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薛氏濟陰萬金書

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Text ID
KR3ei033
Date
1569–1569
Dynasty
明

Xuēshì jìyīn wànjīn shū 薛氏濟陰萬金書

The Xuē-Family’s “Aiding-the-Yin Ten-Thousand-Gold Book” of Women’s Medicine authored by 薛古愚 (Xuē Gǔyú, mid-Míng); edited and prefaced by 鄭敷政 (Zhèng Fūzhèng = Zhèng Héyáng 鄭和陽), 1569

About the work

A three-juǎn mid-Míng gynecological compendium attributed to the Xuē 薛 family medical lineage of Kūnshān 崑山 (Jiāngsū), compiled into its received form by the Xuē-family heir-by-marriage 鄭敷政 Zhèng Fūzhèng (hào Héyáng 和陽) of Píngqiáo 平橋 (Kūnshān 崑山). Three juǎn: tiáojīng 調經, tāichǎn 胎產, zázhèng 雜症. The work includes prescriptions marked with a zìhào 字號 (alphanumeric code) that the compiler explicitly identifies as the secret family-transmitted formulary: “方有字號者，乃日常必用之方，吾家之秘也” (“the prescriptions with code-marks are the daily-necessary formulae, the secret of our family”). The compiler explicitly enjoined his descendants not to share these even with close friends.

Prefaces

The KR hxwd _000.txt carries two prefaces:

  1. The xù by 鄭敷政 Zhèng Fūzhèng of Píngqiáo Kūnshān 崑山平橋, dated Dàmíng Lóngqìng sānnián júyuè 大明隆慶三年菊月 (= ninth month of Lóngqìng 3 = 1569). Zhèng narrates: he had surveyed major gynecological literature (Chǎnbǎo 產寶, Chǎnjīng 產經, Liángfāng 良方 = Fùrén dàquán liángfāng 婦人大全良方 (KR3e0038), Jìyīn) and found them “hànmàn záchū” 汗漫雜出 (sprawling and disordered); only the Xuē-family transmitted Jìyīn wànjīn shū preserved the essentials. Zhèng re-edited it (quáncì 銓次) into the present three-juǎn form.

  2. A later editor’s preface, dated Kāngxī sìshí nián 康熙四十年 (= 1701), which over-rides Zhèng’s stricture against transmission: “if medicine is the common-property of the world, how can one bear to suffocate human lives by withholding it?” — and arranges for woodblock printing for general distribution. This second preface confirms the late-Míng / early-Qīng circulation history.

Abstract

Xuē Gǔyú 薛古愚 (the “Old-and-Foolish” Xuē) is a Xuē-family medical-lineage attribution name; he is identified in the Zhèng Fūzhèng preface only as “Wújiā Xuēshì” 吾家薛氏 (“the Xuē of our family”). The Xuē-family medical lineage of Kūnshān is otherwise documented in mid-Míng sources; whether Xuē Gǔyú is identical with, or related to, the famous 薛己 Xuē Jǐ (1487–1559, Tàiyīyuàn yuànshǐ) — also of Sūzhōu / Kūnshān prefecture — is unclear in the prefatorial evidence. The 1569 imprint date provides a firm terminus ante quem for the compilation; the source-text by Xuē Gǔyú must be earlier, conventionally dated to the mid-Míng (Jiājìng era).

The work is one of several Míng family-lineage gynecologies (compare KR3ei005 Fùkē mìfāng of the Xúnxī Chénshì) that emphasises secret pharmaceutical transmission through family-lineage networks rather than literati-physician open publication. The 1701 second editor’s intervention to issue the work in print against the family-secrecy injunction documents an important Qīng-period shift in popular-medical publishing ethics.

Translations and research

  • Yi-Li Wu, Reproducing Women. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2010 — for the family-lineage gynecological tradition.
  • No dedicated study of the Xuēshì jìyīn wànjīn shū located.

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