Zhèngzhì zhǔnshéng·Nǚkē 證治準繩·女科
Standard for Diagnosis and Therapy: Women’s Section by 王肯堂 (Wáng Kěntáng = Wáng Yǔtài = Niànxī jūshì, 1549–1613, late Míng)
About the work
A five-cè gynecological section of the late-Míng comprehensive medical encyclopedia Liùkē Zhèngzhì zhǔnshéng 六科證治準繩 (or simply Zhèngzhì zhǔnshéng, KR3e0078, 120 juǎn) by 王肯堂 Wáng Kěntáng (1549–1613). The Nǚkē zhǔnshéng portion was completed in Wànlì dīngwèi (1607) along with the Yòukē zhǔnshéng (paediatrics). The work is one of the great late-Míng gynecological summae, providing comprehensive coverage of menstrual disorders, bēnglòu, dàixià, qiúzǐ, tāiqián, línchǎn, chǎnhòu, and women’s miscellaneous diseases. Its gāngmù 綱目 (outline-and-detail) systematic organisation was the principal model adopted (with re-arrangement) by 武之望 Wǔ Zhīwàng’s Jìyīn gāngmù (1620; see KR3ei006).
Prefaces
The KR hxwd _000.txt carries Wáng’s zìxù 自序 (author’s preface). Wáng narrates the historiographic context: gynecological specialisation begins with 扁鵲 Biǎnquè’s dàixià medicine at Hándān; 張仲景 Zhāng Zhòngjǐng’s 傷寒雜病論 傷寒雜病論 devoted one of three juǎn to women; 孫思邈 Sūn Sīmiǎo’s Qiānjīn fāng gave priority of place to women’s medicine. Wáng traces the line through 昝殷 Zàn Yīn’s Chǎnbǎo 產寶 (KR3e0044, Táng), 李師聖 Lǐ Shīshèng’s 產論 產論 and 郭稽中 Guō Jìzhōng’s accompanying formulary, the Chǎnyù bǎoqìng jí 產育寶慶集 (KR3e0040) of 杜荍 Dù Qiú, and to 陳自明 Chén Zìmíng’s Fùrén dàquán liángfāng 婦人大全良方 (KR3e0038) — the principal Sòng fùkē synthesis — which Wáng then takes as the foundation he organises systematically in his own work. The preface is one of the most detailed late-Míng historiographies of the fùkē sub-discipline available in any medical source.
Abstract
Wáng Kěntáng (1549–1613, see 王肯堂) was a late-Míng Confucian-medical (rúyī 儒醫) literatus-physician of Jīntán 金壇 (Jiāngsū). Jìnshì of 1589, with imperial-academy and provincial-administrative posts in Fujian, he turned to medicine after retirement. The Zhèngzhì zhǔnshéng (120 juǎn) was completed in stages over a decade and a half: Zázhèng zhǔnshéng and Lèifāng 1597–1598; Shānghán zhǔnshéng and Yángyī zhǔnshéng 1604; Yòukē zhǔnshéng and Nǚkē zhǔnshéng 1607. The whole corpus is praised by the Sìkù editors as “the medical school’s standard reference” (yījiā zhī guīniè 醫家之圭臬). The Nǚkē zhǔnshéng — 1607, in five cè — is the gynecology section.
Doctrinally Wáng is balanced-comprehensive: neither over-cooling (against the Zhū Dānxī tradition) nor over-warming (against the Zhāng Jièbīn wēnbǔ counter-tradition). His method is to assemble citations from the major Sòng-Yuán-Míng authorities under each clinical heading with critical evaluative commentary, rather than to advance a partisan doctrinal position. This even-handed encyclopedic method made the work the principal late-Míng standard reference (zhǔnshéng 準繩 = “plumb-line-and-cord”, i.e. standard of measurement) for gynecological practice. Wǔ Zhīwàng’s Jìyīn gāngmù (1620; see KR3ei006) is a critical re-organisation of Wáng’s Nǚkē zhǔnshéng into a tighter gāngmù hierarchical structure — Wǔ explicitly acknowledged Wáng as his principal source.
The work has been continuously in print since 1607 and remains in active scholarly use in modern PRC TCM gynecology research.
Translations and research
- Zhèngzhì zhǔnshéng modern punctuated edition: multiple Chinese publishers, the standard being the Rénmín wèishēng chūbǎnshè recent editions.
- Charlotte Furth, A Flourishing Yin. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999 — Chapter 6 treats Wáng Kěntáng as one of the principal late-Míng systematisers of gynecology.
- Yi-Li Wu, Reproducing Women. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2010.
- No standalone English translation located.
Other points of interest
The Nǚkē zhǔnshéng is the textual foundation of both major late-Míng / early-Qīng systematic gynecologies: Wǔ Zhīwàng’s Jìyīn gāngmù (1620; condensation and re-organisation) and 蕭塤 Xiāo Xūn’s Nǚkē jīnglún (1684; citation-and-commentary expansion, see KR3ei029). Together these three works form the trilogy of late-Míng / early-Qīng systematic gynecology that shaped all subsequent imperial and Republican-era fùkē practice and teaching.
Links
- Wikipedia (zh)
- No separate Wikidata entry for the Nǚkē zhǔnshéng located.
- 武之望 CBDB
- 證治準繩·女科 jicheng.tw
- Kanseki DB