Zhìnüè jīyào 治瘧機要
Essentials of Malaria Treatment by 劉裁吾 (Liú Cáiwú, fl. 1912)
About the work
A specialised treatise on nüè 瘧 (malaria-like intermittent fever syndromes), in 4 juǎn. Liú Cáiwú’s central argument is that all the dominant schools — 喻昌 Yú Chāng / 徐大椿 Xú Dàchūn (zhuānzhǔ Shàoyáng 專主少陽 / Bupleurum-centred therapy), 葉桂 Yè Tiānshì (no Bupleurum), 王士雄 Wáng Shìxióng, 費伯雄 Fèi Bóxióng, and 韓善徵 Hán Shànzhēng — fail to grasp that nüè is fundamentally a disorder of yíngwèi 榮衛 (nutritive and defensive qì) rather than a six-channel or single-channel disease. He acknowledges 盧之頤 Lú Zhīyí (Jiènüè lùn shū 痎瘧論疏 KR3eh057) as the closest predecessor.
Abstract
The catalog records the work as anonymous; this is incorrect. Three prefaces dated Mínguó 1 = 1912 — by Liú himself, by 陳寶 Chén Bǎo (zì Yuánqīn 原欽), and by 謝邑南 Xiè Yìnán (zì Hóngyí 洪嶷), all of the same locality — identify Liú as the author. The composition window of 1912 here reflects this firm dating.
The work integrates Sùwèn “Nüè lùn” / “Cìnüè piān” with the Língshū and the Jīnguì, then engages Western quinine (“guīnídīng” 規尼丁) and iron tonics, finding both inadequate. The treatise is therefore one of the documentary witnesses to the early-Republican Chinese-medical engagement with biomedical disease categories and pharmacotherapy — a project of zhōngxī huìtōng 中西匯通 in the more confident, Republican-era register of 唐宗海 Táng Zōnghǎi’s late-Qīng forerunner-tradition.
The work is anomalous in a zábìng collection of mostly classical works; it is included here because of its classical-Chinese register and its sustained engagement with the canonical nüè literature.
Translations and research
- Marta Hanson, Speaking of Epidemics in Chinese Medicine. London: Routledge, 2011 — late-Qīng and Republican wēnbìng / epidemic literature.
- Bridie Andrews, The Making of Modern Chinese Medicine, 1850–1960. Vancouver: UBC Press, 2014 — Republican-era Sino-Western syntheses.
- James L. A. Webb Jr., Humanity’s Burden: A Global History of Malaria. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009 — global malaria context.
- No standalone English translation located.