Zhōngfēng lùn 中風論
Treatise on Wind-Stroke by 熊笏 (Xióng Hù, zì Shūlíng 叔陵, fl. c. 1810–1830)
About the work
A focused monograph in 1 juǎn arguing that piānkū zhī zhōngfēng 偏枯之中風 (hemiplegic wind-stroke) and shānghán zhī zhōngfēng 傷寒之中風 (cold-damage wind-affection) are categorically distinct: the former a wèiqì 衛氣 condition produced by external invasion of the bāfāng zéifēng 八方賊風 (eight-directional bandit-winds) and affecting one side of the body; the latter a yíngwèi 營衛 febrile syndrome. Xióng Hù argues that the dominant SòngMíng aetiologies — left-blood vs right-qi, nèifēng 內風 from blood-vacuity, xiānghuǒ 相火 in the right kidney — are anatomically mistaken.
Abstract
Xióng builds his case strictly from the Língshū, Sùwèn, Nánjīng and 張機 Zhāng Zhòngjǐng, with appended chapters on diagnosis, etiology, and therapy and a fùàn 附案 of personal cases. The work is widely admired as one of the most internally consistent Qīng-period treatises in the zhōngfēng genre, and prefigures the slightly later zhōngfēng polemic in 蔣寶素 Jiǎng Bǎosù’s Yīlüè shísān piān (KR3eh018) of 1840.
The work was composed and prefaced Dàoguāng xīnsì = Dàoguāng 1 = 1821 at the Shānyáng 山陽 / Huái’ān 淮安 prefectural office. The manuscript circulated for sixty years thereafter without printing; the editio princeps appeared only in Guāngxù jiǎshēn = 1884, prepared by 林慶祺 Lín Qìngqí from a manuscript copy made in 1818 (wùyín) by 郭秋泉 Guō Qiūquán. Guō, a pupil of 陳念祖 Chén Xiūyuán’s circle, had clandestinely copied the work from Xióng’s box while the author was out — a transmission story preserved in the postface. The dating bracket of 1821–1884 here brackets composition through to first printing.
Translations and research
- Volker Scheid, Currents of Tradition in Chinese Medicine, 1626–2006. Seattle: Eastland, 2007 — Qīng evidential-medicine context.
- Marta Hanson, Speaking of Epidemics in Chinese Medicine. London: Routledge, 2011.
- 李經緯 Lǐ Jīngwěi et al., Zhōngyī rénwù cídiǎn 中醫人物詞典. Beijing: Rénmín wèishēng, 1988, entry 熊笏.
- No standalone English translation located.