Zhìlì nánzhēn 治痢南針
A Compass for Treating Dysentery by 羅振湘 (Luó Zhènxiāng, 民國)
About the work
A Republican-era clinical handbook on the diagnosis and treatment of dysentery (lìjí 痢疾), in 1 juǎn. The title’s metaphor — nánzhēn 南針 (“south-pointing needle”, compass) — figures the work as a practical clinical orientation guide. The text belongs to the broader early-Republican Chinese-medical project of producing concise, accessible clinical primers for working physicians, in the same idiom as 何廉臣 Hé Liánchén’s Shīwēn shíyì zhìliáo fǎ (KR3eg034).
Abstract
Dysentery (lìjí 痢疾) — a generic Chinese-medical category covering bacillary dysentery (Shigella), amoebic dysentery (Entamoeba histolytica), and other inflammatory gastrointestinal conditions presenting with bloody mucoid stools — was a major endemic and epidemic disease in late-imperial and Republican China, with seasonal summer/autumn peaks. The Qīng wēnbìng tradition treats dysentery as a damp-heat (shīrè) disorder, with the standard prescription apparatus centred on Sháoyào tāng 芍藥湯, Báitóuwēng tāng 白頭翁湯, and the xiāngliánhuángqín 香連黃芩 prescriptions.
The Zhìlì nánzhēn presents this apparatus in practical handbook form, with syndrome-discrimination, prescription, and dosage in a sequence accessible to working physicians. It is one of a substantial body of early-Republican Chinese-medical clinical primers.
Dating is approximate. Author lifedates not preserved (see 羅振湘 person note).
Translations and research
- Hinrichs, T. J. and Linda L. Barnes (eds.), Chinese Medicine and Healing. Harvard Belknap, 2013 — context on Republican-period clinical Chinese medicine.
- Andrews, Bridie. The Making of Modern Chinese Medicine, 1850–1960. UBC Press, 2014.
- No substantial dedicated secondary literature located.