Zhèngzhì zhǔnshéng 證治準繩
The Standard Compass for Symptom-Pattern and Treatment by 王肯堂 (Wáng Kěntáng, zì Yǔtài, hào Niànxī jūshì, 1549–1613, 明)
About the work
The most comprehensive late-Míng systematic clinical-medical encyclopedia, in 120 juan / 44 cè, composed by Wáng Kěntáng in stages from 1597 to 1607. The work consists of six sub-works:
- Zázhèng zhǔnshéng 雜證準繩 (Miscellaneous Diseases, 8 cè, 13 categorical gates) — completed Wànlì dīngyǒu (1597);
- Lèifāng 類方 (Categorical Prescriptions, 8 cè) — completed Wànlì wùxū (1598);
- Shānghán zhǔnshéng 傷寒準繩 (Cold-Damage, 8 cè) — completed Wànlì jiǎchén (1604);
- Yángyī zhǔnshéng 瘍醫準繩 (Surgery / External Medicine, 6 cè) — completed Wànlì jiǎchén (1604);
- Yòukē zhǔnshéng 幼科準繩 (Pediatrics, 9 cè) — completed Wànlì dīngwèi (1607);
- Nǚkē zhǔnshéng 女科準繩 (Women’s Medicine, 5 cè) — completed Wànlì dīngwèi (1607).
Total: 44 cè, redivided in the SKQS recension into 120 juan. The compendium is balanced-comprehensive — drawing on the broad pre-Míng and Míng medical tradition without doctrinal partisanship — and is praised by the SKQS editors as the standard reference for late-imperial Chinese clinical medicine.
Tiyao
Zhèngzhì zhǔnshéng, 120 juan, by Wáng Kěntáng of the Míng. Kěntáng has the Shàngshū yàozhǐ 尚書要旨, separately catalogued. According to Kěntáng’s own preface: “I first composed the Zhèngzhì zhǔnshéng in 8 cè (specially discussing miscellaneous symptoms in 13 gates), with the appended Lèifāng in 8 cè, both completed in dīngyǒu (1597) and wùxū (1598).”
The book gathers material extensively, with attention to the verification of pulse-and-symptom and the distinction of similarities-and-differences. The categorical organization is clear, with full structure-and-detail. So broad without being mixed; on cold-warm-attack-tonify it is not partisan — viewed beside the Mù Shíyōng (Liú Wánsù) end-stream where deficiency-and-excess are not asked but the merit of shígāo (gypsum) is talked of, or beside Zhāng Jièbīn’s end-stream where diagnosis is not yet performed but the prescription of rénshēn is fixed — Wáng’s work can also be said to grasp the balance.
In the Zhūshāng (various injuries) gate is appended Chuánshī láo zhū chóng zhī xíng (the form of various worms in the consumptive disease) — which, although seemingly drifting toward speaking-of-strange-things, considering that Northern Qí’s Xú Zhīcái 徐之才 used a dead-man’s pillow to treat guǐquán (ghost-trembling), there must be a specialist transmission, and one cannot generally dismiss as ridiculous.
The Shānghán zhǔnshéng in 8 cè and Yángyī zhǔnshéng in 6 cè were completed in jiǎchén (1604); the Yòukē zhǔnshéng in 9 cè and Nǚkē zhǔnshéng in 5 cè in dīngwèi (1607) — all to supplement what the previous book had not covered. Therefore the overall title remains Zhèngzhì zhǔnshéng. Only the prescriptions in those volumes are appended under each symptom-pattern, slightly different from the Zázhèng arrangement.
The [Míng] shǐ says that Kěntáng was fond of reading and especially expert in medicine; the Zhèngzhì zhǔnshéng he composed is broad-and-precise, and the world has competed to transmit it. His other work Yùgāng zhāi bǐzhǔ — discussion of prescription-medicine occupies three- or four-tenths. So in this one technique [medicine] he applied himself to great depth; appropriate that he should be the medical-school’s standard-reference.
According to the self-preface, the work should be in 44 cè; its page-count is heavy and reading inconvenient. We have now divided the count, fixing it at 120 juan.
(Respectfully verified, 9th month of Qiánlóng 46 [1781]. Chief Compilers Jì Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì; Chief Collator Lù Fèichí.)
Abstract
Composition window: 1597–1607, the 10-year period during which Wáng Kěntáng completed his six-part medical encyclopedia.
The work’s significance:
(a) The most comprehensive late-Míng clinical-medical reference: at 120 juan / 44 cè, the Zhèngzhì zhǔnshéng is the most thorough late-Míng systematic medical compendium. Through it, late-imperial Chinese medical reference practice was substantially codified.
(b) The balanced-comprehensive doctrinal stance: Wáng’s deliberate non-partisanship on cold-warm-attack-tonify questions — neither clinging to Liú Wánsù’s cooling nor Zhāng Jièbīn’s warming — is one of the more attractive late-Míng medical-philosophical positions. The SKQS editors’ praise (the work “grasps the balance” 得其平) reflects this assessment.
(c) The six-specialty structural plan: the division into Zázhèng (general / miscellaneous), Shānghán (cold-damage), Yángyī (surgery), Yòukē (pediatrics), Nǚkē (women), with Lèifāng (prescription compendium) as a unifying companion — represents a mature late-Míng disciplinary classification scheme building on the Yuán shísān kē tradition (cf. KR3e0059).
(d) The Confucian-medical (rúyī) ideal: Wáng Kěntáng — jìnshì, Hànlín scholar, official, and physician — is the late-Míng exemplar of the rúyī ideal. His career embodied the intellectual ideal articulated by Fàn Zhòngyān (“if not a good prime minister, then a good physician”, 不為良相便為良醫) — a saying Wáng cites at the head of his preface.
(e) The “chuánshī láo” worms: the SKQS editors’ careful note on the chuánshī láo (transmission-corpse / consumptive disease) worm-form material — that even though it sounds fanciful, the Northern-Qí precedent of Xú Zhīcái’s similar specialist material suggests a genuine medical transmission rather than mere fabulation — is one of the better Qing-period mid-imperial medical-historical readings.
The catalog meta dynasty 明 is correct.
Translations and research
- No substantial Western translation of this immense work. Selected sections have been studied:
- Furth, Charlotte. A Flourishing Yin: Gender in China’s Medical History, 960–1665, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999. Treats Wáng Kěntáng’s Nǚ-kē zhǔn-shéng.
- Hsiung Ping-chen 熊秉真, A Tender Voyage: Children and Childhood in Late Imperial China, Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2005. Treats Wáng Kěntáng’s Yòu-kē zhǔn-shéng.
- Mǎ Jìxīng 馬繼興, Zhōng-yī wénxiàn xué 中醫文獻學, Shànghǎi: Shànghǎi Kēxué Jìshù Chūbǎnshè, 1990 (entry on the Zhèng-zhì zhǔn-shéng).
- Mǎ Bóyīng 馬伯英, Zhōngguó yī-xué wén-huà shǐ 中國醫學文化史, 2 vols., Shànghǎi: Shànghǎi Rénmín, 2010 (extensive treatment of Wáng Kěntáng).
Other points of interest
The Fàn Zhòngyān motto — “if not a good prime minister, then a good physician” — invoked at the head of Wáng Kěntáng’s preface is one of the most influential single statements of the rúyī (Confucian-physician) ideal in Chinese medical history. The motto’s dual ambition — to govern well or to heal well — captures the late-imperial Confucian vision of medicine as a moral-political project.
Wáng Kěntáng’s Yòukē zhǔnshéng (pediatrics) is one of the most comprehensive pre-modern Chinese pediatric treatises, and remains a principal source for late-imperial Chinese childhood medicine. The Nǚkē zhǔnshéng (women’s medicine) is similarly foundational for the late-Míng-Qīng women’s-medicine tradition.