Nüèlì chéngfǎ 瘧利成法
Established Methods for Malaria and Dysentery by 王祉庭 (Wáng Zhǐtíng, also written 芷庭, fl. 1882)
About the work
A pragmatic three-formula-per-disease handbook for nüè 瘧 (malaria) and lì 痢 (dysentery), in 1 juǎn, the dominant late-summer/autumn afflictions among the Húnánese sojourner community in Nánjīng to whom the author ministered during the rénwǔ 壬午 (1882) outbreak.
For nüè: Formula 1 shēngtí 升提 to the Tàiyáng (bànxià 半夏, guìzhī 桂枝, sháoyào 芍藥, qiānghuó 羌活, fángfēng 防風); Formula 2 modulating (xīyángshēn 西洋參 + cháihú 柴胡 / huángqín 黃芩 + qīnghāo 青蒿); Formula 3 tiáoqì yǎnggān shànhòu 調氣養肝善後 (dǎngshēn 黨參, shǒuwū 首烏, dāngguī 當歸).
For lì: pre-purge (xuāntōng 宣通), main purge (shēng dàhuáng 生大黃 ± tōngdàhǎi 通大海), post-purge tonification.
Appended: Jiè yángyān fāng 戒洋菸方 — opium-cessation prescription.
Abstract
The catalog meta records no author; this is incorrect. The preface by 蔣世芳 Jiǎng Shìfāng, dated Guāngxù bā nián 光緒八年 = 1882 at Jīnlíng 金陵, identifies the author as Wáng Zhǐtíng 王祉庭 of Zhōngxiāng 中湘 (Húnán). Wáng was a literatus serving in the LiǎngJiāng zǒngdū’s mùfǔ, not a professional physician.
The 戒洋菸方 (opium-cessation) appendix uses yīngsùhuā 罌粟花 (poppy) and progressively-decreasing dàtǔpí 大土皮 (= 鴉片 residue), which is medically and politically interesting as a document of late-Qīng literati efforts at opium-detoxification through Chinese pharmacology — said in the work to outperform 林則徐 Lín Zéxù (Wénzhōng 文忠)‘s earlier published formulas. Wáng had previously published an anonymous Báihóu biànzhèng 白喉辨症 (on diphtheria); here he allowed his name to appear.
Translations and research
- Marta Hanson, Speaking of Epidemics in Chinese Medicine. London: Routledge, 2011 — regional disease ecologies.
- 余新忠 Yú Xīnzhōng, Qīngdài Jiāngnán de wēnyì yǔ shèhuì 清代江南的瘟疫與社會. Beijing: Zhōngguó Rénmín Dàxué, 2003.
- Frank Dikötter, Lars Laamann, and Zhou Xun, Narcotic Culture: A History of Drugs in China. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2004 — for the opium-cessation formulary tradition.
- No standalone English translation located.