Qiè Wángshì mìchuán túzhù bāshíyī Nànjīng pínglín jiéjìng tǒngzōng 鍥王氏秘傳圖註八十一難經評林捷徑統宗
Master Wáng’s Secret Transmission Illustrated and Annotated Classic of the Eighty-One Difficulties, with Critical Apparatus, Shortcut Method, and Master Synthesis (Newly Block-Carved) compilation by an anonymous late-Míng Wanli-era medical editor of the Jiànyáng 建陽 (Fújiàn) commercial printing tradition
About the work
This work is a representative specimen of the late-Míng Wanli-era popular medical anthology: an illustrated, heavily-paratext-laden block-print Nànjīng aimed at the practical-medicine book trade rather than at scholar-physician readership. The long compound title is itself a marketing apparatus, advertising five distinct features in one volume:
- Qiè 鍥 — “carved”, a standard Wanli-era marker for new block-cut edition;
- Wángshì mìchuán 王氏秘傳 — “Master Wáng’s secret transmission”, an attribution-claim presumably referring to Wáng Wénjié 王文潔 (Huìwú 慧吾), a late-Míng Fújiàn / Ānhuī medical compiler (no CBDB match), although the source-tradition is variously claimed in the Jiànyáng commercial print market and the “Wáng” identity is not securely established;
- Túzhù 圖註 — “illustrated and annotated”;
- Pínglín 評林 — “critical apparatus / forest of criticisms”, a Wanli-era marker for inset commentator-name labels;
- Jiéjìng tǒngzōng 捷徑統宗 — “shortcut method, master synthesis” — practical reference structure.
The work is presented in eight juan, ordered by the eighty-one nán of the Bāshíyī Nànjīng (KR3ea054); each nán receives a base text, a vignette illustration where applicable, a commentary block in the 王九思 Wáng Hànlín KR3ea056 / 滑壽 Huá Shòu KR3ea060 line, and Wanli-era inset critic-comments.
Tiyao
KR3ea064_001.txt contains only the org-mode placeholder header; the body text is not transcribed in this directory. There is no Sìkù tíyào — the Sìkù editors did not admit late-Míng popular pínglín anthologies (their preferred Nànjīng witness is Huá Shòu’s KR3ea060 Běnyì).
Abstract
Date bracket Wanli era 1576–1620 (the dynasty given in the catalog is 明 with no further specification). The compilatory genre is characteristic of the Jiànyáng 建陽 (Fújiàn) commercial print market of the Wanli generation, exemplified by the publishing houses of 余氏 Yúshì and 楊氏 Yángshì, which produced hundreds of practical-medicine anthologies in this period. The attribution to “Master Wáng” is conventional for the genre — comparable works claim “secret transmission” from various Wáng, Lǐ, or Zhāng masters. Modern scholars (Lǐ Jīngwěi, Zhōngyī túshū lèimù 中醫圖書類目; Yú Yīng’áo, Zhōngguó yījí mùlù) place the work among the Wanli-era anthologies but do not securely identify the compiler. The work has no doctrinal originality; its historical interest lies in (i) the woodblock illustrations (典型的 Wanli illustrated medical print style), and (ii) the pínglín (inset critic-comment) layout, which is one of the principal sources for reception-history of the Wanli-era Nànjīng reading public.
Translations and research
- Lǐ Jīngwěi 李經緯 et al., Zhōngyī túshū lèimù 中醫圖書類目 (Beijing: Rénmín wèishēng, 1990), s.v. Nànjīng pínglín tradition.
- Hé Shìxī 何時希, Zhōngguó lìdài yījiā chuánlù 中國歷代醫家傳錄 (Beijing: Rénmín wèishēng, 1991), vol. 4.
- K. T. Wu, “Ming Printing and Printers”, Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 7 (1942–1943): 203–260 — for the Jiànyáng commercial print context.
- No substantial English-language scholarship on this specific anthology located.
Other points of interest
The illustrated woodblock vignettes of this anthology — depicting pulse-taking, channel pathways, and acupuncture-point locations — circulated widely in the Wanli through early-Qing book trade and were copied (often without attribution) into many subsequent popular medical anthologies. The illustrations are conservative restatements of the late-Sòng / Yuán illustrated tradition (cf. Huá Shòu’s Shísì jīng fāhuī 1341) and do not represent independent observational work.