Zhúlín nǚkē zhèngzhì 竹林女科證治
Bamboo-Grove Diagnostics and Therapy in Women’s Medicine attributed to 蕭山竹林寺僧 (the Monks of Bamboo-Grove Monastery at Xiāoshān); edited by 方昌翰 (Fāng Chānghán)
About the work
A four-juǎn Bamboo-Grove-Monastery 竹林寺 gynecology compilation, edited by the mid-Qīng fāngshì 方氏 of Jīngdé 旌德 (Ānhuī). The work’s bá 跋 (colophon) by 方昌翰 Fāng Chānghán narrates the manuscript transmission: Fāng’s sister’s husband 張春棠 Zhāng Chūntáng obtained the manuscript at Jīngdé from a literati household holding what they took to be the secret transmission of the Xiāoshān monks; Fāng tested the formulas in clinical practice with consistent effect (xiào zhé lì jiàn 效輒立見) and inquired about the author, finding only the lineage attribution “Zhúlín”. The original Jīngdé woodblocks were destroyed in the Tàipíng uprising (1851–1864 wartime devastation at “Yuèfěi 粵匪 invaded our prefecture, 1861”); the work was reconstructed from Zhāng Chūntáng’s still-extant manuscript copy in Guāngxù xīnsì (1881) and re-printed.
Prefaces
The KR hxwd _000.txt carries the bá (colophon) by Fāng Chānghán recounting the transmission history. The colophon makes clear that the original Jīngdé woodblock edition (Dàoguāng era) was destroyed in the Taiping wars, and the hxwd recension descends from Fāng’s reconstructed 1881 edition. The colophon also notes the inclusion of a supplementary Hēishéndān 黑神丹 (Black-Spirit Pill) formula transmitted by 陳又笙 Chén Yòushēng, a renowned local obstetrical specialist, for safe delivery.
Abstract
The Zhúlín nǚkē zhèngzhì is one of the four-juan systematic compendia of the Bamboo-Grove-Monastery tradition (see also KR3ei013 Níngkūn mìjí, KR3ei020 Nǚkē mìyào, KR3ei022 Nǚkē mìzhǐ, KR3ei046 Zhúlínsì nǚkē mìfāng). The work’s editorial history is exceptionally well-documented thanks to Fāng Chānghán’s careful colophon: a Dàoguāng-era Jīngdé (Ānhuī) printed edition by the Wāng 汪 family — destroyed in Taiping wartime — and a Guāngxù xīnsì (1881) reconstruction by Fāng from Zhāng Chūntáng’s manuscript copy. The catalog meta gives 方昌翰 (Fāng Chānghán) as author and 清 as dynasty; Fāng is more accurately characterised as the editor / collator of an older Bamboo-Grove monastic source-text. The composition notBefore 1850 / notAfter 1881 bracket reflects the second-edition reconstruction window; the underlying source-text is earlier (possibly mid-Qīng).
The work was widely circulated in Jiāng-Zhè late-Qīng medical book markets and remains in active use in modern PRC TCM gynecology education.
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.
Links
- No verified Wikipedia or Wikidata entry located.
- 竹林女科證治 jicheng.tw
- Kanseki DB