Shānghán zhǐzhǎng 傷寒指掌
Pointing-Palm [Handbook] of Cold Damage by 吳坤安 (Wú Kūn’ān, zì BìHuá 璧華, fl. late Qiánlóng, 1750s–1796, 清)
About the work
A four-juan late-Qiánlóng (1796) pedagogical handbook of Shānghán clinical practice by the Tóngxiāng 桐鄉 (Zhèjiāng) physician 吳坤安 Wú Kūn’ān. The title’s metaphor — “pointing-to-the-palm” 指掌 — refers to the work’s purpose: presenting Shānghán clinical practice in a concise, accessible form that the student can grasp at a glance. The work systematically integrates the Shānghán and wēnbìng 溫病 traditions, an important late-Qiánlóng synthesis.
Abstract
Composition date 1796 fixed by Wú’s preface. The work circulated widely in the 19th century and was repeatedly reprinted; its clinical-pragmatic synthesis of Shānghán and wēnbìng lines made it useful in both Jiāngnán and northern medical curricula. Wú’s other works include the Lèi zhèng pǔ jì běn shì fāng 類證普濟本事方. No CBDB record located.
Translations and research
- Hanson, Marta. Speaking of Epidemics in Chinese Medicine: Disease and the Geographic Imagination in Late Imperial China. London: Routledge, 2011 — for the late-Qīng Shānghán / wēn-bìng synthesis.
- Mǎ Jìxīng 馬繼興, Shānghán lùn jiào zhù (1991).
- No substantial English-language translation located.
Links
- Wikidata entry not located.
- 傷寒指掌 jicheng.tw
- Kanseki DB