Zhēnjiǔ dàquán 針灸大全
Comprehensive Collection on Acupuncture and Moxibustion by 徐鳳 Xú Fèng (撰)
About the work
A six-juan compilation completed by the early-Míng physician 徐鳳 Xú Fèng (hào Xìnzhāi 信齋) of Tāngxī 塘溪 (Jiāngxī 江西) in the fourth year of Zhèngtǒng 正統四年 (1439). The work survives under several alternative titles — Zhēnjiǔ jiéyào 針灸捷要, Xú Fèng zhēnjiǔ dàquán 徐鳳針灸大全, Zhēnjiǔ dàquán liù juǎn — but the contents are stable: juan 1 collects the four cardinal acupuncture rhapsodies (Zhōushēn jīngxué fù 周身經穴賦, Shí’èr jīngmài gē 十二經脈歌, Shíwǔ luòmài gē 十五絡脈歌, Jīngmài qìxuè duōshǎo gē 經脈氣血多少歌) together with the standard apotropaic / chronopuncture lists (Jìnzhēn xué gē 禁針穴歌, Jìnjiǔ xué gē 禁灸穴歌, Xuèjì gē 血忌歌, Zhúrì rénshén gē 逐日人神歌, Jiǔgōng kāoshén gē 九宮尻神歌, Tàiyǐ rénshén gē 太乙人神歌, 孫思邈 Sūn Sīmiǎo’s Shísān guǐxué gē 十三鬼穴歌); juan 2 reproduces the famous didactic verses (Tiānxīng mìjué gē 天星秘訣歌, 馬鈺 Mǎ Dānyáng’s Tiānxīng shí’èr xué 天星十二穴 verse, the Sì zǒng xué gē 四總穴歌, the Qiānjīn shíyī xué gē 千金十一穴歌, the Tōngxuán zhǐyào fù 通玄指要賦, the Língguāng fù 靈光賦, the Xí Hóng fù 席弘賦); juan 3–4 contain the Liúzhù zhǐwēi fù 流注指微賦 and the influential Zǐwǔ liúzhù 子午流注 (“Midnight–Noon flowing-injection”) chronoacupuncture treatise, including the eight-vessel turtle/dragon method (Língguī bāfǎ 靈龜八法, Fēiténg bāfǎ 飛騰八法) with Xú’s own diagrams and tables; juan 5–6 give a clinical handbook of indications and case-style needling formulas. The text is the principal vehicle through which Sòng–Yuán chronoacupuncture (zǐwǔ liúzhù) entered the Míng curriculum.
Abstract
The 1439 edition (Zhèngtǒng 4) is the editio princeps and gives the author’s own preface, in which Xú Fèng explains that he compiled the work after long study with the older Jiāngxī acupuncturist 徐巖 Xú Yán (his teacher) and after re-reading the Zǐwǔ liúzhù zhēn jīng 子午流注針經 attributed to 閻明廣 Yán Míngguǎng (KR3ee045). Xú Fèng’s principal contribution is the systematic re-tabulation of the liúzhù hour-by-hour acupoint sequences, including the Língguī bāfǎ (eight-method computation using the Hétú and Luòshū numbers to select one of the eight confluent acupoints — Lièquē 列缺, Zhàohǎi 照海, Hòuxī 後谿, Shēnmài 申脈, Nèiguān 內關, Wàiguān 外關, Gōngsūn 公孫, Línqì 臨泣 — corresponding to the eight extraordinary vessels at a given calendrical moment). The Sìkù compilers did not include the Zhēnjiǔ dàquán in the Sìkù quánshū proper but discussed it briefly in the Sìkù quánshū zǒngmù under “biecunmu” 別存目 of the Zǐbù yījiā lèi, noting that Xú “selected from the predecessors and arranged into songs and rhapsodies, very convenient for memorization” (撮取前人，編為歌賦，最便記誦). The text became the principal source from which 楊繼洲 Yáng Jìzhōu drew when he assembled the much larger Zhēnjiǔ dàchéng 針灸大成 (KR3ee027, 1601); most of the Dàchéng’s introductory rhapsodic apparatus is verbatim from the Dàquán. The Zhēnjiǔ dàquán was reprinted multiple times in the Míng and circulated in Korean (Chimgu daejeon) and Japanese (Shinkyū taizen) recensions in the 17th century.
Translations and research
- 黄龍祥 Huáng Lóngxiáng, Zhōngguó zhēnjiǔ xué shùyǔ cídiǎn 中國針灸學術語辭典 (Beijing: Huáxià, 1999) — fundamental for the technical vocabulary Xú codified.
- Liú Bīng 劉冰 et al., “Zhēnjiǔ dàquán yánjiū” 針灸大全研究, Zhōngguó zhēnjiǔ 中國針灸 (multiple issues, 1990s–2000s).
- 嚴世芸 Yán Shìyún (ed.), Zhōngyī rénwù cídiǎn 中醫人物詞典 (Shanghai: Císhū, 1988) — Xú Fèng entry.
- Catherine Despeux, La moelle du phénix rouge: santé et longue vie dans la Chine du XVIe siècle, Paris: Trédaniel, 1988 — for the broader Míng chronoacupuncture milieu.
Other points of interest
The Zhēnjiǔ dàquán preserves the earliest fully tabulated form of the Língguī bāfǎ method, in which the eight extraordinary vessels of the Qíjīng bāmài kǎo tradition (cf. KR3ee001) are operationalized as a clinical timing system; Xú’s tables remain the basis for all subsequent Chinese and East-Asian chronoacupuncture practice.
Links
- Sìkù quánshū zǒngmù tíyào, Zǐbù · Yījiā lèi cúnmù.
- Wikidata Q11003822 (针灸大全)
- 針灸大全 jicheng.tw
- Kanseki DB