Zhěn Jiā Zhèng Yǎn 診家正眼
The Diagnostician’s True Eye by 李中梓 (Lǐ Zhōngzǐ, zì Shìcái 士材, hào Niànmò 念莪, 1588–1655, 明末清初); edited and corrected by his grand-nephew 李延罡 (Lǐ Yángāng)
About the work
A two-juan late-Ming pulse-diagnosis manual by the Sōngjiāng 松江 master Lǐ Zhōngzǐ (李士材), completed in 1642 and one of the most influential pulse texts of the late-Míng / early-Qīng. The book restructures the classical material into a clean two-tier presentation. Juan 1 covers theoretical foundations: the definition of the pulse (mài zhī míng yì 脈之名義), the choice of the qìkǒu 氣口 as the diagnostic site, the Nèijīng numerology of pulse-cadence (the 50-営 / 13,500-respirations / 28-asterism scheme), the pulse-position allocation among the five viscera, the doctrine of “胃氣 wèi qì as the root of pulse life,” and an extended polemic-cum-clarification against the post-Wáng-Shūhé pulse confusions. Juan 2 lays out the twenty-eight pulse-types systematically — Lǐ’s expansion of Lǐ Shízhēn’s twenty-seven by the addition of jí 疾 (the rapid-extreme pulse). Each pulse-type is treated with its image, its mnemonic verses, its differential against confusable types, its pathological associations, and its prescriptive implications.
Prefaces
The jicheng.tw file does not preserve a dated authorial preface; the front-matter is the title and the body. Lǐ Zhōngzǐ’s principal pulse statement, the Zhěn jiā zhèng yǎn, was completed late in his life (conventionally 1642) and circulated initially in manuscript among his Sōngjiāng circle. The first wider print is associated with Lǐ Yángāng’s editorial work in the 1660s, which is also when the Mài jué huì biàn KR3eb018 was prepared as a companion / expansion. Lǐ Yángāng explicitly remarks in the Huì biàn fán lì that his great-uncle’s Zhèng yǎn had been printed in a defective edition and that he set about correcting it; the surviving received text reflects Lǐ Yángāng’s corrections.
Abstract
Lǐ Zhōngzǐ 李中梓 (字士材, 號 念莪 / 盡凡居士, 1588–1655) of Huáting 華亭 (Sōngjiāng, 上海) was one of the most prolific late-Ming clinical writers. His major works include Yī zōng bì dú 醫宗必讀 (1637, an introductory medical encyclopedia), Nèijīng zhī yào 內經知要 (1642), Sì zhěn jué wēi (different text from KR3eb003) — and the Zhěn jiā zhèng yǎn 診家正眼 here, which is his principal contribution to pulse-doctrine. The book is doctrinally aligned with the post-Lǐ-Shízhēn tradition that rejects the pseudo-Wáng-Shūhé Mài jué and reverts to the Nèijīng / Mài jīng foundation. Its single most influential doctrinal contribution is the explicit identification of the pulse with shén 神 (“the pulse is shén by another name” — 脈即神之別名) and the resulting clinical principle that the absence of shén in the pulse is a marker of fatal prognosis. The book is cited by virtually every subsequent Qing pulse manual, including the Yī zōng jīn jiàn curriculum KR3eb004 and Zhōu Xuéhǎi’s pulse cycle KR3eb007 / KR3eb036 / KR3eb037 / KR3eb038.
The dating to 1642 follows Lǐ Zhōngzǐ’s own self-dated Nèijīng zhī yào; the Zhèng yǎn was probably composed around the same time, in his final productive decade before the Ming collapse.
Translations and research
- No full Western-language translation exists.
- Volker Scheid, Currents of Tradition in Chinese Medicine 1626–2006 (Seattle: Eastland Press, 2007), treats Lǐ Zhōngzǐ at length as the most authoritative late-Ming Sōngjiāng physician.
- Bāo Lái-fā 包來發 et al., Lǐ Zhōngzǐ yī xué quán shū 李中梓醫學全書 (Beijing: Zhōngguó zhōngyīyào, 1999), is the standard modern collected critical edition; the Zhěn jiā zhèng yǎn appears in vol. 4.
Links
- Wikidata: not assigned.
- Reconstruction / expansion: KR3eb018 Mài jué huì biàn by Lǐ Yángāng.
- Cf. KR3eb004 Yī zōng jīn jiàn — Sì zhěn xīn fǎ yào jué for the imperial-curriculum derivative.
- 診家正眼 jicheng.tw
- Kanseki DB