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 YuánMíngQīng 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
- 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.