  The medical context for these debates was the differences between Chinese and Western medicine, and the best role for traditional Chinese medicine in modern times. Zhang was a major contributor to these debates. Zhang Xichun was trained by his father in traditional medicine from youth, but he was also educated in the classics of Chinese philosophy. He became a leading proponent of the “school of converging and connecting” Chinese and Western medicine (hui tong xue pai 匯衕學派. For the life of Zhang Xichun see Scheid 1995, 5–6).