Yīzōng jīnjiàn · Cìjiǔ xīnfǎ yàojué 醫宗金鑑·刺灸心法要訣
Golden Mirror of the Medical Tradition · Essential Mnemonic of the Heart-Method of Needling and Moxibustion by 吳謙 Wú Qiān (奉敕撰) et al. (imperial commission)
About the work
The acupuncture-and-moxibustion section (8 juan: juans 79–86) of the Yùzuǎn Yīzōng jīnjiàn 御纂醫宗金鑑, the Qīng-period imperially-commissioned 90-juan medical curriculum-canon, presented to the throne in Qiánlóng 7 (1742) by 吳謙 Wú Qiān (Tàiyīyuàn yuànpàn) and 劉裕鐸 Liú Yùduó as joint chief editors. The Cìjiǔ xīnfǎ yàojué opens with the Jiǔzhēn yuánshǐ gē 九針原始歌 — a five-character verse on the origin and ritual numerology of the nine needles, derived from the Língshū · Jiǔzhēn 九針 chapter — followed by detailed verse-with-prose commentary on each of the nine needle-types (chánzhēn 鑱針, yuánzhēn 員針, dīzhēn 鍉針, fēngzhēn 鋒針, pīzhēn 鈹針, yuánlìzhēn 員利針, háozhēn 毫針, chángzhēn 長針, huǒzhēn 火針). The work then systematically covers all 361 standard acupoints, organized channel-by-channel, with cross-referenced indications and Qīng-period clinical applications.
Abstract
The Cìjiǔ xīnfǎ yàojué is the official Qīng acupuncture curriculum — the text upon which Imperial Medical Academy (太醫院) examinations in acupuncture were based from 1742 until the academy’s reorganization in the late 19th century. Its editorial principle is conservative: each chapter is opened with a memorial verse (gējué 歌訣) for student recitation, then expanded in prose commentary (zhù 注) that draws together the Sùwèn, Língshū, Nànjīng, and the Jiǎyǐ jīng (KR3ee005) original sources alongside selective citation from the Míng acupuncture-textbook tradition (高武 Gāo Wǔ’s Jùyīng KR3ee014 and 楊繼洲 Yáng Jìzhōu’s Dàchéng KR3ee027). The work was the source from which most late-Qīng acupuncture handbooks — including 廖潤鴻 Liào Rùnhóng’s Zhēnjiǔ jíchéng (KR3ee007) and Miǎnxuétáng zhēnjiǔ jíchéng (KR3ee037) — drew their verse mnemonics. The Cìjiǔ xīnfǎ yàojué is the principal channel through which Sòng-Míng acupuncture knowledge was institutionalized into the Qīng imperial medical examinations and, through them, into the early-Republican TCM curriculum.
Translations and research
- Marta Hanson, Speaking of Epidemics in Chinese Medicine: Disease and the Geographic Imagination in Late Imperial China, Routledge, 2011 — for the broader Yīzōng jīnjiàn compilation context.
- Yī Shēngbō 易聖博 et al. (eds.), Yīzōng jīnjiàn zhùyì 醫宗金鑑注譯 (Beijing: Rénmín wèishēng, 2006) — modern annotated edition.
Other points of interest
The Yīzōng jīnjiàn as a whole was the standard Qīng medical curriculum and remains in print as a teaching text; the Cìjiǔ xīnfǎ yàojué is the most institutionally consequential acupuncture textbook in Chinese history.
Links
- Wikipedia: 醫宗金鑑
- Wikidata Q11107615 (醫宗金鑑)
- Sìkù quánshū zǒngmù tíyào, Zǐbù · Yījiā lèi.
- 醫宗金鑑·刺灸心法要訣 jicheng.tw
- Kanseki DB