Tánhuǒ diǎnxuě 痰火點雪
Snow Falling on Phlegm-Fire by 龔居中 (Gōng Jūzhōng, zì Yìngyuán 應圓, fl. late Wànlì)
About the work
A 4-juǎn systematic treatise on tánhuǒ 痰火 — the late-Míng Dānxī-school complex of phlegm-fire pathologies underlying láozhài 癆瘵 (consumption), coughing of blood, night-sweats, and cognate wasting syndromes. The work combines theoretical chapters drawn from the Nèijīng on the divergence of body-and-mind regimens between antiquity and the present, doctrinal exposition of phlegm-fire transformation, and a substantial materia medica / formulary section, with appended ritual-hygienic yǎngshēng practices. The alternate title Hónglú diǎnxuě 紅爐點雪 (“Snow on the Red Furnace”) puns on the metaphor of dispersing accumulated heat.
Abstract
The dating bracket of 1620–1640 here reflects the standard placement of Gōng Jūzhōng’s mature output in the late Wànlì to early Chóngzhēn period. The work is widely cited from the 1630s onward, and the seal-line of 鄧志謨 Dèng Zhìmó (fl. 1596–1626) on the surviving prefaces fixes the late-Wànlì-to-Tiānqǐ era as the principal period of composition.
The work was re-edited in the early Qīng and reprinted multiple times in Edo Japan, where it became one of the standard kanpō sources on consumption-and-phlegm-fire pathology. The relationship of tánhuǒ doctrine to the post-Dānxī mainstream — particularly to the 傅山 Fù Shān–陳士鐸 Chén Shìduó late-17th-century formula tradition — is the subject of substantial modern scholarship.
The work circulates under two principal titles (Tánhuǒ diǎnxuě and Hónglú diǎnxuě); editions vary significantly in the formulary chapters, and several Qīng reprints attach Gōng’s other clinical works as additional juǎn, inflating the apparent length to 6 or 8 juǎn in some catalogs. The received 4-juǎn structure appears to be the early-Qīng core text.
Translations and research
- Charlotte Furth, A Flourishing Yin: Gender in China’s Medical History, 960–1665. Berkeley: UC Press, 1999 — Dānxī-school xiānghuǒ / tánhuǒ doctrine.
- Hinrichs & Barnes 2013, Chinese Medicine and Healing, on the genealogy of fèiláozhèng 肺癆症 terminology, of which the Tánhuǒ diǎnxuě is a key Míng staging-post.
- Marta Hanson, Speaking of Epidemics in Chinese Medicine. London: Routledge, 2011, on Míng-Qīng fire-doctrine theory.
- No standalone English translation located.