Yīxué suìjīn 醫學碎金
Broken Gold of Medical Learning by 周禮 (Zhōu Lǐ, fl. mid-15th c., Ming)
About the work
A mid-Míng rhymed-mnemonic primer of medicine in 4 juǎn, structured as memorisable verse summaries (gējué 歌訣) on basic theory, pulse diagnosis, materia medica, and core internal-medicine syndromes. The title Yīxué suìjīn 醫學碎金 (“broken gold of medical learning”) signals the pedagogical conceit: precious essentials hammered into compact verse for student memorisation.
Abstract
The work belongs to the same medical-primer genre that culminated in 李梃 Lǐ Tǐng’s Yīxué rùmén 醫學入門 (1575) and, in the Qīng, 陳念祖 Chén Niànzǔ’s Yīxué sānzì jīng (cf. KR3eh025) — pedagogical compilations that condense the core of medical learning into mnemonic verse for aspiring physicians and educated lay readers.
Zhōu Lǐ’s biographical record is exceedingly thin. The standard Qīng-period bibliographies place him in the mid-Míng (some in the Hóngwǔ-Yǒnglè era, others in the mid-Chénghuà); the zì is variously given as Wényuè 文岳 or Bǎoyán 抱顏. The dating bracket of 1430–1500 here reflects the consensus that he was active across the middle decades of the 15th century. There is no CBDB record sufficient to disambiguate him from the many homonymous Zhōu Lǐ in the same period.
The text was rare in late-imperial circulation in China and is preserved chiefly in Japanese reprints, where it found a longer pedagogical afterlife than in the Chinese book market. Received juǎn-divisions vary across editions; the standard 4-juǎn count is followed here.
Translations and research
- Angela K. C. Leung, “Medical Instruction and Popularization in Ming-Qing China,” Late Imperial China 24.1 (2003): 130–152 — on the mnemonic-primer genre Zhōu’s text helped to establish.
- Zhōngguó yījí kǎo 中國醫籍考 (多紀元胤 Tamba no Mototane) — entry on the Yīxué suìjīn.
- No standalone English translation located.