Zhèngzhì zhǔnshéng · Zábìng 證治準繩·雜病
Standards for Diagnosis and Treatment · Miscellaneous Diseases by 王肯堂 (Wáng Kěntáng, zì Yǔtài 宇泰, hào Sǔn’ān 損庵, 1549–1613)
About the work
The Zábìng division of Wáng Kěntáng’s celebrated Liùkē zhèngzhì zhǔnshéng 六科證治準繩, in 8 juǎn — the internal-medicine portion of the great six-section synthetic medical encyclopedia (shānghán 傷寒, záběng 雜病, fùrén 婦人, yòukē 幼科, yángkē 瘍科, lèifāng 類方) issued by Wáng across the years 1602–1608. The Zábìng preface is signed Wànlì sānshí nián rényín xià wǔyuè 萬曆三十年壬寅夏五月 = summer 1602.
Abstract
The Liùkē zhǔnshéng is the principal late-Míng synthesis of pre-1600 Chinese medicine and the encyclopaedic counterpart, in clinical doctrine, to 李時珍 Lǐ Shízhēn’s Běncǎo gāngmù in pharmacology. Wáng Kěntáng was an exceptionally learned scholar-physician — jìnshì 1589, served briefly in the Hànlín before retiring to focus on medicine and Buddhism — and the Zhǔnshéng’s ambition was to “establish standards” (zhǔnshéng) for the differential diagnosis and treatment of every recognised syndrome in the late-Míng clinical universe.
The Zábìng portion is organised symptom-by-symptom across some hundreds of internal-medicine zhèng (febrile, digestive, respiratory, neurological, urinary, etc.). For each zhèng Wáng provides: (a) the etiology and pathomechanism drawn from the Sùwèn / Língshū; (b) the differential signs distinguishing it from look-alike syndromes; (c) representative prescriptions drawn from the SòngYuánMíng formulary tradition (Tàipíng huìmín héjì jú fāng 太平惠民和劑局方; the JīnYuán Four Masters; Lǐ Gǎo’s spleen-and-stomach corpus; Zhū Dānxī’s clinical heuristics). The editorial logic — Wáng’s stated method of wǔkē qīshì 五科七事 — was explicitly designed to be searchable by symptom, making the work usable by non-specialist literati.
The catalog meta records Wáng Kěntáng’s lifedates as ?-1613; CBDB id 34722 records his birth-year as 1552, but the standard scholarly bracket and Wáng’s own preserved family materials give 1549. The earlier date is followed here.
The Zábìng is the most-cited of the six divisions of the Zhǔnshéng throughout the late-Míng and Qīng medical literature, including by 何夢瑤 in his preface to the Yī biàn (KR3eh005), where Wáng Kěntáng is described as “近代醫書之冠” (the foremost of recent medical books).
Translations and research
- Wáng Kěntáng yīxué quánshū 王肯堂醫學全書, ed. 李今庸 Lǐ Jīnyōng et al., Beijing: Zhōngyī gǔjí chūbǎnshè, 1999 — collected works.
- Zhèngzhì zhǔnshéng (Zábìng) punctuated edition, Beijing: Rénmín wèishēng chūbǎnshè, 1957 / 2014.
- Marta Hanson, Speaking of Epidemics in Chinese Medicine. London: Routledge, 2011.
- Charlotte Furth, A Flourishing Yin: Gender in China’s Medical History, 960–1665. Berkeley: UC Press, 1999 — treats Wáng Kěntáng in the gynaecological context.
- No standalone English translation of the Zábìng located.
Other points of interest
Wáng Kěntáng was a serious lay Buddhist who corresponded extensively with the eminent monks of his era; his medical project is partly framed as a bodhisattva practice of universal benefit, a framing visible in the prefatorial materials to several of the six-kē divisions. The Zhǔnshéng’s sweep — covering internal medicine, surgery, paediatrics, gynaecology, ophthalmology, cold-damage, and prescription pharmacy — remains unrivalled in the Míng synthetic medical literature.