Lèizhèng huórén shū 類證活人書
Book of Reviving the People by Categorized Syndromes by 朱肱 (Zhū Hóng, zì Yìzhōng 翼中, fl. 1098–1126, 北宋)
About the work
A major late-Northern-Sòng (1107) clinical reorganization of the Shānghán lùn corpus in twenty-two juan, by the Hángzhōu physician 朱肱 Zhū Hóng (hào Wúqiúzǐ 無求子). The work — originally titled Nányáng huórén shū 南陽活人書 in honor of Zhāng Jī’s native place — recasts the Shānghán materials in a problem-and-answer format (101 questions), and supplies clinical adjustments that adapt the Hàn-period prescriptions to Sòng-period climates and constitutions. It is the second great Sòng-period commentary on the Shānghán (after 韓祗和 Hán Zhīhé’s Wēizhǐ lùn KR3ef008) and the most widely-circulated Shānghán-derivative work of the entire Sòng dynasty.
Abstract
The composition date of the work is fixed at Dàguān 大觀 1 (1107) by Zhū’s preface, with later supplementary editing extending into the early Xuānhé 宣和 period (early 1120s). Zhū Hóng — a 1088 jìnshì who chose medicine over an official career — is one of the most important Sòng clinical writers, whose works combine textual erudition (he was a colleague of 黃庭堅 in his early years) with hands-on clinical experience in Hángzhōu. The Huórén shū exists in multiple editions of varying juan-count (20, 21, 22, plus the Huórén shū kuò 活人書括 abridgement); the 22-juan recension is the standard Yuán-Míng-Qīng line, supplemented by Zhū’s own prescription book the Nányáng huórén shū 南陽活人書 and his abridgement the Yīrén shū 醫人書. The work’s reception in the Jīn and Yuán was central: 成無己 Chéng Wúyǐ explicitly draws on it, and 劉完素 Liú Wánsù responds polemically to it from a fire-and-heat perspective.
Translations and research
Reminder: AI generated list - beware of hallucinations. Corrections and additions welcome
- Goldschmidt, Evolution of Chinese Medicine (2009), chapter 7 — extensive treatment of the Huó-rén shū.
- Mǎ Jìxīng 馬繼興, Sòng-Yuán Shānghán xué shù yán-jiū (1988).
- Hinrichs and Barnes, Chinese Medicine and Healing (2013), 95–119 on Hanson and the Sòng medical print culture.
- Endymion Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §35.7.1 lists this as a major Sòng clinical reference.
- No substantial English-language translation located.
Other points of interest
The catalog meta gives 朱肱 (Zhū Hóng) without the variant character 朱翼中 (his zì). His son 朱壬 Zhū Rén was also a physician. The Northern-Sòng print of the Huórén shū exists in a Yuán-print descendant preserved in Japanese collections — the so-called “Wúqiúzǐ recension” — which underlies the modern critical text.