Gǎn zhèng bǎo fá 感症寶筏
Precious Raft for Externally-Contracted Disorders by 吳坤安 (Wú Kūn’ān, zì BìHuá 璧華, fl. late Qiánlóng, 清), in the recension of 何炳元 (Hé Bǐngyuán / Hé Liánchén, 1861–1929) — 1911 edition
About the work
A late-Qīng / early-Republican reedition (Shàoxīng, Xuāntǒng 3 = 1911) by the Shàoxīng physician Hé Bǐngyuán 何炳元 (better known as Hé Liánchén 何廉臣) of the Shānghán zhǐ zhǎng 傷寒指掌 of Wú Kūn’ān 吳坤安 (KR3ef032), retitled Gǎn zhèng bǎo fá 感症寶筏 (“Precious Raft for Externally-Contracted Disorders”) to emphasize the work’s combined coverage of cold-damage and warm-disease syndromes. Six juan in the Hé recension.
Abstract
The textual history is documented in two prefaces: (1) the original 1807 preface by 花映墀 Huā Yìngchí (太醫院院使, dated 嘉慶十二年丁卯中秋 = mid-autumn 1807), which records that the work was compiled by Wú’s younger brother 友石 in four juan from Wú’s clinical writings under the title Shānghán zhǐ zhǎng; (2) the 1911 preface by Hé Bǐngyuán 何炳元 (越醫 何炳元 識於紹城臥龍山麓之宣化坊, Xuāntǒng 3 / 三年三月望 = March 1911), which records that Hé purchased a manuscript copy at “重貲” expense from Wú’s descendants, collated and supplemented it, and retitled it on the suggestion of “陳先生” — almost certainly the Fújiàn physician 陳念祖 (Chén Niànzǔ / 陳修園 Chén Xiūyuán, 1753–1823), who had endorsed Wú’s work — to “Gǎn zhèng bǎo fá” 感症寶筏 to mark the work’s clinical purchase across the shānghán / wēnbìng divide.
Wú Kūn’ān was a student of 葉桂 Yè Tiānshì and 薛雪 Xuē Shēngbái at Wúmén 吳門, and his work is one of the principal Qīng vehicles for the YèXuē wēnbìng synthesis applied to the shānghán clinical tradition. The work organizes its material under both six-conformation 六經 (for shānghán proper) and three-burner 三焦 (for wēnbìng and parallel lèi zhèng 類證 syndromes), and is a major late-Qīng-early-Republican textbook for the integration of the two traditions in everyday clinical practice. The composition window 1796–1911 brackets the original Wú composition and the Hé recension.
Translations and research
- Hanson, Marta. Speaking of Epidemics in Chinese Medicine (Routledge, 2011) — major treatment of the wēnbìng tradition that Wú synthesizes.
- Hinrichs and Barnes (2013), 145–179.
- No substantial English-language translation located.
Other points of interest
Hé Liánchén’s Gǎn zhèng bǎo fá is one of the most accessible late-Qīng pedagogical vehicles for the integrated shānghán / wēnbìng tradition, and its 1911 retitling has obscured (in modern catalogs) its identity with Wú’s original Shānghán zhǐ zhǎng — the two are best regarded as the original (1807) and the editorially supplemented (1911) recensions of the same work.
Links
- See KR3ef032 (parallel listing of Wú Kūn’ān’s original Shānghán zhǐ zhǎng).
- See KR3ef001 (parent Shānghán lùn).
- 感症寶筏 jicheng.tw
- Kanseki DB