Zhèngzhì zhēn jīng 證治針經
Needle Classic of Diagnosis and Treatment by 郭誠勳 Guō Chéngxūn (撰)
About the work
A four-juan Qīng acupuncture-and-pharmacology compilation by 郭誠勳 Guō Chéngxūn (fl. Jiāqìng–Dàoguāng period), prefaced in Dàoguāng guǐwèi 道光癸未 (1823). The opening preface is a long polemic against the late-Qīng tendency to medical sectarianism: “I have often wondered at those who talk of medicine these days: ‘this book should be read,’ ‘this school should be followed.’ These are words of those who do not understand medicine. Learning must have a source, practice must have a transmission… If those who talk of medicine fix their attention on one master’s words and adhere to one school’s learning — the transmitter is already partial and the learner is also rigid — those who favor cooling-and-purging slay the empty-and-cold patient; those habituated to warming-tonifying kill the full-and-hot patient.” Guō’s position is the standard Qīng zhézhōng 折衷 (“balanced eclecticism”) of the post-Yīzōng jīnjiàn (KR3ee015) period: the canonical Sùwèn-Língshū-Nànjīng doctrine must be the foundation; the Jīn-Yuán four-masters are useful only as supplements; and the clinical-syndrome decision must be made fresh in each case. The body of the work follows this position with diagnostic chapters, acupoint indications, and pharmacological prescriptions organized syndrome-by-syndrome.
Abstract
The Zhèngzhì zhēn jīng is one of the principal mid-Qīng acupuncture-and-pharmacology integrated handbooks; Guō Chéngxūn’s editorial ambition — to refuse all sectarian commitment in favor of a strict canonical-source method — is the standard kǎozhèng-era medical philology applied to acupuncture practice. The work is registered in the Zhōngguó zhōngyī gǔjí zǒngmù and was reprinted multiple times in the late Qīng.
Translations and research
- 嚴世芸 Yán Shìyún, Zhōngyī rénwù cídiǎn, “Guō Chéngxūn” entry.
Links
- Zhōngguó zhōngyī gǔjí zǒngmù, zhēnjiǔ section.
- 證治針經 jicheng.tw
- Kanseki DB