Nǚkē mìzhǐ 女科秘旨
The Secret Indicators of Women’s Medicine attributed to 輪印禪師 (Lúnyìn Chánshī, the Bamboo-Grove-Monastery monastic lineage); collated and prefaced by 曹秉綱 Cáo Bǐnggāng of Rénhé 仁和, 1886
About the work
An eight-juǎn gynecological compendium of the Bamboo-Grove-Monastery 竹林寺 tradition, attributed to the monk Lúnyìn Chánshī 輪印禪師 (“Cyclic-Seal Meditation-Master”). The work covers the canonical fùkē sequence — tiáojīng → bēnglòu → dàixià → qiúzǐ → tāiqián → línchǎn → chǎnhòu — with each entry presenting a brief case-vignette and a prescribed formula. The work belongs to the same Bamboo-Grove tradition as KR3ei013 Níngkūn mìjí, KR3ei020 Nǚkē mìyào, KR3ei026 Zhúlín nǚkē zhèngzhì, and KR3ei046 Zhúlínsì nǚkē mìfāng, with which it shares substantial textual content under different editorial recensions.
Prefaces
The KR hxwd _000.txt carries a hòuxù 後序 (post-face) by 曹秉綱 Cáo Bǐnggāng of Rénhé Lǐtáng 仁和禮堂, dated Guāngxù bǐngxū chūn zhēngyuè 光緒丙戌春正月 = first lunar month of Guāngxù 12 (= early 1886), written at the Èpáo zhāi 鄂匏齋. Cáo recounts: his father-in-law 陳貞甫 Chén Zhēnfǔ (Tàishǒu 太守, a descendant of 陳念祖 Chén Niànzǔ Xiūyuán of Fújiàn) had trained him in medicine. In the winter of Guāngxù 11 (= late 1885), 吳幼筠 Wú Yòuyún brought a privately-held Bamboo-Grove-Monastery gynecology manuscript intended for printing, communicated through 翁式如 Wēng Shìrú; Cáo collated and corrected the manuscript, supplementing dosages, and prepared it for publication. Cáo emphasises that the source manuscript was not by a single hand and that he forbore from “forcing connection by amputating cranes and connecting ducks” (duànhè xùfú 斷鶴續鳧 — a Zhuāngzǐ allusion to violent harmonisation), preserving the patchwork character of the text.
Abstract
“Lúnyìn Chánshī” is a Buddhist monastic appellation; no historical individual of this name is documented in standard Chinese-Buddhist or Chinese-medicine biographical sources. The attribution is one of the Bamboo-Grove-Monastery lineage names used in late-Qīng popular gynecological literature. The work is best understood as a Cáo Bǐnggāng recension of an older Bamboo-Grove manuscript, completed in 1886. The catalog meta’s dynasty 清 is correct; notBefore and notAfter reflect the 1885–86 collation and printing dates.
曹秉綱 Cáo Bǐnggāng (Rénhé Lǐtáng 仁和禮堂) is identified in the preface as a medical descendant in the 陳念祖 Chén Xiūyuán lineage via marriage to Chén Zhēnfǔ’s family — connecting this work to the broader Chén Niànzǔ pedagogical tradition (see KR3ei008 Nǚkē yàozhǐ).
Translations and research
- Yi-Li Wu, “The Bamboo Grove Monastery and Popular Gynecology in Qing China.” Late Imperial China 21.1 (2000): 41–76.
- Yi-Li Wu, Reproducing Women. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2010.
- No dedicated study located.
Links
- No verified Wikipedia or Wikidata entry located.
- 陳念祖 CBDB
- 女科秘旨 jicheng.tw
- Kanseki DB