Tāichǎn mìshū 胎產秘書
Secret Book of Pregnancy and Childbirth attributed to 陳笏庵 (Chén Hùān, fl. late 18th c.)
About the work
A three-juǎn obstetrical manual organised under the standard tripartite scheme — tāiqián 胎前 (pre-partum), línchǎn 臨產 (parturition), chǎnhòu 產後 (post-partum) — with an appended Bǎoyīng yàojué 保嬰要訣 on neonate care. The work circulated as a “secret manuscript” (mìběn) within physician-family lineages before its first printing in 1796 (qiánlóng) at Yuèyángjùn 岳陽郡 in Húnán, and a wider 1809 (Jiāqìng jǐsì) republication at Ānjiāng 皖江 (the lower Yángzǐ).
Abstract
According to the 1809 preface of 何榮 Hé Róng (hào Xìngyuán 杏園) of Gǔyú 古虞 (Shàngyú, Zhèjiāng), the work originates as the manuscript instruction of the Shānyīn 山陰 錢氏 Qián family and of the Zhúlínsì 竹林寺 monks (themselves a famous obstetrical lineage, see Yi-Li Wu’s monograph on the topic). Hé Róng received the manuscript from his teacher 陳勿庵 Chén Wùān, and from his perspective the work supersedes the slightly earlier and better-known Dáshēng biān 達生編 (KR3ei055) — being “more detailed in its classification, more accurate in its symptomatology, more precise in its prescriptions.” Hé Róng first cut wood-blocks at Yuèyángjùn 岳陽郡 in Qiánlóng yǐmǎo 1795 while serving as a private secretary in Húnán; the blocks remained at Chángshā but the printing did not propagate widely; in 1809 (Jiāqìng jǐsì) at Ānjiāng he re-cut blocks under the patronage of philanthropists “(好善樂施諸公)” for wider circulation.
The Hǎiwài huíguī recension is in 4 cè preserving the 1809 print as base. The published edition explicitly attributes content to Chén Hùān 陳笏庵; whether this is the same person as Hé Róng’s teacher Chén Wùān 陳勿庵 is uncertain — the two names differ by one hào-character and may represent a confusion of preface-by-attribution. notBefore is set in the mid-18th century to accommodate the pre-print manuscript circulation; notAfter to the 1809 print.
The work shares with the Dáshēng biān a marked debt to the Zhū Dānxī obstetrical tradition: Āntāi yǐn 安胎飲 as the pre-partum master-formula, Shēnghuà tāng 生化湯 as the post-partum master-formula. Its claim to surpass the Dáshēng biān lies in the depth of its symptom-by-symptom prescriptive guidance, especially for the difficult cases (shīxuè haemorrhage, xuèyùn fainting, zhěntòng labour-pain timing, neonate qífēng tetanus).
Translations and research
- Yi-Li Wu, Reproducing Women: Medicine, Metaphor, and Childbirth in Late Imperial China. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2010 — for the Bamboo-Grove tradition and the wider Qīng popular-obstetrical genre.
- Yi-Li Wu, “The Bamboo Grove Monastery and Popular Gynecology in Qing China.” Late Imperial China 21.1 (2000): 41–76.
- No standalone English translation located.
Links
- 海外回歸中醫善本古籍叢書 (source-series for this recension).
- 胎產秘書 jicheng.tw
- Kanseki DB