Biography
Qingxuan Wang (he/they) is a master’s student majoring in East Asian Studies at Yale University. He is primarily interested in the history and material culture of Buddhism in early medieval China. His research also includes the translation/migration of canonical Buddhist texts, Buddhist-Christian interfaith dialogues, and the intersection of religion, medicine, and ecology in a global context.
Paper Abstract
This paper investigates the creation and preservation of hospitals in religious contexts, focusing on their intertwined theological and ecological dimensions. Through a comparative analysis of Christian and Buddhist care facilities in early Medieval eras, the paper explores how religious ideals shaped the spaces of healing and their surrounding environments, balancing individual health needs and communal welfare. Using the analytical frameworks of medical geology and Henri Lefebvre’s “production of space,” the paper examines how religious hospitals engaged in preserving natural resources, circulating social charities, and fostering sacred environments for recovery. Medical geology highlights how patients’ perceptions of hospital spaces can influence their health outcomes, particularly in religious settings where symbols and rituals are abundant. Lefebvre’s tripartite framework—perceived, conceived, and lived spaces—provides further insights into how spaces were shaped by community participation, theological imagination, and ecological awareness. In this light, the paper examines how early Christian hospitals, including that founded by Basil the Great in Caesarea and that of the Order of Hospitallers in Jerusalem, integrated acts of care and compassion within the countryside. Similarly, Buddhist hospitals, guided by the Buddha’s teachings and precepts, were ingrained in the “fields of merit” metaphor, anchoring healing practices within agricultural landscapes. This paper argues that early hospitals in both religious traditions exemplified two key modes of spatial production: (1) imitation of divine and natural ideals of healing, and (2) identifying one’s position embedded in communal and environmental relationships beyond institutional walls. Such dual processes of creating healing spaces not only enabled acts of creation, i.e., designing environments for physical, spiritual, and communal care, but also preserved and promoted ecological harmony. The paper concludes by suggesting how contemporary healthcare design can gain from the premodern Buddhist-Christian dialogue on healing spaces in building facilities that are spiritually inclusive, environmentally conscious, and socially sustainable.