Bīnhú màixué 瀕湖脉學
Bīnhú’s Pulse-Learning by 李時珍 (Lǐ Shízhēn, zì Dōngbì, hào Bīnhú shānrén, 1518–1593, 明)
About the work
Lǐ Shízhēn’s specialist treatise on pulse diagnosis, in 1 juan, dated to Jiājìng jiǎzǐ (1564) per Lǐ’s own postface. The work is the most widely-used Chinese pulse-doctrine treatise from the late Míng to the present. The work systematically distinguishes 27 pulse-types — Fú 浮 (floating), Chén 沉 (sinking), Chí 遲 (slow), Shuò 數 (rapid), Huá 滑 (slippery), Sè 澀 (rough), Xū 虛 (empty), Shí 實 (full), Cháng 長 (long), Duǎn 短 (short), Hóng 洪 (flooding), Wēi 微 (faint), Jǐn 緊 (tight), Huǎn 緩 (relaxed), Kōu 芤 (hollow), Xián 弦 (bowstring), Gé 革 (drumskin), Láo 牢 (firm), Rú 濡 (soft), Ruò 弱 (weak), Sàn 散 (scattered), Xì 細 (thin), Fú 伏 (hidden), Dòng 動 (stirring), Cù 促 (hasty), Jié 結 (knotted), Dài 代 (intermittent) — providing for each: a precise definition, a comparison with similar pulses, and the disease-diagnostic significance. Lǐ’s father Lǐ Yánwén 李言聞 (hào Yuèchí 月池) had composed the unfinished Sì zhěn fāmíng 四診發明 (Four-Diagnostics Elucidation, 8 juan) on the four diagnostic methods (look, listen, ask, feel-pulse); Lǐ Shízhēn extracts and condenses his father’s pulse-related material into the Bīnhú màixué. The work also includes the Sòng Cuī Jiāyán sìyán shī 崔嘉彥四言詩 (Cuī Jiāyán’s four-character pulse-poem, a popular pulse-mnemonic verse) and various authorities’ textual investigations into the corrupt Mài jué (cf. KR3e0065). The SKQS editors credit the Bīnhú màixué with making the popular Mài jué finally obsolete: “the cleansing of medical studies — its merit not below Dài Qǐzōng’s.”
Tiyao
Bīnhú màixué, 1 juan, by Lǐ Shízhēn of the Míng. Sòng-period writers plagiarized Wáng Shūhé’s Mài jīng and altered it into the Mài jué — its vulgar errors are universally recognized, but no one had made a one-by-one philological correction. It was the Yuán [Dài] Qǐzōng who composed the Kānwù, character-by-character and phrase-by-phrase analyzed and refuted, after which the work’s falsehood became fully clear. The precision of Qǐzōng’s book is also universally recognized — but it only points out the falseness of the bad recension; it has not yet been able to lay down its own positive doctrine and explain why it is so.
Shízhēn now extracts his father’s Sì zhěn fāmíng and composes this book to correct the Mài jué’s errors. The methodology divides into 27 types: Fú, Chén, Chí, Shuò, Huá, Sè, Xū, Shí, Cháng, Duǎn, Hóng, Wēi, Jǐn, Huǎn, Kōu, Xián, Gé, Láo, Rú, Ruò, Sàn, Xì, Fú, Dòng, Cù, Jié, Dài — fine-as-a-hair distinctions, fully precise.
He also appends the Sòng Cuī Jiāyán’s Sìyán shī (Four-Character Verse) and the various authorities’ textual-investigation discussions of the Mài jué — for mutual elucidation. Together with his Qí jīng bā mài kǎo both appended at the end of the Běncǎo gāngmù, [Lǐ Shízhēn’s work] can be called both broadly examining and finely researching.
From this point forward, the Mài jué finally fell out of use. Its merit in clearing-and-cleansing medical studies is not less than Dài Qǐzōng’s.
(Respectfully verified, 3rd month of Qiánlóng 44 [1779]. Chief Compilers Jì Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì; Chief Collator Lù Fèichí.)
Abstract
Composition window: 1564/1564, the date of Lǐ Shízhēn’s postface (Jiājìng jiǎzǐ shàngyuán rì = 1st of 1st month, 1564), composed at his Bīnhú dwelling.
The work’s significance:
(a) The most widely-used Chinese pulse-doctrine treatise: from the late Míng to the present, the Bīnhú màixué is the standard pulse-diagnostic textbook. The 27-type classification with verse-mnemonics and clinical-diagnostic discussion is one of the most influential single Chinese medical pedagogical works.
(b) The decisive replacement of the corrupt Mài jué: Dài Qǐzōng’s Màijué kānwù (KR3e0065) had philologically demolished the Mài jué but failed to provide a positive replacement; Lǐ Shízhēn’s Bīnhú màixué provides that positive replacement, finally retiring the Mài jué from clinical use.
(c) The 27-pulse-type classification: Lǐ’s 27-type system became the canonical Chinese pulse-doctrine classification. The system remains foundational to modern TCM pulse-diagnosis.
(d) The Lǐ Yánwén / Sì zhěn fāmíng connection: the work’s preservation of material from Lǐ Shízhēn’s father’s lost work Sì zhěn fāmíng is a useful piece of medical-textual history. Lǐ Yánwén was a learned physician in his own right, contributing to the family medical tradition that produced Lǐ Shízhēn’s mature output.
(e) The verse-mnemonic pedagogy: each pulse-type’s discussion is structured for memorization, with verse-form descriptions (“the floating pulse, when raised has surplus, when pressed has deficiency” 浮脈舉之有餘按之不足) drawing on the Mài jīng, Sùwèn, Cuīshì (Cuī Jiāyán), Líshì (Lí Sǎn 黎散), and other authorities. The verse-mnemonic format made the work accessible to a wide range of practitioners.
The catalog meta dynasty 明 is correct.
Translations and research
- Bob Flaws, trans. The Lakeside Master’s Study of the Pulse: Translation and Commentaries, Boulder: Blue Poppy Press, 1998. The standard English translation.
- See KR3e0079 for general references on Lǐ Shízhēn (Unschuld 2021–, Needham 1986, Métailié 2015, Nappi 2009).
- Mǎ Jìxīng 馬繼興, Zhōng-yī wénxiàn xué 中醫文獻學, Shànghǎi: Shànghǎi Kēxué Jìshù Chūbǎnshè, 1990 (entry on the Bīnhú mài-xué).
Other points of interest
The 27-pulse-type classification of Lǐ Shízhēn — building on but extending the Mài jīng’s 24-type tradition — became the canonical Chinese pulse-diagnostic vocabulary. Modern TCM teaches a slightly modified 28-type system (adding jí 疾 / accelerating) but the core 27 are Lǐ’s.
The verse-mnemonic-pulse-pedagogy — each pulse-type accompanied by memorable poetic-similes (the floating pulse “like a light wind blowing on a bird’s back”; the slippery pulse “like beads rolling on a plate”; etc.) — is one of the most clinically influential pedagogical innovations in Chinese medical history. The format made pulse-diagnostic learning accessible to apprentice-trained practitioners and ensured the doctrine’s broad social diffusion.