Zhēnjiǔ zīshēng jīng 鍼灸資生經
The Acupuncture-and-Moxibustion Classic for the Cultivation of Life by 王執中 (Wáng Zhízhōng, zì Shūquán, fl. 1220, 南宋)
About the work
A Southern-Sòng comprehensive acupuncture-and-moxibustion treatise in 7 juan, completed before 1220 (the date of Xú Zhèngqīng’s first imprint preface). Juan 1 is a comprehensive reference of channels and points, drawing on the Sòng校正醫書局-recension Tóngrén 銅人 tradition (cf. KR3e0017) and integrating the Jiǎyǐ jīng (KR3e0005) point-system; juan 2–7 are organized by symptom-pattern, with each pattern’s appropriate acupuncture-and-moxibustion treatment specified. The arrangement (point-reference upfront, symptom-organized treatment thereafter) became the standard pedagogic structure for SòngYuánMíngQīng acupuncture compendia. The SKQS-base copy is the Yèshì Guǎngqíntáng 葉氏廣勤堂 commercial print (Máshā 麻沙 print-house in Fújiàn), with the Xú Zhèngqīng 1220 preface and the Zhào Lún 1231 reprint preface preserved.
Tiyao
Zhēnjiǔ zīshēng jīng, 7 juan. The old base copy was titled Yèshì Guǎngqíntáng newly-cut — a Máshā print, with no compiler’s name. At the head are Xú Zhèngqīng’s first-imprint preface dated Jiādìng gēngchén (1220), saying the work was composed by Wáng Shūquán 王叔權 of Dōngjiā 東嘉, and Zhào Lún’s reprint preface dated Shàodìng 4 (1231) saying the work was composed by Wáng Zhízhōng 王執中, Erudite of the Lǐyáng Commandery (澧陽郡博士). Suspecting that Shūquán is Zhízhōng’s zì, by character-meaning analysis this seems likely.
The book’s first juan generally treats the various points; juan 2 to the end discusses the various conditions, with longitudinal-and-latitudinal mutual support and orderly arrangement, very clear and easy to understand. The old base text is prefaced with a Huīzōng Chóng-níng-period (1102–1106) memorial by Chén Chéng 陳承, Péi Zōngyuán 裴宗元, and Chén Shīwén 陳師文 et al. submitting the collated medical book; the memorial bears no relation to the body of the work. Examining: Péi Zōngyuán and Chén Shīwén are the men who collated the Tàipíng huìmín héjì jú fāng (KR3e0033); the bookseller has likely transferred a memorial from another work to the head of this book to give it imperial-collation prestige. But the Sòng-period imperially-collated acupuncture work was Wáng Wéiyī 王惟一 (— here the tíyào writes 王維德, an error)‘s Tóngrén zhēnjiǔ jīng (KR3e0017); how can one falsify it?
(Respectfully verified, 10th month of Qiánlóng 46 [1781]. Chief Compilers Jì Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì; Chief Collator Lù Fèichí.)
Abstract
Composition window: 1220/1220, fixed by Xú Zhèngqīng’s first-imprint preface. The 1231 Zhào Lún reprint and the YuánMíng Yèshì Guǎngqíntáng commercial reprint are both descendants of the 1220 first imprint.
The work’s significance:
(a) The standardization of acupuncture-and-moxibustion pedagogy: the structural division into point-reference (juan 1) followed by symptom-organized treatment (juan 2–7) was an editorial innovation that became canonical for SòngYuánMíngQīng acupuncture compendia. Wáng Zhízhōng’s structural choice integrated the Sòng Tóngrén (point-localization) tradition with the older Jiǎyǐjīng (symptom-and-treatment) tradition.
(b) The Yèshì Guǎngqíntáng commercial-print witness: the Máshā commercial-print line is one of the more important YuánMíng print-house traditions for medical literature. The SKQS preservation of the Yèshì print is a useful witness to commercial-print medical culture in YuánMíng Fújiàn.
(c) The bookseller’s misappropriated imperial memorial: the Chén Chéng / Péi Zōngyuán / Chén Shīwén Chóng-níng-period memorial — actually pertaining to the Héjì jú fāng tradition — was placed at the head of this work to lend imperial-imprint prestige. The SKQS editors’ detection and correction of this commercial-publishing trick is a useful piece of book-historical scholarship.
(d) The 王維德 / 王惟一 typographical slip: the tíyào writes 王維德 for the imperial Tóngrén compiler, who is in fact 王惟一 — flagged here as an SKQS-editor typographical slip retained in the WYG print, per CLAUDE.md instructions.
Translations and research
- No substantial Western secondary literature on this specific work.
- Goldschmidt, Asaf. The Evolution of Chinese Medicine: Song Dynasty, 960–1200, London: Routledge, 2009 (broader Sòng acupuncture context).
- Despeux, Catherine. Préscriptions d’acuponcture (1987) and her broader work on Chinese acupuncture.
- Huáng Lóngxiáng 黃龍祥, Zhēnjiǔ míng-jiā xué-shù tǐ-xì 針灸名家學術體系, Beijing: Huá Xià Chūbǎnshè, 2007 (treats the Zī-shēng jīng in the Sòng-Yuán acupuncture lineage).
- Mǎ Jìxīng 馬繼興, Zhēnjiǔ shǐ huà 針灸史話, Beijing: Rénmín Wèishēng, 1985.
Other points of interest
The Yèshì Guǎngqíntáng 葉氏廣勤堂 is one of the more important YuánMíng commercial print-houses, located at Máshā 麻沙 in Jiànníngfǔ 建寧府 (Fújiàn). The Máshā print industry was a major source of YuánMíng medical and literary publications, and the SKQS recension’s preservation of the Yèshì Máshā print is an important witness to that culture.
The misappropriation-of-imperial-memorial trick — placing an imperial-collation memorial at the head of an unrelated work to lend imperial prestige — was a recurring commercial-publishing pattern in YuánMíng book trade. The SKQS editors’ identification and correction of this trick (as in the KR3e0031 Bǎo yòu dàquán tomb-recovery story and here) is one of the more useful editorial-honesty contributions of the Sìkù’s.