Zhēnjiǔ wèndá 針灸問答
Questions and Answers on Acupuncture and Moxibustion by 譚志光 Tán Zhìguāng (撰)
About the work
A single-juan Republican-period question-and-answer acupuncture manual by 譚志光 Tán Zhìguāng (hào Róngyuán 容園), of Chángshā 長沙. The work’s appended colophon is by 熊希齡 Xióng Xīlíng (Xióng Bǐngsān 秉三, the prominent Húnán reformer and Premier of the Republic of China in 1913–14), dated Mínguó 16 (1927) summer. Xióng’s colophon records meeting Tán at the Chángshā Xiāngbào 湘報館 newspaper offices and at the Húnán Nánxuéhuì 南學會, in the company of 康有為 Kāng Yǒuwéi (Nánhǎi), 梁啟超 Liáng Qǐchāo (Xīnhuì), and 譚嗣同 Tán Sìtóng (Liúyáng) — placing the young Tán Zhìguāng in the inner circle of the 1898 reformist movement. In the Mínguó 5 (1916) Chuánshān xuéshè 船山學社 reunion, 廖笏唐 Liào Bǐtáng, 任壽國 Rén Shòuguó, 彭少湘 Péng Shàoxiāng and others rose and declared: “this Róngyuán Tán Zhìguāng has long made use of acupuncture to revive medical learning and save lives” (素以針灸之學啟振醫林、拯救人命者也). Xióng then describes the present work as “rooted in [Huángdì and] Qíbó, tracing the source through 華佗 [Huá] Tuó and 扁鵲 Biǎn [Què], a grand composition” (根據軒岐，探源華扁，鴻篇鉅製).
Abstract
The Zhēnjiǔ wèndá is a Húnán Republican-period acupuncture catechism — one of the principal local-school manuals through which the late-Qīng Húnán acupuncture lineage (廖潤鴻 Liào Rùnhóng KR3ee007, KR3ee032, KR3ee037) was transmitted into the Republican TCM curriculum. Tán Zhìguāng’s question-and-answer form makes the work pedagogically accessible; the content focuses on clinical applications of acupuncture for the common Republican-era diseases (malaria, dysentery, neurasthenia, etc.) drawing on the Língshū-Sùwèn canonical doctrine and Tán’s own Húnán clinical lineage. The work was issued by the Chángshā medical-press community in 1927.
Translations and research
- Bridie Andrews, The Making of Modern Chinese Medicine, 1850–1960 (2014), for the Republican-period reformist-physician milieu in Húnán to which Tán belonged.
- 嚴世芸 Yán Shìyún, Zhōngyī rénwù cídiǎn, “Tán Zhìguāng” entry.
Links
- Zhōngguó zhōngyī gǔjí zǒngmù, zhēnjiǔ section.
- 針灸問答 jicheng.tw
- Kanseki DB