Sōngfēng shuō yì 松峰說疫
Sōngfēng’s Treatise on Epidemic Disease by 劉奎 (Liú Kuí, hào Sōngfēng 松峰, 清)
About the work
A 6-juǎn mid-Qīng comprehensive treatise on epidemic disease by the Shāndōng physician Liú Kuí, completed in the late Qiánlóng period. The principal preface by 王舒嘯 Wáng Shūxiào is dated Qiánlóng 50 yǐsì 乙巳 (1785); 劉斯宗 Liú Sīzōng’s preface is dated Qiánlóng 52 dīngwèi 丁未 qīnghé yuè (1787). The work is the major extension of 吳有性 Wú Yǒuxìng’s Wēnyì lùn in the northern (Shāndōng) medical tradition — a parallel to 戴天章 Dài Tiānzhāng’s southern (Jiāngníng) extension in Guǎng wēnyì lùn (KR3eg023).
Abstract
The six juǎn systematically expand and clinicise Wú Yǒuxìng’s pestilential-qi (lìqì 戾氣) doctrine for northern epidemic conditions. Liú is one of the Qīng physicians most explicitly engaged with Wú Yǒuxìng’s theoretical framework — he is independently the author of Wēnyì lùn lèibiān 瘟疫論類編, a topical re-organisation of Wú’s text.
Liú’s distinctive doctrinal contributions:
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Systematic extension of the lìqì framework to include regional and seasonal variations in pestilential presentation — the Wú Yǒuxìng / Jiāngnán material does not adequately address northern epidemic conditions, and Liú supplies the regional-medical adaptation.
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Practical public-health measures — Liú gives substantial attention to the prevention and containment of epidemic outbreaks, including isolation, hygiene, and the use of fumigation. This material drew on Liú’s experience accompanying his cousin 劉墉 Liú Yōng on official duties.
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Northern materia medica adaptation — substitution of locally-available northern drugs for the southern-tradition prescriptions of Wú Yǒuxìng and Dài Tiānzhāng.
The work was an important reference for the Shāndōng / JīngJīn medical tradition and was widely reprinted in the late Qīng. Liú studied medicine in Běijīng under 郭志邃 Guō Zhìsuì (author of Shāzhàng yùhéng KR3eg037) and reportedly under 黃元御 Huáng Yuányù, giving him direct access to both the Jiāngnán shā tradition and the Shāndōng classical tradition.
Translations and research
- Hanson, Marta. Speaking of Epidemics in Chinese Medicine. Routledge, 2011 — treats Liú Kuí within the northern wēn-yì tradition.
- Zhōng yī rén wù cí diǎn 中醫人物詞典 (Shanghai cishu, 1988).
- No standalone English translation located.
Other points of interest
The Wú Yǒuxìng / Dài Tiānzhāng / Liú Kuí line constitutes the principal Qīng-period extension of late-Míng pestilential-qi doctrine into a fully clinicised apparatus — three texts in three generations, each adapting the framework to a specific regional and clinical context (Jiāngnán Wújiāng, Jiāngníng Nánjīng, Shāndōng Zhūchéng).