Zhēnjiǔ wènduì 針灸問對
Catechism on Acupuncture and Moxibustion by 汪機 Wāng Jī (撰)
About the work
A three-juan question-and-answer manual on acupuncture by the prolific Míng physician-philologist 汪機 Wāng Jī (1463–1539, zì Shěngzhī 省之, hào Shíshān 石山, of Qímén 祁門 in southern Ānhuī). Wāng’s preface, dated Jiājìng gēngyín 庚寅 (1530), gives the work’s framing scene: a visitor praises the celebrated Sūzhōu acupuncturist 凌漢章 Líng Hànzhāng and the Liùhé acupuncturist 李千戶 Lǐ Qiānhù, recounting that one could “needle accurately through clothing” (隔衣針亦每中其穴) while the other “measured carefully and marked each point with ink before daring to insert the needle” (必須折量，以墨點記，方敢始下針). Wāng, taking this as his starting point, argues that “the simple and the meticulous: in the precision of point-location, the simple cannot match the meticulous” (簡略者終不及謹密者之的確) — but adds the deeper philological point that no acupuncturist, simple or meticulous, can practice without “examining the pulse to determine whether the disease is in the channel or in the collateral, and waiting for the qi to assess whether the evil has already arrived or not yet come” (素、難所論針灸，必須察脈以審其病之在經在絡，又須候氣以察其邪之已至未來). The catechism form (問難) follows: questions are posed in the voice of an interlocutor, with Wāng’s authoritative responses anchored in the Língshū, Sùwèn, Nànjīng, and the Sòng-Yuán acupuncture tradition.
Tiyao
The Sìkù quánshū zǒngmù tíyào (Zǐbù · Yījiā lèi) carries a tiyao for the work, noting Wāng’s “strict adherence to the Sù Nàn canon” (一遵《素》、《難》之旨) and his characteristic mistrust of the Míng popular-acupuncture didactic verses, which the Wènduì repeatedly subjects to critical examination.
Abstract
The Zhēnjiǔ wènduì is the most theoretically explicit Míng acupuncture treatise and the principal vehicle of Wāng Jī’s conservative philological position: that the entire acupuncture curriculum must be grounded in the Sùwèn, Língshū, and Nànjīng, and that the post-classical didactic verses must be checked against these canonical sources rather than taken as standalone authorities. The catechism form makes the work suitable both for teaching and for polemical demonstration. The text was printed at Wāng’s own Pǔshù 樸墅 academy in Qímén; Wāng’s friend 南澗子 Nánjiànzǐ contributed a postface. The work is registered in the SKQS proper and is one of the few Míng acupuncture works to be canonized by the Sìkù compilers.
Translations and research
- Bridie J. Andrews, The Making of Modern Chinese Medicine, 1850–1960, Vancouver: UBC Press, 2014 — for Wāng Jī’s broader reception in the modern TCM canon.
- 嚴世芸 Yán Shìyún, Zhōngyī rénwù cídiǎn, “Wāng Jī” entry.
- Charlotte Furth, A Flourishing Yin: Gender in China’s Medical History, 960–1665, University of California Press, 1999 — Wāng’s clinical philosophy.
Links
- Sìkù quánshū zǒngmù tíyào, Zǐbù · Yījiā lèi.
- Wikidata Q11107613 (針灸問對)
- 針灸問對 jicheng.tw
- Kanseki DB