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女科百問

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Text ID
KR3ei031
Date
1220–1230
Dynasty
南宋

Nǚkē bǎiwèn 女科百問

A Hundred Questions on Women’s Medicine by 宋仲甫 (Sòng Zhòngfǔ = 齊仲甫 Qí Zhòngfǔ, fl. 1220, Southern Sòng)

About the work

A two-juǎn (shàng / xià) Southern-Sòng gynecology by 宋仲甫 Sòng Zhòngfǔ (= 齊仲甫 Qí Zhòngfǔ — name variant in the transmitted tradition), structured as a sequence of one hundred numbered wèndá 問答 (question-and-answer) entries covering the canonical fùkē topics: jīngshuǐ 經水 (menstruation), bēnglòu 崩漏, dàixià 帶下, qiúzǐ 求子, tāiqián 胎前, línchǎn 臨產, chǎnhòu 產後, and miscellaneous women’s diseases. Each question articulates a clinical scenario and the corresponding answer provides étiological discussion, classical citation, and prescribed formula. The work opens with a remarkable opening question on “jīngxuè yǐ fēn nánnǚ zhī běnyuán” 精血以分男女之本源 (“essence and blood as the root-source by which men and women are differentiated”) — a foundational doctrinal opening that sets the work’s jīngxuè (essence-blood) framework.

Prefaces

The KR hxwd recension _001.txt opens directly with the first question, with no separable author-preface preserved.

Abstract

Sòng Zhòngfǔ 宋仲甫 is identified in Sòng-Yuán medical-bibliographic literature as 齊仲甫 Qí Zhòngfǔ (the Sòngshǐ yìwén zhì and several early bibliographies use this form); the Sòng/Qí variant probably reflects scribal variation in the medieval transmission. He is a Southern-Sòng gynecologist active in the early 13th century. The Nǚkē bǎiwèn is one of the major Sòng-period gynecological works alongside 陳自明 Chén Zìmíng’s Fùrén dàquán liángfāng 婦人大全良方 (KR3e0038, 1237). The catalog’s dating 南宋 is correct; the work is conventionally dated c. 1220–1230. The bǎiwèn 百問 catechetical format would later be replicated in numerous Qīng popular gynecologies (compare KR3ei004 Fùkē wèndá and KR3ei034 Fùkē bǎibiàn).

Doctrinally the work reflects the mature Northern-Song / early-Southern-Song synthesis: it integrates the Sùwèn / Língshū canonical framework with 孫思邈 Sūn Sīmiǎo’s Qiānjīn yàofāng (KR3e0013), 王燾 Wáng Tāo’s Wàitái mìyào (KR3e0015), 陳言 Chén Yán’s Sānyīn fāng (KR3e0041, 1174), and the Héjì júfāng (KR3e0033). It is a major secondary witness to Northern-Sòng gynecological doctrine. The work was widely cited by Yuán-Míng-Qīng gynecologists and remains in active use in modern PRC TCM scholarship.

Translations and research

  • Modern punctuated edition: Nǚkē bǎiwèn in the Sòng-Yuán míngyī yīshū dàchéng 宋元名醫醫書大成 (Shanghai: Shànghǎi kēxué jìshù chūbǎnshè).
  • Charlotte Furth, A Flourishing Yin. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999 — for the Sòng fùkē synthesis.
  • Asaf Goldschmidt, The Evolution of Chinese Medicine: Song Dynasty, 960–1200. London: Routledge, 2008 — for the Sòng medical context.
  • No standalone English translation located.

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