Mài Jué Zhǐ Zhǎng Bìng Shì Tú Shuō 脈訣指掌病式圖說
Illustrated Exposition of Pulse Songs and Palm-pointing Disease Diagrams attributed to 朱震亨 (Zhū Zhènhēng, zì Yànxiū 彥修, hào Dānxī 丹溪, 1281–1358, 元)
About the work
A one-juan Yuán-period palmar-diagnostics primer attributed to Zhū Zhènhēng, organised around (a) the seven-syllable mnemonic-verse summary of each major pulse-type and (b) finger-image diagrams (指掌圖) mapping the schematic shape of the pulse onto a pictorial scheme of the practitioner’s three fingers laid against the wrist. The format is the same as that of the Sòng Cuī shì mài jué 紫虛脈訣 lineage but with the figures preserved — a pedagogical device that Shī Fā’s KR3eb002 Chá bìng zhǐ nán (1241) seems to have invented and that the Zhǐ zhǎng extends with disease-typed images.
Prefaces
The jicheng.tw file for this title in the catalog is an empty stub (KR3eb012_001.txt contains only the header — no body text and no preface). The text in question is well attested outside this corpus from Ming-Qing manuscript copies and from the Dānxī xīn fǎ fù yú 丹溪心法附餘 collection; it is reprinted in the Zhōng yī gǔ jí zhěn běn cóng kān 中醫古籍珍本叢刊. The catalog dating bracket follows the conventional terminus ante quem of Zhū Zhènhēng’s death (1358) and the post-1340 productive period when most of his ascribed works took shape.
Abstract
The attribution to Zhū Zhènhēng has been disputed since the Ming. Lǐ Shízhēn’s KR3eb019 Mài jué kǎo zhèng expressly rejects most of the Gāo Yángshēng Mài jué 高陽生脈訣 (the pseudo-Wáng-Shūhé Sòng pulse-mnemonic) and is sceptical about ascriptions of independent pulse manuals to Zhū. Wú Qián’s KR3eb026 preface to Dài Qǐzōng’s Mài jué kān wù lists the Zhǐ zhǎng tú shuō as a Dānxī-school production of uncertain authorship — most likely composed by one of Zhū’s disciples (Dài Sīgōng 戴思恭 or Wáng Lǚ 王履) and circulating under his name. The content is, however, recognisably Zhū-school: pulse types are correlated with the yīnbùzú yángyǒuyú 陰不足陽有餘 framework characteristic of the Dānxī tradition. Because the jicheng.tw source files are essentially empty, this entry relies on external witnesses; no direct evidence from the jicheng.tw corpus can be cited.
Translations and research
- No Western-language translation exists.
- Discussed briefly in Yú Yǒngmǐn 余瀛鰲, Dān-xī yī xué quán shū 丹溪醫學全書 (Beijing: Zhōngyī gǔjí, 2006), as a peripheral text in the Dānxī corpus.
- Mǎ Jìxīng 馬繼興, Zhōng yī wén xiàn xué 中醫文獻學 (Shanghai: Shàng-hǎi kēxué jìshù, 1990), §“Pulse-diagnosis Yuán texts,” discusses the attribution problem.
Links
- Compare other pulse-mnemonic / palmar-diagnostic works in this division: KR3eb025 Mài jué (Cuī Jiāyàn), KR3eb041 Dānxī mài jué zhǐ zhǎng (an explicitly Dānxī-attributed Qīng compilation by Liú Jírén 劉吉人).
- 脈訣指掌病式圖說 jicheng.tw
- Kanseki DB