在明清醫療史研究中，醫病關係是十分值得探討的課題之一。為將患者聲音納入研究，邱仲麟、蔣竹山等學者嘗以文人筆記為研究對象，Idema、古克禮（Christopher Cullen）更將研究材料擴及《金瓶梅》、《紅樓夢》等章回小說。在中國傳統社會中，生病不僅是個人的患病經驗，更是整個家庭與家族都參與其中的事件。不同於《金瓶梅》、《紅樓夢》寫單一家庭或家族的故事，《醒世姻緣傳》提供的研究視野在主角家庭之外，更廣及其姻親、鄰里、家庭教師等具血緣與非血緣關係的家庭。以《醒世姻緣傳》為研究材料，本文試圖探討晚明清初家庭在家中成員患病時扮演的角色及其所面對的醫療環境，乃至於家庭在選擇醫療途徑時的策略與對各類型醫療行為的評價。

Patient-physician relationship is one of the most interesting topics of medical history in Ming-Qing period. For including the voice of patients, many researchers use "Bi-ji" wrote by scholars and traditional novel as study cases.Not only tales about one family's story, such as "Jin Ping Mei" (金瓶梅) and "Hung Lou Meng", "Hsing-Shih Yin-Yuan Chuan" (醒世姻緣傳) connects many families which related by consanguinity, marriage or career. Illness was a family even rather than one's personal experience in Chinese traditional society. This article investigates the medical environment in Ming-Qing period.