Shānghán zhāi jǐn 傷寒摘錦
Selected Brocade of Cold Damage by 萬全 (Wàn Quán / Wàn Mìzhāi 萬密齋, 1499–1582, 明)
About the work
A two-juan mid-Míng Shānghán clinical digest by the Luótián 羅田 (Húběi) family-medicine specialist 萬全 Wàn Quán (hào Mìzhāi 密齋, known universally as Wàn Mìzhāi). The work — its title “zhāi jǐn” 摘錦 means “selected brocade” or “pluckings of the finest material” — is a clinician’s compilation of the most clinically essential passages of the Shānghán lùn, organized by six-conformation, with brief running commentary geared toward general-practice application rather than philological exegesis.
Abstract
Composition window 1549–1582 is bracketed by Wàn’s mid-career productive period and his death in 1582. The work belongs to Wàn’s cóngshū 《萬密齋醫書十種》 (Ten Works of Wàn Mìzhāi), the principal Míng–Qīng vehicle for the Wàn-family medical lineage. The text opens conventionally with the tàiyáng conformation (six-conformation organization), citing both the Shānghán lùn and Nèi jīng in counterpoint and adding interlinear practical notes on the differentiation of biǎo / lǐ (surface vs. interior), xū / shí (vacuity vs. repletion), and the canonical prescriptions.
Wàn was primarily a paediatrician and gynaecologist, and the Shānghán zhāi jǐn reflects his commitment to making the Shānghán corpus accessible to general-practice physicians treating women and children — a constituency for whom the elaborate Sòng–Jīn–Yuán commentary tradition was less practically useful. The text is concise, clear, and grounded in family-practice clinical experience, and was widely cited in the late Míng.
Translations and research
- Mǎ Bóyīng 馬伯英, Zhōngguó yīxué wénhuà shǐ — on the Wàn-family lineage.
- Modern reprintings of the Wànshì Mìzhāi yīxué quán shū 萬氏密齋醫學全書.
- No substantial English-language translation located.
Other points of interest
Wàn Quán’s Shānghán zhāi jǐn is one of the very few Shānghán works whose continuous family-practice transmission is documented across three generations: Wàn’s grandfather and father were renowned paediatricians; Wàn continued and expanded the practice; Wàn’s descendants continued the practice for several further generations in Luótián.
Links
- See KR3ef001 (parent Shānghán lùn).
- 傷寒摘錦 jicheng.tw
- Kanseki DB