Jīngluò quánshū 經絡全書
Complete Book of Channels and Collaterals by 沈子祿 Shěn Zǐlù (撰) and 徐師曾 Xú Shīcēng (續撰)
About the work
A two-juan Míng monograph on the channel-collateral system, originally drafted by 沈子祿 Shěn Zǐlù in the Jiājìng 嘉靖 final years under the title Jīngmài fēnyě 經脈分野, and revised, expanded and printed by 徐師曾 Xú Shīcēng in 1576 (Wànlì 4). Xú’s preface explains: Shěn was a friend with whom Xú had agreed (during Xú’s own period of working on the Lǐjì annotation) to edit and prefix the Jīngmài fēnyě; but Shěn died in Beijing without seeing the project to completion, and Xú took up the book after his own Lǐjì commentary was finished. Xú’s polemic, set out programmatically in the preface, is that the “pulse” (脈) of medical literature is not merely the wrist-pulse but the entire channel-collateral apparatus: “the mài in the human body includes channels (jīng 經), collaterals (luò 絡), and sinew-channels (jīn 筋); each has its regular (常) and extraordinary (奇) trajectories, its great and small branchings, its directs and supports, its primary and ancillary courses… All of these are how one distinguishes inner and outer, divides empty and full, illuminates ying and wei, traces transformation, evaluates supplementing and draining, decides on inducement of sweat or purgation, judges life or death — every clinical decision is taken from them. The wrist pulse only confirms what the channels show.” The work proceeds with a head-to-foot, channel-by-channel exposition with extensive citations from the Nèijīng, Jiǎyǐ jīng (KR3ee005), and Língshū jīngmài tradition.
Abstract
The Jīngluò quánshū is the most influential late-Míng monograph on channel-doctrine. Shěn Zǐlù 沈子祿 (mid-16th c., Sūzhōu region) is otherwise known only from Xú Shīcēng’s preface; Xú Shīcēng 徐師曾 (zì Bófú 伯魯, hào Lǔshān 魯山, 1517–1580, native of Wújiāng 吳江, jìnshì of 1553) was a major literatus-philologist best known today for his Wéntǐ míngbiàn 文體明辨 (1573, on literary genres) and for his commentaries on the Lǐjì. His expansion of Shěn’s book reflects the late-Míng convergence of philological scholarship with medicine. The work was published in 1576 (Wànlì 4) and reprinted multiple times in the late Míng and early Qīng; it is registered in the Sìkù quánshū zǒngmù tíyào under the Zǐbù · Yījiā lèi cúnmù.
Translations and research
- 嚴世芸 Yán Shìyún, Zhōngyī rénwù cídiǎn (1988), entries “沈子祿” and “徐師曾”.
- 賈得道 Jiǎ Dédào, Zhōngguó yīxué shǐlüè 中國醫學史略 (1979) — late-Míng channel-doctrine context.
Links
- Sìkù quánshū zǒngmù tíyào, Zǐbù · Yījiā lèi cúnmù.
- 經絡全書 jicheng.tw
- Kanseki DB