Shānghán yī jué chuàn jiě 傷寒醫訣串解
Continuous Exposition of the Cold-Damage Clinical Pithy Sayings by 陳念祖 (Chén Niànzǔ / Chén Xiūyuán, 1753–1823, 清), with the sixth chapter supplied by his nephew-disciple 陳道著 (Chén Dàozhù, hào Lú Biānfēng 盧扁風)
About the work
A six-juan late-Qiánlóng / early-Jiāqìng Shānghán clinical primer by the Fújiàn pedagogue-physician 陳念祖 Chén Niànzǔ (Chén Xiūyuán 陳修園), supplementing his Shānghán lùn qiǎn zhù 傷寒論淺注. The Chuàn jiě — “chuàn” 串 means “linked / strung through” — presents the Shānghán doctrine as a continuously-linked sequence of yī jué 醫訣 (clinical pithy sayings), each followed by an explanatory commentary. Chén left the work unfinished at his death in 1823 (five of the six planned chapters complete); his nephew 陳道著 Chén Dàozhù supplied the sixth chapter to complete the set, which was first printed in 1856.
Abstract
Composition window 1815–1856 brackets the late period of Chén Xiūyuán’s pedagogical work at Fúzhōu (where he taught for the last fifteen years of his life), his death in 1823, and the 1856 printing. The preface — “咸豐丙辰秋九月望後三日福建巡撫呂佺孫書” (Xiánfēng bǐngchén / 1856, ninth lunar month, three days after the full moon, by 呂佺孫 Lǚ Quánsūn, Fújiàn governor) — gives the textual history: the work was preserved in manuscript by Chén Dàozhù; the Fúzhōu bookseller-collector 林壽萱 Lín Shòuxuān found a copy of Chén Xiūyuán’s Shí yào shén shū zhù jiě 十藥神書註解 (annotation of 葛可久 Gě Kějiǔ’s pulmonary-medicine classic) in an old bookshop and combined it with the Chuàn jiě manuscript; Governor Lǚ — recovering from illness while serving in Fújiàn and impressed by Lín’s medical knowledge — funded the joint printing of the two works.
The work is one of Chén Xiūyuán’s principal Shānghán writings, alongside the better-known Shānghán lùn qiǎn zhù 傷寒論淺注. Its chuàn jiě form — a continuous exposition rather than a clause-by-clause commentary — makes it an unusually clinician-friendly synthesis, and it has been continuously reprinted in the Xiūyuán quánshū 修園全書 as a unit.
Translations and research
- No substantial English-language translation located.
- The work is included in standard Chinese reprintings of the Xiūyuán quánshū and discussed in surveys of Qīng Shānghán pedagogy.
Other points of interest
The preface by Governor 呂佺孫 Lǚ Quánsūn is one of the more revealing late-Qīng documents of provincial-government patronage of medical publishing: Lǚ explicitly links the publication to his administrative duties, recording that his own illness during his Fújiàn tenure prompted his interest in the local medical tradition.
Links
- See KR3ef090 (Chén Xiūyuán’s parallel Jīnguì yào lüè qiǎn zhù).
- See KR3ef001 (parent Shānghán lùn).
- 傷寒醫訣串解 jicheng.tw
- Kanseki DB