Plague and "Anti-Quarantine" Writing in Traditional Chinese Biography

ABSTRACT

Quarantine remains important in treating infectious diseases in the world, but its legitimacy has frequently been questioned, not only during the COVID-19 pandemic but throughout world history - from Ancient Greece to Ancient China, from the past to the present. Anti-quarantine writings in traditional Chinese biography serve as a good example in this regard. They tend to "copy" from each other, since similar and repetitive narrative structures abound in these writings, usually to the neglect of the important dimensions, such as the medical knowledge and the psychological activities of the protagonists. The popularity of "anti-quarantine" writing in traditional Chinese biographies does not come from its literariness, and the biographies are mostly boring and full of cliches. What makes this writing popular is how it appeals to social realities and external factors such as politics, medicine, and ethics.