Biànzhèng yùhán 辨症玉函
Jade-Casket of Syndrome Differentiation by 陳士鐸 (Chén Shìduó, zì Jìngzhī 敬之, hào Yuǎngōng 遠公, c. 1627–1707)
About the work
A four-juǎn eight-principle (bāgāng 八綱) differential-diagnosis manual organised by oppositional pairs: juǎn 1 yīnzhèng yángzhèng biàn 陰症陽症辨 (31 entries); juǎn 2 xūzhèng shízhèng biàn 虛症實症辨 (20 entries); juǎn 3 shàngzhèng xiàzhèng biàn 上症下症辨 (8 entries); juǎn 4 zhēnzhèng jiǎzhèng biàn 真症假症辨 (15 entries). Each entry presents a clinical pattern, its diagnostic counterfoil, and a tailored prescription — many of these prescriptions original to Chén’s corpus.
Abstract
The Biànzhèng yùhán belongs to Chén Shìduó’s distinctive late-17th-century pseudo-revelatory medical corpus, which Chén framed as transmissions from 岐伯 Qí Bó and 雷公 Léi Gōng — the legendary medical interlocutors of the Sùwèn and Língshū. The dating bracket 1687–1707 reflects the secure attestation of the companion Biànzhèng lù 辨證錄 to Kāngxī 26 = 1687 and Chén’s death c. 1707.
The work is a sustained methodological argument that the bāgāng differentiation — yīn/yáng, xū/shí, biǎo/lǐ, hán/rè — must be applied with discriminating rigour to the zhēnjiǎ 真假 problem (true vs. apparent syndromes), where the surface presentation can systematically deceive the clinician (e.g. zhēnhán jiǎrè 真寒假熱: true internal cold presenting as outward heat). The fourth juǎn on the zhēnzhèng jiǎzhèng problem is the work’s most-cited, and its diagnostic principles are continuous with those 薛己 Xuē Jǐ had developed a century earlier in the Nèikē zhāiyào (KR3eh010).
The Chén Shìduó corpus — including the Shíshì mìlù 石室秘籙, Biànzhèng lù 辨證錄, Wàijīng wēiyán 外經微言 (KR3ea051), Màijué chǎnwēi 脈訣闡微, Běncǎo xīnbiān 本草新編, and Dòngtiān àozhǐ 洞天奧旨 — was excluded from the Sìkù compilation by the editors on grounds of its pseudo-revelatory framing, but enjoyed substantial commercial circulation in the late-Qīng book market. The relationship of Chén’s corpus to the 傅山 Fù Shān lineage is contested in modern scholarship (see 陳士鐸 person note for discussion).
Translations and research
- Chén Shìduó yīxué quánshū 陳士鐸醫學全書, Beijing: Zhōngyī gǔjí chūbǎnshè, 1999.
- Volker Scheid, Currents of Tradition in Chinese Medicine, 1626–2006. Seattle: Eastland, 2007 — discusses Chén’s reception in the modern Chinese-medical canon.
- No standalone English translation located.