Nǚkē jīnglún 女科經綸
The Warp and Woof of Women’s Medicine by 蕭塤 (Xiāo Xūn = Xiāo Gēngliù 蕭賡六, early Qīng)
About the work
An eight-juǎn systematic gynecology by the early-Qīng physician 蕭塤 Xiāo Xūn (zì Gēngliù 賡六) of Wúzhōu 撫州 (Jiāngxī). The work is the gynecological companion-piece to Xiāo’s larger general-medicine encyclopedia 醫學經綸 醫學經綸 (160-plus zázhèng 雜症 categories drawing on 7,000-plus citations from “míngxián zhī lùn” 名賢之論 = “discussions of famous worthies”). The jīnglún 經綸 title refers to the warp (jīng 經) and woof (lún 綸) of weaving, hence “the systematic ordering” of the subject. The eight juǎn are organised in the canonical fùkē sequence — yuèjīng 月經, bēnglòu, dàixià, zhǒngzǐ, tāiqián, línchǎn, chǎnhòu, fùrén zábìng — and each entry combines a brief étiological summary with citations from canonical and Sòng-Yuán-Míng authorities and Xiāo’s editorial commentary.
Prefaces
The KR hxwd _000.txt carries Xiāo’s zìxù 自序 (author’s preface). Xiāo opens with the cosmological framing of medicine: yin and yang as the universal generative principles; the six Confucian Classics as exemplifying fùfù wéi réndào zhī zàoduān 夫婦為人道之造端 (husband and wife as the original founding-pair of the human Way), and women as the fùyù huàyuán zhī běn 孳育化原之本 (root-source of birth-bearing transformation). Therefore the physician must take women’s medicine with special seriousness. Xiāo cites 寇宗奭 Kòu Zōngshí (“better treat ten men than one woman”) on the difficulty of fùkē, and 司馬遷 Sīmǎ Qiān on 扁鵲 Biǎnquè’s specialisation in dàixià medicine at Hándān. The preface explains that he had already compiled the Yīxué jīnglún (general medicine, 163 zázhèng categories with 7,000+ citations) and that the gynecology section was separately constituted as the Nǚkē jīnglún given its size and importance.
Abstract
Xiāo Xūn 蕭塤 (zì Gēngliù 賡六, fl. Kāngxī, late 17th c.) was an early-Qīng physician of Wúzhōu 撫州 (Jiāngxī). The Nǚkē jīnglún was completed during the Kāngxī reign and most likely first printed in the late 1680s or 1690s; standard editions date the work to 1684 with reprinting through the early 18th century. notBefore 1684 / notAfter 1700 is a defensible bracket.
The work’s distinctive editorial method — extensive citation of “míngxián” (named authorities) under each clinical heading, with critical commentary — makes it an exceptionally valuable secondary witness for late-Míng and early-Qīng gynecological doctrine. Xiāo cites 陳自明 Chén Zìmíng (Fùrén dàquán liángfāng KR3e0038), 薛己 Xuē Jǐ (女科撮要 Nǚkē cuōyào and 校註婦人良方 Jiàozhù fùrén liángfāng), 武之望 Wǔ Zhīwàng (Jìyīn gāngmù KR3ei006), 王肯堂 Wáng Kěntáng (Zhèngzhì zhǔnshéng·Nǚkē KR3e0078), 張介賓 Zhāng Jièbīn (Fùrén guī KR3ei028), and 趙獻可 Zhào Xiànkě (Hándān yígǎo KR3ei025) — i.e. the full late-Míng gynecological synthesis. The work is thus one of the principal early-Qīng inheritors and consolidators of late-Míng gynecology.
The work has been continuously in print since the late Kāngxī era and remains a standard secondary reference for late-Míng gynecological doctrine in modern PRC TCM scholarship.
Translations and research
- Modern punctuated edition: Nǚkē jīnglún in the Zhōngyī gǔjí zhěnběn cóngkān 中醫古籍珍本叢刊.
- Yi-Li Wu, Reproducing Women. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2010.
- Charlotte Furth, A Flourishing Yin. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999.
- No standalone English translation located.
Links
- No verified Wikipedia or Wikidata entry located.
- 司馬遷 CBDB
- 武之望 CBDB
- 女科經綸 jicheng.tw
- Kanseki DB