Mài Lǐ Jí Yào 脈理集要
A Concentrated Collection of Pulse Theory by 王宦 (Wáng Huàn, fl. late Wànlì, 明)
About the work
A one-juan late-Ming pulse compilation by Wáng Huàn, of which the principal organising principle is a four-character mnemonic verse covering the pulse rubrics, the three classical pulse-diagnostic methods (寸口 cùnkǒu + 人迎 rényíng + 衝陽 chōngyáng), and the standard pulse signatures. The work concludes with a programmatic passage on the Shàng gǔ sān zhěn 上古三診 (the three pulse-diagnostic methods of antiquity), arguing that the later restriction of pulse diagnosis to the cùnkǒu alone — the tiān qí yì 天其藝 (“Heaven secluded the art”) — was a degradation of the original threefold practice. The book is short and didactic, structured as a tabular reference for clinical use.
Prefaces
The jicheng.tw _000.txt opens directly with the body text after a brief yuán xù yào lüè 原序要略 (summary of the original preface); no dated authorial colophon is preserved. The conventional dating to the late Wànlì period (1570–1620) follows external bibliographic evidence; Wáng Huàn is otherwise lightly documented but appears in late-Wàn-lì pulse-literature catalogues.
Abstract
Wáng Huàn 王宦 is essentially unknown beyond this work. The catalog records his dynasty as 明 (Ming), and his stylistic affinities — the use of four-character mnemonic verse on the Cuī Jiāyàn pattern, the explicit treatment of the three antique diagnostic methods, the cosmological tabulation of pulse signatures by season and viscus — place him in the late-Wàn-lì pulse-literature milieu around Lǐ Shízhēn KR3eb014 and Wú Kūn KR3eb040. The most distinctive contribution is the preservation of the Shàng gǔ sān zhěn doctrine: although Huá Shòu KR3eb023 had earlier noted the contraction of pulse diagnosis from three sites to one, Wáng Huàn’s exposition is unusually crisp and frequently quoted in later Qing pulse manuals.
The text is not in CBDB and the author has no external attestation; the conventional dating reflects internal stylistic evidence.
Translations and research
- No Western-language translation exists.
- No substantial secondary literature located. Modern reprints appear in the Zhōng yī gǔ jí zhěn běn cóng kān 中醫古籍珍本叢刊.
Links
- Wikidata: not assigned.
- 脈理集要 jicheng.tw
- Kanseki DB