Zhēnfāng liùjí 針方六集
Six Collections of Needle-Formulas by 吳昆 Wú Kūn (撰)
About the work
A six-juan late-Míng acupuncture compendium by the Huīzhōu physician 吳昆 Wú Kūn (zì Shānfú 山甫, hào Hègāo 鶴皋, 1551–1620+), completed in Wànlì 46 (1618) when Wú was 67 suì. The work is organized as six thematic jí 集 (collections): (1) Shénzhào 神照 (“Spiritual Illumination” — fundamental doctrine); (2) Kāiméng 開蒙 (“Opening the Ignorance” — introductory acupoint and channel material); (3) Zūnjīng 尊經 (“Honoring the Canon” — Sùwèn-Língshū-Nànjīng source-texts); (4) Pángtōng 旁通 (“Lateral Connection” — comparative texts); (5) Fēnshǔ 紛署 (“Arrayed Bureaus” — clinical-syndrome chapters); (6) Jiānluó 兼羅 (“Combined Net” — chronoacupuncture and special techniques). Wú’s preface recounts his autobiography: from his youthful Confucian studies through his “burden-bearing 10,000 lǐ of travel, humbling himself northward-facing under no fewer than 72 masters” (負笈萬里，虛衷北面，不減七十二師) — building up to thirty-plus years of clinical experience, “year by year accumulating insight” until at 67 he set down the Liùjí as his testament. The work is praised in the Wànlì preface as “wings to the Tóngrén tújīng” (翼《圖經》) of 王惟一 Wáng Wéiyī (KR3ee056).
Abstract
The Zhēnfāng liùjí is one of the most theoretically ambitious late-Míng acupuncture compendia, contemporary with but independent of 楊繼洲 Yáng Jìzhōu’s Zhēnjiǔ dàchéng (KR3ee027, 1601). Wú Kūn’s broader medical-philological corpus is substantial — he is also the author of the Yīfāng kǎo 醫方考 (a major formulary critical-commentary), the Sùwèn Wúzhù 素問吳註, and the Màiyǔ 脈語. The Liùjí integrates all of these strands into acupuncture-and-formulary practice. The work was printed in Huīzhōu in 1618 and reprinted multiple times in the late Míng and Qīng.
Translations and research
- Charlotte Furth, A Flourishing Yin (1999), for Wú Kūn’s broader medical context.
- 嚴世芸 Yán Shìyún, Zhōngyī rénwù cídiǎn, “Wú Kūn” entry.
Links
- Sìkù quánshū zǒngmù tíyào, Zǐbù · Yījiā lèi cúnmù.
- Wikidata Q11107614
- 針方六集 jicheng.tw
- Kanseki DB