Shānghán qián fǎ 傷寒鈐法

Calendar-Based Methods of Cold Damage by 馬宗素 (Mǎ Zōngsù, fl. early-mid Yuán, 元)

About the work

A short Yuán-period treatise in one juan presenting a calendrical-prognostic system for cold-damage syndromes, by 馬宗素 Mǎ Zōngsù — a member of the Héjiān-school tradition in the lineage of 劉完素 Liú Wánsù. The “qián fǎ” 鈐法 (literally “seal-method”) is a system whereby the timing of a Shānghán episode (calculated against the patient’s natal calendrical configuration and the seasonal influences active at illness onset) determines the appropriate prescription. The work is a distinctive Yuán-period attempt to integrate cosmological-correlative reasoning with Shānghán canonical doctrine.

Abstract

The composition window 1297–1320 brackets the early-mid Yuán activity of the Héjiān school. The Qián fǎ method circulated in Yuán-Míng medical practice but was largely abandoned in mainstream commentarial scholarship from the Wànlì period onward, when the Chángshā fùgǔ (ancient-text-restoration) movement turned away from cosmological-correlative reasoning in Shānghán practice. The work is preserved primarily through reprintings in Yuán and early-Míng collections.

Translations and research

Reminder: AI generated list - beware of hallucinations. Corrections and additions welcome

  • Mǎ Jìxīng 馬繼興, Sòng-Yuán Shānghán xué shù yán-jiū (1988).
  • No substantial Western-language secondary literature located.