Wēnrè féngyuán 溫熱逢源
Sources of Warm-Heat Disorders by 柳寶詒 (Liǔ Bǎoyí, 1842–1901)
About the work
A 3-juǎn systematic treatise on warm-disease pathology composed in the second half of the 19th century by the Jiāngyīn 江陰 physician Liǔ Bǎoyí. The text is the principal late-Qīng monograph on the latent-qi (fúqì 伏氣) theory of warm disease, grounded in close re-reading of the canonical Nèijīng, Nánjīng, and Shānghán lùn passages on cold-injury / warm-disease and supplemented with critical assessments of all the major preceding wēnbìng monographs.
Abstract
The work was not printed during Liǔ’s lifetime; it circulated in manuscript and was first published as part of 裘慶元 Qiū Qìngyún’s Sānsān yīshū 三三醫書 (early Republican period, 1924). Dating is therefore approximate — written some time between Liǔ’s establishment as a mature physician in the 1860s and his death in 1901.
The three juǎn are organised as follows: upper juǎn annotates the loci classici on latent-qi warm disease in the Nèijīng, Nánjīng, and Shānghán lùn, together with selected passages on summer-heat contraction and damp-warm combined patterns; middle juǎn examines and corrects passages from 周揚俊 Zhōu Yángjùn’s Wēnrè shǔyì quánshū (KR3eg032), 劉吉人 Liú Jírén’s Fúxié piān (KR3eg028), 張璐 Zhāng Lù’s Shānghán xùlùn, and 吳有性 Wú Yòukě’s Wēnyì lùn (KR3eg004); lower juǎn presents Liǔ’s own systematic exposition of latent-qi warm disease, its aetiology, transmission, and treatment principles, anchored in clinical experience.
The work is significant for explicitly polemicising against the dominant Sūzhōu (Yè–Wú–Wáng) line on the relative weight of latent-qi versus newly-contracted (xīngǎn 新感) pathogens. Liǔ argues for the priority of latent-qi explanations against the Sūzhōu mainstream emphasis on newly-contracted warm pathogens; this puts him in alignment with 雷豐 Léi Fēng (KR3eg002) and against 吳塘 Wú Jūtōng (KR3eg010).
Translations and research
- Hanson, Marta. Speaking of Epidemics in Chinese Medicine. London: Routledge, 2011 — treats Liǔ within the late-Qīng latent-qi current.
- Wēn-rè féng-yuán jiǎo zhù 溫熱逢源校注 (Beijing: Rénmín Wèishēng, 1959) — modern annotated edition.
- No standalone English translation located.
Other points of interest
The work is the most rigorous Nèijīng / Nánjīng-anchored statement of late-Qīng latent-qi theory and a key witness to the Jiāngyīn medical tradition.