Xuē shì shīrè lùn gējué 薛氏濕熱論歌訣
Versified Summary of Mr. Xuē’s “Treatise on Damp-Heat Disorders” by 王旭高 (Wáng Xùgāo, 1798–1862)
About the work
A mid-19th-century versified mnemonic of 薛雪 Xuē Shēngbái’s Shīrè tiáobiàn (KR3eg020), composed by the Wúxī physician Wáng Xùgāo as part of his pedagogical gējué 歌訣 (rhymed-formula) project. Each numbered proposition of Xuē’s original treatise is rendered as a four- or seven-character verse for memorisation, with prose annotations as needed.
Abstract
The gējué genre — versified medical mnemonics — is a characteristic late-Qīng pedagogical form, particularly associated with the WúxīSūzhōu medical schools. Wáng Xùgāo’s gējué output is substantial; the Shīrè lùn gējué is the principal wēnbìng-tradition contribution. Its companion piece is the Wú Yòukě wēnyì lùn gēkuò 吳又可溫疫論歌括 (KR3eg024), versifying 吳有性 Wú Yǒuxìng’s Wēnyì lùn; together they constitute Wáng’s distillation of the canonical wēnbìng monographs into mnemonic form.
The dating bracket reflects Wáng’s principal active period — the gējué are typically dated to the 1840s–1850s, with the collected works Wáng Xùgāo yī shū liù zhǒng 王旭高醫書六種 printed posthumously in 1862. No earlier preface specifically dates this gējué.
The text is doctrinally a faithful summary of Xuē’s original; its independent contribution is pedagogical rather than substantive. It became part of the standard mid-Qīng wēnbìng curriculum in the WúxīSūzhōu medical milieu and was widely reprinted.
Translations and research
- Wáng Xù-gāo yī shū liù zhǒng 王旭高醫書六種, posthumous collected edition (1862).
- Hanson, Marta. Speaking of Epidemics in Chinese Medicine. Routledge, 2011, ch. 5 — context on the southern Sūzhōu-Wúxī wēn-bìng milieu.
- No standalone English translation located.
Other points of interest
The genre of versified medical mnemonics — gējué / gēkuò — flourished particularly in the mid-19th-century SūzhōuWúxī medical world; Wáng Xùgāo is its principal wēnbìng-school exponent.
Links
- See also KR3eg020 (the base text) and KR3eg024 (the companion gēkuò of Wēnyì lùn).
- 薛氏濕熱論歌訣 jicheng.tw
- Kanseki DB