Wēnyì míngbiàn gējué 溫疫明辨歌訣
Versified Summary of “Clear Discrimination of Warm-Epidemic” by 王旭高 (Wáng Xùgāo, 1798–1862)
About the work
A mid-19th-century versified mnemonic of 戴天章 Dài Tiānzhāng’s Guǎng wēnyì lùn (KR3eg023) — which had circulated under the pirated title Wēnyì míngbiàn 瘟疫明辨 attributed to 鄭奠一 Zhèng Diànyī (see KR3eg023 abstract). The catalog meta and surviving printings of this gējué refer to the “Wēnyì míngbiàn” base text by its pirated-edition title rather than by the authentic Guǎng wēnyì lùn title — a small but interesting witness to the persistence of the false attribution in the late-Qīng book trade.
Abstract
The text is a third member of Wáng Xùgāo’s wēnbìng mnemonic project, paired with KR3eg015 (versifying 薛雪 Xuē Shēngbái’s Shīrè tiáobiàn) and KR3eg024 (versifying 吳有性 Wú Yǒuxìng’s Wēnyì lùn). Together the three gējué / gēkuò distill the canonical Qīng wēnbìng monographs (Yè, Xuē, Wú Yǒuxìng, Dài Tiānzhāng) into mnemonic form for student memorisation.
The Wēnyì míngbiàn gējué renders each proposition of Dài Tiānzhāng’s text into four- or seven-character verse, with prose annotations where needed for clinical clarification. The doctrinal substance is faithful to Dài’s pestilential-qi framework and his five-concomitants and ten-mixed-conditions (五兼十夾) syndrome schema.
Dating is approximate, conventionally placed in Wáng’s mature period (1840s–1850s) on the same grounds as the other gējué. The posthumous collected edition Wáng Xùgāo yī shū liù zhǒng 王旭高醫書六種 (1862) is the principal extant witness.
Translations and research
- Wáng Xù-gāo yī shū liù zhǒng (posthumous, 1862).
- Hanson, Marta. Speaking of Epidemics in Chinese Medicine. Routledge, 2011.
- No standalone English translation located.
Other points of interest
The persistence of the Wēnyì míngbiàn title in the gējué (rather than the authentic Guǎng wēnyì lùn title) demonstrates how the pirated-edition title outlived its authentic source-text in late-Qīng book culture — even after 戴祖啟 Dài Zǔqǐ’s 1778 authentic reprint correcting the attribution.
Links
- See KR3eg023 (base text); KR3eg015 and KR3eg024 (companion gējué).
- 溫疫明辨歌訣 jicheng.tw
- Kanseki DB