Wēnzhèng zhǐguī 溫證指歸
Pointing to the Heart of Warm-Disease Syndromes by 周魁 (Zhōu Kuí, 清)
About the work
A late-Qīng warm-disease pedagogical treatise organised around syndrome-differentiation and prescription, in the late-Qīng wēnbìng-mainstream idiom. The title — zhǐguī 指歸 (“pointing to the heart of”) — locates the work in the broader late-Qīng pedagogical wēnbìng genre, alongside 婁傑 Lóu Jié’s Wēnbìng zhǐnán (KR3eg007) and 馬宗元 Mǎ Zōngyuán’s Wēnbìng biànzhèng (KR3eg019).
Abstract
Zhōu Kuí’s biographical record has not been preserved in standard reference works, and the Wēnzhèng zhǐguī lacks a securely dated preface in widely accessible editions. The text is conventionally dated to the late Qīng on grounds of doctrinal alignment — it engages closely with the 吳塘 Wú Jūtōng (Wēnbìng tiáobiàn) and 王士雄 Wáng Mèngyīng (Wēnrè jīngwěi) doctrinal apparatus, which fixes the terminus a quo at ca. 1852, with the late-Qīng terminus extending to the end of the dynasty.
The doctrinal substance is a systematic mid-late-Qīng wēnbìng syndrome-differentiation organised by the canonical four-fen and three-burner staging frames, with the standard prescription apparatus. The text’s contribution is pedagogical rather than doctrinally innovative.
Translations and research
- No substantial secondary literature located.