Shānghán bǎi zhèng gē 傷寒百證歌
Songs on the Hundred Syndromes of Cold Damage by 許叔微 (Xǔ Shūwēi, zì Zhīkě 知可, ca. 1080–ca. 1154, 南宋)
About the work
A five-juan Southern-Sòng versified handbook of Shānghán clinical syndromes by 許叔微 Xǔ Shūwēi (Xǔ Xuéshì 許學士), one of the major Sòng commentators on the Shānghán lùn. The work presents one hundred Shānghán syndromes — each as a heptasyllabic gē 歌 (mnemonic song) — with an interlinear prose commentary citing the canonical text. The genre is gējué 歌訣 (mnemonic-rhyme), a practical pedagogical form that allowed students to memorize clinical material as verse. Xǔ’s Bǎi zhèng gē is the most celebrated example in the Shānghán tradition.
Abstract
Composition window 1133–1154 is bracketed by the completion of Xǔ’s Lèizhèng pǔjì běnshì fāng in 1133 (KR3e0032) and Xǔ’s death ca. 1154. The work is bibliographically attested in 《直齋書錄解題》 (“Xǔ Shūwēi Shānghán gē 3 juan, 100 piān, all based on Zhòngjǐng’s annotations”) — a slightly different juan-count from the received text, which the 1820s recension by the Hǎiyú 海虞 collector identifies as a “三與五蓋字之誤” (three vs. five — a transcription error). The Bǎi zhèng gē circulates together with Xǔ’s Shānghán fā wēi lùn 傷寒發微論 (KR3ef063) as a single set in the Yuán-edition reprintings; the Qiánlóng–Jiāqìng literati medical-philological circle (Qián Zūnwáng 錢遵王, Ruǎn Yuán’s circle, Zhāng Yuèxiāo 張月霄) considered both works “甚不顯” — i.e., rare and difficult to find — until they were rediscovered and reprinted on the basis of the Yuán block.
Xǔ’s distinctive contribution to Shānghán pedagogy is the mnemonic versification, which fixed in popular memory the canonical syndrome-and-prescription pairings. The work was a major source for later Sòng–Yuán–Míng Shānghán writers.
Translations and research
- Goldschmidt, Evolution of Chinese Medicine (2009), Sòng Shānghán chapters — substantive treatment of Xǔ Shūwēi.
- Mǎ Jìxīng 馬繼興, Sòng-Yuán Shānghán xuéshù yánjiū (1988).
- No substantial English-language translation located.
Other points of interest
The bibliographic preface to the Yuán-block reprinting (titled “重雕元刻傷寒百證歌發微論敘”) preserved at KR3ef063 is one of the principal early-modern sources for Xǔ Shūwēi’s biographical and bibliographic data — including the 紹興二年進士 (Shàoxīng 2 = 1132 jìnshì placement), the Zhēnzhōu 真州 native-place attribution, and the catalog of Xǔ’s lost works.
Links
- See KR3ef063 (Xǔ’s companion Shānghán fā wēi lùn, transmitted together).
- See KR3e0032 (Xǔ’s Lèizhèng pǔjì běnshì fāng).
- See KR3ef001 (parent Shānghán lùn).
- 傷寒百證歌 jicheng.tw
- Kanseki DB