Jīngluò kǎo 經絡考
Investigation of Channels and Collaterals by 張三錫 Zhāng Sānxī (撰)
About the work
A single-juan late-Míng treatise on the channel-collateral system by 張三錫 Zhāng Sānxī (zì Shùshēn 叔承, hào Jiāshān 嘉山, late-Wànlì period), one of the most influential Wànlì-era physicians and a member of the so-called Yuánsù 元素 / Dōngyuán 東垣 northern-school transmission as filtered through the Jiājìng-Wànlì Nánjīng medical community. Zhāng’s polemic in the self-preface is the standard late-Míng position: “the channels and collaterals are not the proprietary concern of acupuncturists; without first knowing them, one cannot find the source of disease… ‘open mouth and move hand, both will be wrong’” (世人以經絡為針灸家書，皆懵然罔究…「不讀十二經絡，開口動手便錯」). The work distills the Sùwèn, Língshū, Nànjīng, and 滑壽 Huá Shòu’s Shísì jīng fāhuī (KR3ee026) into a clinically usable channel-by-channel reference, with Zhāng’s own diagnostic correlations: “the same headache differs by channel left versus right, front versus back; the same eye disease differs by inner versus outer canthus, black versus white of the eye, upper versus lower lid… If in the Lung channel and one uses Heart channel medicine, the lung-disease will not be cured and the heart will be injured.”
Abstract
The Jīngluò kǎo belongs to Zhāng Sānxī’s larger six-juan Yīxué zhǔnshéng liùyào 醫學準繩六要 (1593), where it occupies the channel-doctrine pillar; it also circulated independently. Zhāng’s broader medical contribution is the integration of the Jīn-Yuán four-master tradition (especially 李杲 Lǐ Dōngyuán) with the standard late-Míng channel-doctrine emphasis on pharmacotherapy via channel-tropism. The work is registered in the Sìkù quánshū zǒngmù tíyào cúnmù.
Translations and research
- 嚴世芸 Yán Shìyún, Zhōngyī rénwù cídiǎn, “Zhāng Sānxī” entry.
- Wú Yún 吳允, “Zhāng Sānxī xuéshù sīxiǎng yánjiū” (2000s).
Links
- Sìkù quánshū zǒngmù tíyào, Zǐbù · Yījiā lèi cúnmù.
- 經絡考 jicheng.tw
- Kanseki DB