Zhúlínsì nǚkē mìfāng 竹林寺女科秘方
The Bamboo-Grove Monastery’s Secret Gynecological Formulary attributed to 蕭山竹林寺僧 (the Monks of Bamboo-Grove Monastery at Xiāoshān)
About the work
A four-juǎn gynecological formulary attributed to the Bamboo-Grove Monastery 竹林寺 of Xiāoshān 蕭山 (Zhèjiāng), the famous late-imperial monastic medical lineage. The work belongs to the substantial Bamboo-Grove gynecological corpus including KR3ei013 Níngkūn mìjí, KR3ei020 Nǚkē mìyào, KR3ei022 Nǚkē mìzhǐ, and KR3ei026 Zhúlín nǚkē zhèngzhì — all transmitted through various manuscript and printed editions of the lineage’s clinical knowledge. The catalog meta gives the author as “Zhèjiāng Xiāoshān Zhúlínsì sēng” 浙江蕭山竹林寺僧 and dynasty as Qīng.
Prefaces
The KR hxwd recension of KR3ei046_001.txt contains only the mandoku-view header (six lines) and no body content. The text of the recension is therefore not directly accessible in this KR3ei subdivision; the present entry is based on catalog metadata, the broader Bamboo-Grove tradition documented in companion KR3ei texts, and standard Chinese-medicine bibliographic literature.
Abstract
The Bamboo-Grove Monastery at Xiāoshān 蕭山 (Zhèjiāng) was the most famous monastic medical lineage in late-imperial China, with a sustained gynecological practice from the Sòng / Yuán through the late Qīng. The lineage’s gynecological writings circulated in multiple editions under various titles, with substantial textual overlap among them (see Yi-Li Wu’s foundational study of the lineage’s editorial history). The Zhúlínsì nǚkē mìfāng title is among the most-cited circulating titles in the late-Qīng popular medical book market, and survives in numerous Qīng-period imprints. For composition: notBefore 1700 / notAfter 1900 brackets the working range of the various Bamboo-Grove printed recensions, though the underlying lineage tradition is older.
The four-juǎn structure typically covers tiáojīng / bēnglòu / dàixià / qiúzǐ / tāiqián / línchǎn / chǎnhòu in the canonical sequence. The work shares formulae with the other Bamboo-Grove recensions; case-record presentation is generally tighter and more practitioner-oriented than the literati-physician systematic treatises.
Translations and research
- Yi-Li Wu, “The Bamboo Grove Monastery and Popular Gynecology in Qing China.” Late Imperial China 21.1 (2000): 41–76 — the foundational English-language study of the lineage.
- Yi-Li Wu, Reproducing Women: Medicine, Metaphor, and Childbirth in Late Imperial China. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2010.
Links
- No verified Wikipedia or Wikidata entry located.
- 竹林寺女科秘方 jicheng.tw
- Kanseki DB