Tāichǎn zhèngzhì 胎產證治
Pregnancy and Childbirth: Pathology and Treatment by 王肯堂 (Wáng Kěntáng, 1549–1613), revised by 岳泗庵 Yuè Sìān (early Qīng)
About the work
A single-juǎn obstetrical-gynaecological compendium attributed in its 1929–1930 print to 王肯堂 Wáng Kěntáng as the original author, with Qīng-era revision and editorial structuring by 岳泗庵 Yuè Sìān (also written Yuè Chāngyuán 岳昌源). The text is organised into four parts — yuèjīng 月經 (menstruation), tāiqián 胎前 (pregnancy), línchǎn 臨產 (parturition), chǎnhòu 產後 (post-partum) — totalling under twenty thousand characters. Its compactness is its defining feature: a zhèng (symptom) and zhì (treatment) for every standard gynecological-obstetrical disorder, in a deliberately abbreviated style that the 1929 prefacer 秦伯未 Qín Bówèi contrasts favourably with the great encyclopedic Zhèngzhì zhǔnshéng of the same author.
Abstract
The work was published in 1929 (Mínguó 18 = Republican-era) and 1930 (Mínguó 19) by the Zhōngyī shūjú 中醫書局 in Shànghǎi, based on a manuscript held for some thirty years by the physician 陳珠泉 Chén Zhūquán of Jiāngpǔ 江浦 (Jiāngsū). Two prefaces accompany the 1929 print:
- Chén Zhūquán’s preface (Mínguó 18, June 1929), describing the work’s acquisition history: “I acquired this manuscript at Jiāngyòu 江右 in the Huáng family some thirty years ago and kept it in my box.”
- 秦之萬 Qín Zhīwàn (alias Qín Yòuān 秦又安) of Shànghǎi, preface of Mínguó 19 April 1930, prepared as part of the Qín family editorial work — 秦伯未 Qín Bówèi supervised the textual editing.
The dating problem of the work is significant: while the attribution is to Wáng Kěntáng (1549–1613), the work was unknown to Wáng’s contemporaries and to all Qīng bibliographers; it is preserved only via the manuscript brought to print by 陳珠泉 Chén Zhūquán via the 岳泗庵 Yuè Sìān early-Qīng editorial intervention. Whether the work descends from a genuine Wáng autograph or — more likely — represents an early-Qīng abridgement and reorganisation of Wáng’s gynecological materials by Yuè Sìān, is not philologically settled. The received recension — what we have to read — dates to 1929/1930. For this reason notBefore and notAfter are set to the print date 1929–1930 (the received recension), while the dynasty: 明 reflects the original attribution. This conforms to the project rule that “for pseudepigraphic, recompiled, or layered works, use the bracket for the received recension.”
The substantive content is doctrinally indistinguishable from late-Míng / early-Qīng obstetrical orthodoxy: the Dānxī sìwù tāng as universal blood-tonic; warm-supplementing approach to post-partum; Shēnghuà tāng as post-partum master-formula. The work is mainly useful as a compact bedside reference.
Translations and research
- No substantial secondary literature located.
- No standalone English translation located.
Links
- 海外回歸中醫善本古籍叢書 (Hǎiwài huíguī Zhōngyī shànběn gǔjí cóngshū).
- 胎產證治 jicheng.tw
- Kanseki DB