The term "Ju-i" (儒醫), describing a physician of superior healing skills, profound knowledge of medicine, and a high moral tone, appeared for the first time towards the end of the Northern Sung, and became widely used during the Southern Sung. The word had become both applicable to Ju-physicians as well as doctors of non-Ju background bringing Ju-values into practice.

The social position of doctors in traditional China has recently been studied in detail by Robert. P. Hymes. It is the aim of this paper to re-analyze previous views on the change in status of physicians, through an in-depth study of the concept of Ju-i. The author attempts to establish that the rise in status of doctors in traditional China took place during the Sung dynasty, and that this process came into being, not so much  by the “gentleman becoming doctor”, but rather by the growth of a new set of standards for value-judgment.