Diānkuáng tiáobiàn 癲狂條辯
Differentiation of Withdrawal-Madness from Mania by 郭楚賢 (Guō Chǔxián, mid-19th-c. Qīng physician)
About the work
A focused diagnostic-therapeutic monograph in 1 juǎn on diān 癲 (catatonic / withdrawal madness, classed as yīn) versus kuáng 狂 (manic / agitated madness, classed as yáng). Guō Chǔxián structures the work in five shěn 審 (examinations: shěnmài 審脈 [pulse], shěnsè 審色 [complexion], shěnzhèng 審症 [symptoms], shěnfāng 審方 [prescriptions], wǔzàng fēnzhì 五臟分治 [five-viscus differential treatment]) and explicitly models his framework on 楊栗山 Yáng Lìshān’s earlier Hánwēn tiáobiàn 寒溫條辨 — arguing that kuáng stands to diān as warm-epidemic disease stands to cold-damage. Therapeutic principle: lǐtán wéi xiān, qīnghuǒ cì zhī 理痰為先，清火次之 (regulating phlegm comes first, clearing fire second). An appendix treats rabid-dog bites.
Abstract
The catalog records the work as anonymous; this is incorrect. Authorship is securely attested in the preface by 周崇第 Zhōu Chóngdì (the Yīlì zhǔrén 一慄主人), dated Tóngzhì èr nián guǐhài = Tóngzhì 2 = 1863, which identifies Guō as the author and Zhōu as publisher. The composition window of 1863 here reflects this firm dating.
The work is one of the more carefully argued late-Qīng contributions to the diānkuáng nosology — a classical medical category that had been the subject of substantial revisionary work in the late-imperial period (treated systematically in Vivien Ng’s Madness in Late Imperial China, 1990).
Translations and research
- Vivien Ng, Madness in Late Imperial China. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1990 — the standard study of the diānkuáng nosology in late-imperial China.
- Fabien Simonis, Mad Acts, Mad Speech, and Mad People in Late Imperial Chinese Law and Medicine, PhD diss., Princeton University, 2010.
- 陳秀芬 Chén Xiùfēn (Chen Hsiu-fen), articles on Míng-Qīng diānkuáng nosology.
- Angela Ki Che Leung, “Medical Instruction and Popularization in Ming-Qing China,” Late Imperial China 24.1 (2003): 130–152.
- No standalone English translation located.