Jiǔfǎ mìchuán 灸法秘傳
Secret Transmission of Moxibustion Methods attributed to a Sìchuān monk; edited by 雷豐 Léi Fēng (Léi Shàoyì 雷少逸); prefaced and printed by 劉國光 Liú Guóguāng
About the work
A single-juan late-Qīng moxibustion-handbook based on a manuscript “secret transmission” (秘傳) said to derive from a Sìchuān monk (蜀僧), edited and clinically-arranged by the Qúzhōu physician 雷豐 Léi Fēng (Léi Shàoyì 雷少逸, also known as the author of the Shíbìng lùn 時病論), and prefaced and printed in Guāngxù 9 (1883) by 劉國光 Liú Guóguāng (zì Bīnchén 賓臣) of Chǔběi 楚北 (Húběi), who was serving as Prefect of Qúzhōu 衢州 at the time. Liú’s preface records the chain of transmission: he had met Léi Fēng professionally, befriended him, and previously serialized Léi’s Shíbìng lùn; one day Léi showed him a Jiǔfǎ mìchuán manuscript that his (Léi’s) maternal relative 金冶田 Jīn Yětián had obtained from a Sìchuān monk and had used clinically with remarkable success. The original manuscript was “humble and unliterary” (譾陋不文); Léi Fēng reorganized it under symptom-headings and gave it a presentable literary form. The methods are largely Tàiyǐ shénzhēn 太乙神針 (“Grand-Unity Spirit Needle”) tradition — a moxa-pellet technique using compound medicinal moxa rather than plain Artemisia. The work appends the Tàiyǐ shénzhēn recipe-formulas. The text became a major reference for late-Qīng moxibustion practice.
Abstract
The Jiǔfǎ mìchuán is the principal late-Qīng (Guāngxù-period) moxibustion-technique handbook and the major popular witness for the Tàiyǐ shénzhēn compound-moxa tradition. The original Sìchuān-monk manuscript is otherwise lost; the present text is essentially Léi Fēng’s clinical reorganization, with prescription-formulas appended. The work was reprinted multiple times in the late Qīng and Republican period and is registered in the Zhōngguó zhōngyī gǔjí zǒngmù. The composition date 1883 is internal to Liú Guóguāng’s preface.
Translations and research
- 黄龍祥 Huáng Lóngxiáng, Zhōngguó zhēnjiǔ shǐ tújiàn (2003), late-Qīng moxibustion chapter.
- 嚴世芸 Yán Shìyún, Zhōngyī rénwù cídiǎn, “Léi Fēng” entry.
Links
- Zhōngguó zhōngyī gǔjí zǒngmù, zhēnjiǔ section.
- 灸法秘傳 jicheng.tw
- Kanseki DB