Jiǎoqì zhìfǎ zǒngyào 腳氣治法總要
The Essentials of Treating Foot-Qi by 董汲 (Dǒng Jí, zì Jíyuán 及之, Northern Sòng, fl. 1080s–1090s)
About the work
One of the earliest specialised monographs on jiǎoqì 腳氣 (“foot-qi” — a syndrome cluster historically encompassing what modern biomedicine would call beriberi, but in Sòng practice a wider category of damp/heat-induced lower-limb disorders), in 2 juǎn (上下) divided into nineteen mén 門 by the author’s preface. Composition probably 1093 (Yuányòu 8). The Sòngshǐ Yìwénzhì lists the work; the dating bracket 1085–1100 here brackets the Sòng compositional context.
Abstract
Dǒng Jí — better known as the principal Sòng biographer of 錢乙 Qián Yǐ — was a Northern Sòng physician who, by his own preface, suffered jiǎoqì for ten-odd years from his youth. The Jiǎoqì zhìfǎ zǒngyào aggregates from across the HànSòng medical canon: the Sùwèn, Jiǔlíng, Língshū, Jiǎyǐ jīng, Tàisù, 巢元方 Cháo Yuánfāng (《Cháoshì bìngyuán》), Qiānjīn yàofāng, Wàitái mìyào, Shèngyào fāng, Xiǎopǐn fāng, Shānfán, Jīnguì yùhán, materia medica, 蘇敬 Sū Gōng’s pharmacological notes, and earlier pulse books, and adds tested therapies (acupuncture and moxa, pulse-diagnosis, dietetics, dǎoyǐn 導引 calisthenics, fumigation/steaming, emergency formulas).
The work was largely lost in the late-Qīng transmission and was partially reconstructed from quotations in Shèngjì zǒnglù 聖濟總錄, Pǔjǐ fāng 普濟方 etc.; the WYG / collectanea text in front of us is therefore a jíyì 輯佚 reconstruction rather than a pure Sòng witness. This source-critical caveat is important for any citation that depends on the wording of specific passages.
Translations and research
- Hilary Smith, Forgotten Disease: Illnesses Transformed in Chinese Medicine. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2017 — a full monograph on jiǎoqì across Chinese history, treating Dǒng Jí as a foundational author.
- Hinrichs & Barnes 2013, Chinese Medicine and Healing, on jiǎoqì in the broader medical history.
- Asaf Goldschmidt, The Evolution of Chinese Medicine: Song Dynasty 960–1200. London: Routledge, 2009 — the Sòng-period emergence of disease-specialisation.
- No standalone English translation located.
Links
- See 董汲 person note.
- 腳氣治法總要 jicheng.tw
- Kanseki DB