Wēnrè jīngwěi 溫熱經緯
Warp and Weft of Warm-Heat Doctrine by 王士雄 (Wáng Shìxióng, zì Mèngyīng 孟英, 1808–1868)
About the work
The mid-19th-century summa of wēnbìng doctrine in 5 juǎn, compiled and annotated by Wáng Mèngyīng in 1852 (preface signed Xiánfēng 2). The title — “Warp and Weft” — captures Wáng’s editorial design: the jīng 經 (warp) is constituted by the canonical Nèijīng and Shānghán lùn passages on cold-injury and warm-disease, while the wěi 緯 (weft) is the Qīng-period commentary on those passages by 葉桂 Yè Tiānshì, 薛雪 Xuē Shēngbái, 陳平伯 Chén Píngbó, and 余霖 Yú Shīyú. Wáng’s own running commentary integrates the whole into a coherent doctrinal synthesis. The book is the most widely cited late-Qīng wēnbìng reference and remains a standard modern TCM textbook.
Abstract
The five juǎn contain: (1) selected Nèijīng passages on warm-disease, with Wáng’s commentary; (2) 張機 Zhāng Jī’s Shānghán lùn passages on warm-disease, with Wáng’s commentary; (3) 葉桂 Yè Tiānshì’s Wēnrè lùn (KR3eg001) with extensive Wáng annotation; (4) 薛雪 Xuē Shēngbái’s Shīrè tiáobiàn (KR3eg020) with Wáng annotation; (5) 陳平伯 Chén Píngbó’s Wàigǎn wēnbìng piān (KR3eg009) and 余霖 Yú Shīyú’s Yìzhěn yīdé (KR3eg031 for the related text), again with Wáng annotation.
Wáng’s running commentary is notable for two things. First, he establishes the doctrinal-canonical relationship between Shānghán and wēnbìng — both are valid frameworks but apply to different etiological situations, and the late-Míng / early-Qīng polemic between the two should be retired. Second, he subjects the Qīng wēnbìng texts to rigorous kǎojù 考據 textual criticism: in particular he flags the doubtful attribution of Wàigǎn wēnbìng piān to Chén Píngbó (寫道: “此與下編相傳為陳薛所著，究難考實，姑從俗以標其姓字” — “this and the next chapter are traditionally said to be by Chén and Xuē respectively; the attribution is hard to verify, but I follow the conventional ascription”).
The work was reprinted many times in the late Qīng and Republican periods and became one of the four canonical wēnbìng texts (the others being Wēnrè lùn, Wēnbìng tiáobiàn, and Wēnyì lùn).
Translations and research
- Hanson, Marta. Speaking of Epidemics in Chinese Medicine. London: Routledge, 2011 — Wáng Mèng-yīng is treated extensively as the principal late-Qīng wēn-bìng theorist.
- Hinrichs, T. J. and Linda L. Barnes (eds.), Chinese Medicine and Healing. Harvard Belknap, 2013, pp. 203–204 — discusses Wáng’s Huò-luàn lùn and the wēn-bìng synthesis.
- Zhāng Mèng-měi 張夢梅, Wēn-rè jīng-wěi jīn-shì 溫熱經緯今釋 (Beijing: Rénmín Wèishēng, 1980).
- No standalone English translation located.
Other points of interest
The Wēnrè jīngwěi is the principal vehicle by which the four foundational Qīng wēnbìng monographs — Yè, Xuē, Chén, Yú — were transmitted to the late-Qīng / Republican / modern TCM curriculum. Most modern wēnbìng anthologies are descended from Wáng’s compilation rather than from the four primary texts directly.