Zhēnjiǔ dàchéng 針灸大成
Great Compendium of Acupuncture and Moxibustion by 楊繼洲 Yáng Jìzhōu (撰)
About the work
The single most influential acupuncture work in the Chinese medical tradition: a ten-juan late-Míng synthesis compiled by the imperial physician 楊繼洲 Yáng Jìzhōu (1522–1620, of Sānqú 三衢, Zhèjiāng) on the foundation of his family’s hereditary Wèishēng zhēnjiǔ xuánjī mìyào 衛生針灸玄機秘要 and printed in Wànlì 29 (1601). The opening Zhēndào yuánliú 針道源流 (“The genealogical source of the way of needling”) chapter gives a long historical survey: the Sùwèn 12-juan canon, traditionally ascribed to Yellow-Emperor / Qíbó dialogue but identified by 劉向 Liú Xiàng with “the various sons of the Hán family” and by 程子 Chéngzǐ with “the end of the Warring States” — analogous in transmission to the Lǐjì, gathered by Hàn Confucians; the Nànjīng 13-juan attributed to 扁鵲 Qín Yuèrén; the lost commentaries of 呂博望 Lǚ Bówàng, 王惟一 Wáng Wéiyī, 虞氏 Yúshì, 紀齊卿 Jì Qíqīng, 楊玄操 Yáng Xuáncāo, 呂廣 Lǚ Guǎng, 王宗正 Wáng Zōngzhèng, 周仲立 Zhōu Zhònglì, 李子野 Lǐ Zǐyě; the Jiǎyǐ jīng of 皇甫謐 Huángfǔ Mì (KR3ee005); the Tàisù jīng of 楊上善 Yáng Shàngshàn; the Tóngrén tújīng of Wáng Wéiyī (KR3ee056); the Yùlóng jīng of 王國瑞 Wáng Guóruì (KR3ee008); the Zīshēng jīng of 王執中 Wáng Zhízhōng (KR3ee020); the Zhēnjiǔ dàquán of 徐鳳 Xú Fèng (KR3ee002); the Jùyīng of 高武 Gāo Wǔ (KR3ee014); etc. The body of the Dàchéng then incorporates virtually the entire pre-existing acupuncture corpus, with Yáng’s editorial annotations and his own clinical cases.
Tiyao
The Sìkù quánshū zǒngmù tíyào (Zǐbù · Yījiā lèi) carries a tiyao for the Dàchéng and praises its comprehensiveness; it remarks that Yáng’s work “fully encompasses everything from the Yellow Emperor and Qíbó to the present day, omitting nothing essential” (上自岐黃下迄今日，要無遺漏).
Abstract
The Zhēnjiǔ dàchéng is the single most influential acupuncture text in East Asian history. Yáng Jìzhōu’s editorial method is encyclopedic: virtually the entire pre-existing Sòng-Yuán-Míng acupuncture corpus is absorbed, with Yáng’s àn 案 (“editorial note”) interpolations marking his own clinical experience and his critical comparisons. The work is divided into ten juan: juan 1 the source-tradition essays and the canonical didactic verses; juan 2 the Biāoyōu fù (KR3ee017) with Yáng’s annotated commentary; juan 3 the Yùlóng gē (after KR3ee008) and the chronoacupuncture verses; juan 4 the channel-trajectories with diagrams; juan 5 the head-to-foot acupoint catalog; juan 6–7 the clinical-syndrome chapters with point-selection; juan 8 the special-needling and moxibustion techniques (the Sòng’ér jiāchuán zhēnfǎ 宋兒家傳針法 etc.); juan 9 paediatric needling; juan 10 Yáng’s own clinical case-records. The work was reprinted dozens of times in the late Míng and Qīng, translated and adapted into Japanese and Korean acupuncture curricula, and is the principal source for almost all modern Chinese-medicine acupuncture pedagogy. The first edition (1601) was a Píngyáng commercial print; the SKQS recension is from a Qīng Yītǒng zhèngmài 醫統正脈 reprint.
Translations and research
- Stuart Schram (gen. ed.), Great Compendium of Acupuncture and Moxibustion (Zhen Jiu Da Cheng): A Translation, Boulder: Blue Poppy Press, 1996–2009 (multi-volume English translation in progress).
- 黄龍祥 Huáng Lóngxiáng & 黃幼蘭 Huáng Yòulán (eds.), Zhēnjiǔ dàchéng jiàoshì 針灸大成校釋 (Beijing: Rénmín wèishēng, 1984) — definitive Chinese critical edition.
- Catherine Despeux, “Acupuncture in the Late Imperial Period”, in Cambridge Encyclopedia of Chinese Medicine (2009).
- Volker Scheid, Currents of Tradition in Chinese Medicine 1626–2006 — for the post-1601 reception of the Dàchéng in the major regional medical lineages.
Other points of interest
The Zhēnjiǔ dàchéng is the single most-translated Chinese medical text into modern European languages and the principal source-text of all modern East-Asian acupuncture practice.
Links
- Wikipedia: 針灸大成
- Wikidata Q11107612
- Sìkù quánshū zǒngmù tíyào, Zǐbù · Yījiā lèi.
- 針灸大成 jicheng.tw
- Kanseki DB