the Korean and Vietnam warsa safe time to be a recruit. Stationed in Texas (It was more foreign to me than Paris, Schmidt remembers), Schmidt was trained as a Russian prisoner-of-war interrogator in a period when there were, inconveniently, no prisoners of war. During war maneuvers, he would be assigned to the aggressor battalion, made up of American soldiers dressed in funny uniforms that were vaguely futuristic, vaguely Nazi. Armed with fake weapons and smoke grenades, Schmidts job was to get captured by the Americans, and then speak Russian to them. The fun was to see how far behind the lines we could get, and how much destruction we could wreak before they picked us up. It was all like a very funny improv. When he got out of the army in 1960, parental pressures led him back to Harvard to work on his doctorate, although he somehow managed to find time to keep up his acting, even doing a season at the Charles Playhouse in 1964. When in 1967 he was offered a teaching job in the Russian Department at the University of Texas in Austin, he accepted and spent the next 11 years teaching in Austinwhich was, in the late 60s, according to Schmidt, a real paradise, a hippie heaven. It was there that he also began to translate seriously, encouraged by his two mentors, Richard Howard and Roger Shattuck. His first major piece of translation was the complete works of French poet Arthur Rimbaud, published in 1975 by Harper and Row. But actually Schmidt kept up his double life as actor/academic, acting part-time with a Mexican theatre company and returning to spend several summers in Boston with the Agassiz Players, a classical company founded by director Tim Mayer, playwright Thomas Babe and producer Honor Moore. It was a remarkably talented group of actors, counting among its members John Lithgow, James Woods, Kathryn Walker, Tommy Lee Jones and Stockard Channing, to whom Schmidt was married for seven years. By 1978 Schmidt had received tenure (what his father had always wanted for him), but felt burdened by the concomitant administrative responsibilities and sticky university politics. He also felt a growing distance between himself and the students of the mid-70s, who were what turned out to be yuppies, he recalls. Its hard to teach people with whom you have very little commonality of interest. They hadnt seen the movies I had seen, I hadnt seen the TV shows they had seen. So he made the difficult, frightening decision to chuck the security of his life as a professor and return to New York and the vagaries of a life in the theatre. .u51280d2da2473a211e62238a6f4fcc5a , .u51280d2da2473a211e62238a6f4fcc5a .postImageUrl , .u51280d2da2473a211e62238a6f4fcc5a .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .u51280d2da2473a211e62238a6f4fcc5a , .u51280d2da2473a211e62238a6f4fcc5a:hover , .u51280d2da2473a211e62238a6f4fcc5a:visited , .u51280d2da2473a211e62238a6f4fcc5a:active { border:0!important; } .u51280d2da2473a211e62238a6f4fcc5a .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .u51280d2da2473a211e62238a6f4fcc5a { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .u51280d2da2473a211e62238a6f4fcc5a:active , .u51280d2da2473a211e62238a6f4fcc5a:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .u51280d2da2473a211e62238a6f4fcc5a .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .u51280d2da2473a211e62238a6f4fcc5a .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .u51280d2da2473a211e62238a6f4fcc5a .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .u51280d2da2473a211e62238a6f4fcc5a .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .u51280d2da2473a211e62238a6f4fcc5a:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .u51280d2da2473a211e62238a6f4fcc5a .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .u51280d2da2473a211e62238a6f4fcc5a .u51280d2da2473a211e62238a6f4fcc5a-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .u51280d2da2473a211e62238a6f4fcc5a:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: Directors in Rehearsal: A Hidden World EssayHis academic reputation served him well in his new freelance lifestyle; about the same time he was approached by the Dia Art Foundation to do a massive translation project: the complete works of the Russian Futurist Velimir Khlebnikov. Schmidt was at first hesitant about jumping right back into such a vast scholarly project, but he eventually agreed: The notion of tackling everything a poet had writtenI had already done that with Rimbaudis a really interesting challenge. If you commit yourself to translating the writers entire work, you really have to think through the whole thing. You have to know, for example, if he uses that w ord there, when he uses it again, the resonances are all the sameits like three dimensional chess. The enormous undertaking, which gave him 10 years of fairly constant work, has been published in three volumes by Harvard University Press. but with increasing frequency he was drawn towards the stage, putting his knowledge of Russian, French and German to good use at regional theatres across the country. In 1985, with Elizabeth Swados, he wrote The Beautiful Lady, a musical about a cafe full of Russian poets of the 1920s, which was produced in Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles. Peter Sellars staged his translation of Khlebnikovs Zangezi in 1987; the production, with music by Jon Hassell and featuring Ruth Malaczech, was performed in Los Angeles, Boston and Brooklyn. That same year his collaboration with composer Stanley Silverman Black Sea Follies, produced in New York by the Music-Theatre Group and Playwrights Horizons, won the Kesselring Award. He translated Genets The Screens for JoAnne Akalaitiss 1989 production at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, and his play The Bathtub, adapted from Mayakovskys 1929 political satire The Bathhouse, was commissioned and staged by the Empty Space Theater in Seattle in 1990. Some of his most recent projects have provided hybrid, collaborative challenges. He just joined forces with Theatre de la Jeune Leunes Dominique Serrand and Paul Walsh on an adaptation of Marivauxs The Triumph of Love for the Guthrie, which combined that play with another Marivaux play, The Dispute. Last year he worked with Robert Wilson and Tom Waits on an adaptation of Lewis Carrolls Alice in Wonderland that came to be titled Alice. Starting with Wilsons initial visual ideas, it was Schmidts job to fashion a text from the famous childrens story. Although the task seemed daunting at first, the fact that the work would be produced in Germany helped: It was a little easier because I was working for a German audience who were not familiar with the language the way we are, the Lewis Carrollisms and the famous phrases. So I didnt have to worry about competing with Lewis Carroll. Schmidt decided to use the relationship between mathmetician Charles Dodgson (Carrolls real name) and his youn g pupil Alice Liddell as a framework for the fairy tale. The text, as delightfully mischievous as Carroll without copying him, puts Alice in Wonderland in poetic, not sociological, relationship to Alice Liddell, illuminating a wild fantasy world through the looking glass of Victorian England: ALICE: Chase the chickens, choke the child.

Homophone for Band

Homophone for Band The words band and banned  are  homophones: they sound alike but have different meanings. Homophone for Band As a noun, band refers to a musical group or to any group of people joined for a common purpose. In addition, the noun band means a ring, a restraint, a belt, or a specific range of wavelengths or radio frequencies. As a verb, band means to mark with a band or to unite for a common purpose (band together). Banned is the past and past-participle form of the verb to ban, which means to forbid or prohibit. Examples Whenever possible, the individual members of the band travel from gig to gig by rented car.​The diadem is a band of gold more than an inch in width and eighteen inches in length.​The demand for new radio stations in the 1960s prompted the FCC to push new licensees into the FM band.​In 1926, H.L. Mencken was arrested in Boston for selling a banned copy of the American Mercury magazine. Practice (a) Chuck and his friends formed a rock _____, but they had trouble finding an instrument for Amos to play.(b) My father used to hide _____ books in a little vault he had built in the basement.(c) The rival factions were forced to _____ together to protect their homes against a new enemy. Answers (a) Chuck and his friends formed a rock  band, but they had trouble finding an instrument for Amos to play.(b) My father used to hide  banned  books in a little vault he had built in the basement.(c) The rival factions were forced to  band  together to protect their homes against a new enemy. Answers to Practice Exercises: Band and Banned (a) Chuck and his friends formed a rock band, but they had trouble finding an instrument for Amos to play.(b) My father used to hide banned books in a little vault he had built in the basement.(c) The rival factions were forced to band together to protect their homes against a new enemy. Glossary of Usage: Index of Commonly Confused Words

How to write an HR generalist resume

How to write an HR generalist resume How do you get hired to be one of the hire-ers? That’s the question facing those of you interested in becoming a human resources professional as a career. Often, we think of HR generalists as part of the machine- reading our resumes, putting together offers, brokering interviews, and sending out benefits statements. But like all other professionals, they have to go through the hiring process too. If you’re thinking about joining the field or are already in it but want to brush up your resume, we’ve got some tips to help you put together your best HR generalist resume.HR generalists are members of a company’s human resources team who manage the day-to-day operations of the department. In a big company, that can mean working as part of a large team. In a small company, it may be more a lone wolf kind of scenario. These professionals manage a variety of responsibilities, including recruiting and staffing, employee relations, employee communication, developing and enforcing company policy, managing compensation and benefits, counseling employees, and generally handling personnel-related issues. That’s a lot going on- and it means that an HR generalist resume has to cover a lot of ground, very effectively.Stand out with a bold headline.If you want your resume to stand out, make sure you’re grabbing attention right away. You’ll have plenty of space to flesh out your professional accomplishments, but starting with a snappy one-liner (or a two-liner) helps you set the narrative right away. You want to make the most of your resume space- and that doesn’t mean cramming more information in there. It means taking the information you have (your skills, your experience, your strengths) and getting the most power out of them. A headline tells the reader up front who you are, as a professional, and what you can bring to them.Your headline should be short and to the point, but not too short. If you write something like, â €Å"Human Resources Professional,† that doesn’t really tell anything. On the other hand, if you add just a little color it tells the reader more about you. It’s a chance to show off your expertise, at least enough to keep the reader’s interest.Here are some great examples:hbspt.cta.load(2785852, '9e52c197-5b5b-45e6-af34-d56403f973c5', {});Certified Human Resources Director with 10+ years of experienceExpert Benefits Manager Employee-Oriented Human Resources CoordinatorProven Leader in Recruiting and Innovative Employee RetentionThe headline isn’t meant to tell your whole work-life story. It’s meant to get the reader interested enough to read on to the skills and experience, which should back up what you include in the headline.Emphasize achievements, not responsibilities.Your resume should be results-oriented, to show the reader that you’d bring that focus to your job in their HR department. Make sure your bullet points show growth an d achievement. If you worked as part of a team that implemented new employee policies, what was the outcome of that? If you helped roll out a new program, what were the results? Obviously, only include achievements with a positive thrust- or spin them a bit.Spearheaded an initiative that improved employee retention by 25% over two years.Innovated new workflows for onboarding new employeesDesigned and implemented an employee wellness program that cut employee sick days by 10%Don’t those sound more appealing than â€Å"processed new employee orientation forms† or â€Å"served on a committee to improve employee retention†? The trick is making sure you’re using potent action verbs to show that you’ve been busy achieving, not just showing up. Keeping the focus on your achievements also shows that you’re goal-oriented.Use the right keywords.As an HR professional, you probably know better than anyone how automated tools and digital systems are shap ing the hiring process. Make sure you’re taking steps to beat that system as well. That means including keywords that can be caught by all readers, human and robot. One way to help boost your keyword quotient is to spell out things you might otherwise abbreviate, assuming that your fellow Human Resources peeps will understand and taking the space for something else. For example: SHRM Certification becomes Society for Human Resource Management Certified. You can abbreviate it elsewhere in your resume, but having it spelled out once can help you with a scanning algorithm.If you’re stuck for key words, read the job description carefully and make sure you’re mirroring the words it uses. You should also make sure you’re sprinkling the key words throughout the resume. It can be tempting to cram them all in a â€Å"skills† or â€Å"core competencies† section, but putting them throughout can help keep the reader’s interest throughout the whol e resume.Make sure you’re up on the latest technology.HR has become a field that is highly dependent on digital tools and databases, so it’s important to know what the big software names are, as well as any trendy apps or programs. Be specific in your Technology Skills section. Everyone’s going to include things like â€Å"Microsoft Office† and â€Å"Excel,† but the more specific you can be about your tech expertise, the better it enhances your resume. Make sure you’re calling software or programs out by name.If you have only passing familiarity with a particular database software, don’t call yourself an expert, but if you have advanced-level understanding, say so. And again, be aware of what the current trends are- if you are a ninja-level master of a program that has become obsolete, that’s not going to do you much good.Give information about the companies where you’ve worked previously.As an HR professional, you know what where you work can tell someone almost as much about your career as what you’ve done. Providing some context for your previous employers can help the reader frame your experience. If you’re trying to show that you already have experience at the kind of company where you’re applying, emphasize the similarities in your background. If you’re looking to get away from the kinds of places you’ve worked before, emphasize whatever qualities you think will translate well.You don’t need to write a novel- a context sentence or two after you identify the company and before you launch into your bullet points works well. For example:Bunco Industries,  2010 – 2017Coordinated benefits management for a multinational company with 1,000+ employees worldwideThe Happiness Fund,  June 2012 – presentServed as the primary Human Resources employee liaison for a nonprofit company devoted to educating baby sealsTogether with your bullets, this i nformation helps shape the narrative about your experience.Make it clear and easy to read.Your resume should be a clean and concise document. That means not having large blocks of uninterrupted text and ensuring that all information you include is essential to the story you want to tell. The layout should be visually appealing (think short bursts of potent text), but also classic- don’t use odd fonts or crazy formatting.And every word in your resume should be carefully read, considered, and tweaked if necessary. Careless mistakes can undo all of your â€Å"I’m detail-oriented† supporting points, so make sure you’re proofreading carefully. Always find a trusted person to look over your resume as well. It can be very difficult to catch your own typos after the third or fourth pass through, but having another pair of eyes can also help you catch points that aren’t clear, or ring false.Working in HR, you know that it’s about the quality of candi dates, not necessarily the quantity of words or experience. Make sure you’re taking that to heart for your own application package, and write a resume that reflects your best work narrative, your strengths, and your goals. Good luck!