Bìngjī shāzhuàn 病機沙篆
Sand-Seal of Pathomechanism by 李中梓 (Lǐ Zhōngzǐ, zì Shìcái 士材, hào Niàn’é 念莪, 1588–1655) — zhuàn 撰 expanded by 尤乘 (Yóu Chéng, zì Shēngzhōu 生洲, fl. Kāngxī) — zēngjí 增輯
About the work
A systematic exposition of pathomechanism (bìngjī 病機) for major internal-medicine syndromes, organised disease-by-disease with etiological discussion, differential diagnosis, and representative formulas. Lǐ Zhōngzǐ — one of the leading late-Míng systematisers and a doctrinal grandson of the Dānxī school via his teacher’s lineage — composed the bulk of the text in the years before his death in 1655; his disciple Yóu Chéng later supplemented the prescriptions and case-notes (zēngjí) and printed the work as part of the Shìcái sān shū 士材三書 (the “Three Books of Shìcái,” after Lǐ’s zì) in Kāngxī bǐngwǔ = 1666.
Abstract
The work is a substantial mid-Qīng example of the bìngjī 病機 (pathomechanism) genre — diagnostic monographs that work outwards from the pathophysiological mechanism of each syndrome to the corresponding therapeutic strategy, in the manner consolidated by 劉完素 Liú Wánsù in the Sùwèn xuánjī yuánbìng shì 素問玄機原病式. The Lǐ Zhōngzǐ–Yóu Chéng version is more clinically applied: each bìngjī discussion is paired with practical prescription policy and brief case material.
The compositional division of labour between Lǐ and Yóu is not always cleanly separable in surviving editions; Yóu’s zēngjí additions include both supplementary formulas and editorial àn 按 commentary, and some passages may be Yóu’s interpolations extending Lǐ’s positions. The 1666 printed edition is the editio princeps; the work was reprinted in the Shìcái sān shū collected edition through the late Qīng. The standard editions are arranged in 4 juǎn (sometimes counted as 2 juǎn with 4 zhāng 章); the catalog records 2 juǎn, in line with this older counting.
Translations and research
- Hinrichs & Barnes 2013, Chinese Medicine and Healing — Lǐ Zhōngzǐ as a major Míng-Qīng transition figure in the systematising tradition.
- Volker Scheid, Currents of Tradition in Chinese Medicine, 1626–2006. Seattle: Eastland, 2007, pp. 50–75.
- Zhōngyī rénwù cídiǎn 中醫人物詞典 entries on Lǐ Zhōngzǐ and Yóu Chéng.
- No standalone English translation located.