Nèijīng bóyì 內經博議
Wide-Ranging Discussions on the Inner Classic by 羅美 (Luó Měi, fl. 1675, 清) — author
About the work
The Nèijīng bóyì in four juan is an early-Kāngxī series of discursive essays on selected topics from the Sùwèn and Língshū by Luó Měi 羅美 (zì Dànshēng 澹生, hào Dōngyì 東逸), an early-Qing physician of Xīnzhōu 新洲 (Ānhuī). The work is dated to Kāngxī 14 = 1675. Unlike a continuous commentary, it consists of about thirty topical essays — 陰陽論, 五行論, 藏象論, 經絡論, 病能論, yùnqì 運氣論, 治法論, 脈論, and so on — each developing a single doctrinal point through citation of Nèijīng and post-classical evidence.
Prefaces
The jicheng.tw source opens (KR3ea046_000.txt) with an appended essay rather than the proper authorial preface: Fùlù: Zhāng Zǐhé jiǔqì gǎnjí lùn 附錄張子和九氣感疾論 — an appendix-style attachment of 張從正 Zhāng Zǐhé’s (Zhāng Cōngzhèng, 1156–1228, one of the four JīnYuán masters) essay on the nine qì-related disease categories. Zhāng Zǐhé’s text, in its turn, glosses the Sùwèn’s Jǔtòng lùn 舉痛論 doctrine of disease arising from the disturbance of qì — anger reverses qì upward producing vomiting of blood and flank-thoroughfare-collapse (飧泄); joy slackens qì; sorrow makes the heart-system constrict and the lung lobes lift; etc. Luó’s editorial inclusion of Zhāng’s essay at the head of his own work signals a deliberate doctrinal alignment with the JīnYuán “qìjī / xiǎofá” school of 劉完素 Liú Wánsù and Zhāng Cōngzhèng.
Abstract
Luó Měi is recorded in the Sìkù quánshū tíyào on the Nèijīng bóyì as 新洲羅美 (no further biographical data). The work was admitted to the Sìkù and is conventionally classed with 汪昂 Wāng Áng’s KR3ea039 Lèizuǎn yuēzhù and the Lǚshān Jízhù (KR3ea008) as one of the three serious early-Qīng systematic engagements with Nèijīng doctrine. Luó’s distinctive contribution is the discursive-essay form (博議 = “wide-ranging discussion”) which allows for sustained doctrinal argument outside the line-by-line commentary genre. His clinical orientation is broadly LiúHéjiān (cooling) tempered by Sōngjiāng-school Mìngmén warming.
Translations and research
No substantial Western-language scholarship located. Modern reprint in the Sìkù quánshū WYG digital editions and in Zhōngyī gǔjí xījiàn cóngshū (Shànghǎi Kēxué Jìshù, 1991).