Sānxiāo lùn 三消論
Treatise on the Three Wasting Disorders by 劉完素 (Liú Wánsù, zì Shǒuzhēn 守真, hào Tōngxuán Chùshì 通玄處士, c. 1110–1200)
About the work
The foundational systematic treatise on the sānxiāo 三消 — xiāokě 消渴 (excessive thirst with copious urination), xiāozhōng 消中 (excessive eating with progressive emaciation), and shènxiāo 腎消 (urine with fatty/oily residue) — broadly corresponding to what modern biomedicine recognises as diabetes mellitus, in 1 juǎn. Liú Wánsù argues against the prevailing Sòng “lower-burner cold” etiology and asserts that all three xiāo arise from dryness-heat (zàorè 燥熱) rebellion against insufficient yīn-water.
Abstract
The text cites extensively from the Sùwèn (the Juélùn 厥論, Bìlùn 痺論, Wěilùn 痿論, Qìjué lùn 氣厥論, Mòyào jīngwēi lùn 脈要精微論, Qíbìng lùn 奇病論, Tōngpíng xūshí lùn 通評虛實論 etc.) and polemicises against the use of “fragrant herbs and stone medicines” (fāngcǎo shíyào 芳草石藥), prescribing instead cooling-moistening formulas — Shénbái sǎn 神白散, Zhūdǔ wán 豬肚丸, Gègēn wán 葛根丸, Húfěn sǎn 胡粉散, Sānhuáng wán 三黃丸, Rénshēn báizhú sǎn 人參白朮散, Rénshēn sǎn 人參散.
The textual transmission of the Sānxiāo lùn is unusually fragile. Liú Wánsù never publicly circulated the work in his lifetime (he died c. 1200). The text was preserved by 麻九疇 Má Jiǔchóu (1183–1232) and his circle; the surviving textual witness has a postface by an unnamed Jǐnxī yělǎo 錦溪野老, dated to 1232, who records that he obtained the manuscript via Má Jiǔchóu (and 穆子昭 Mù Zǐzhāo) from Liú’s descendants, that the manuscript was “much corrupted in transmission” (傳寫甚誤), and that he prepared the present recension. Modern editions are based on this single transmission line; the Sānxiāo lùn is therefore a posthumous reconstruction with documented copy-corruption. The composition window of 1170–1232 here brackets Liú’s late working years through to the 1232 transmission-recension.
The work is foundational for the LiúHéjiān 劉河間 cooling-fire school of Jīn medicine, the first of the JīnYuán Four Masters, whose subsequent disciples would carry the cooling-fire current into the Yuán Dānxī tradition.
Translations and research
- Paul U. Unschuld, Huang Di Nei Jing Su Wen: Nature, Knowledge, Imagery in an Ancient Chinese Medical Text. Berkeley: UC Press, 2003 — extensive treatment of the Liú Wánsù school.
- Hinrichs & Barnes 2013, Chinese Medicine and Healing (Hanson chapter).
- Asaf Goldschmidt, The Evolution of Chinese Medicine: Song Dynasty 960–1200. London: Routledge, 2009.
- Charlotte Furth, A Flourishing Yin: Gender in China’s Medical History, 960–1665. Berkeley: UC Press, 1999 — JīnYuán theoretical foundations.
- 宋乃光 Sòng Nǎiguāng 主編, Liú Wánsù yīxué quánshū 劉完素醫學全書. Beijing: Zhōngyī yào, 2006 — critical edition.
Links
- See 劉完素 person note.
- 三消論 jicheng.tw
- Kanseki DB