The Description of the Human Body soul. A sick or injured body does not do what we want or moves in ways we do not want. He believed the death of the body stopped it from being fit to bring about movement. This did not necessarily happen because the soul left the body. René Descartes believed the body could exist through mechanical means alone. This included digestion, blood circulation, muscle movement and some brain function. He felt we all know what the human body is like because animals have similar bodies and we have all seen them opened up. He saw the body as a machine.
Traditional Chinese medicines derived from the human body parts of the human body should be used as drugs, such as bone, flesh, and gall. This is really very rude and inhuman. In the present category, all parts of the human body that have been used as drugs are recorded. The use of drugs from the human body that is not contrary to morality is recorded in detail. Those drugs that are cruel or foul [慘忍邪穢] are not recorded in detail. But all of them are listed in this category. (tr. Luo 2003: 4133) Li does not give prescriptions for 12 of the 35 human drugs, which he considered