The Modernization Process of Traditional Chinese Medicine from the Perspective of the Production of Space—Based on Fieldwork in Sichuan

The modernization process of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) can be understood as a profound practice of the production of space. From "herbal doctors" wandering in mountains and rural areas to TCM practitioners practicing standardizedly in departments of modern hospitals; from family diagnosis and treatment spaces based on kinship and trust to modern medical spaces centered on medical records and institutional contracts. The transformation of practical scenarios clearly marks the trajectory of the reconstruction of TCM's spatial order by modernity. As Henri Lefebvre pointed out, space is a social product. Diachronically, the medical and educational scenarios of TCM have presented a site where traditional relational networks and modern institutional frameworks collide and interweave with each other. The modernization of TCM education particularly embodies this logic: through material carriers such as university buildings, standardized textbooks, laboratories, and clinical teaching spaces, it has reconstructed the spatial topology of knowledge production and inheritance, thereby reshaping the cognitive paths and power relations of the industry in the interaction between materiality and space.