Yòukē shìmí 幼科釋謎
Untying the Riddles of Paediatrics by 沈金鰲 Shěn Jīn’áo (撰)
About the work
A six-juǎn paediatric treatise by 沈金鰲 Shěn Jīn’áo (1717–1776, zì Zhīwēi 芷薇, hào Zùnshēngzǐ 尊生子) of Wúxī 無錫, completed in the twelfth lunar month of Qiánlóng 39 = 1774 according to the author’s own preface. It is the paediatric volume of Shěn’s seventy-juǎn medical cóngshū the Shěnshì Zùnshēngshū 沈氏尊生書 (1773), which also includes the gynaecological Fùkē yùchǐ 婦科玉尺, the Màixiàng tǒnglèi 脈象統類, the Zhūmài zhǔbìng shī 諸脈主病詩, the Zábìng yuánliú xīzhú 雜病源流犀燭, and the Shānghán lùn gāngmù 傷寒論綱目. The work covers twenty-four classes (mén 門) of paediatric disorders, deliberately omitting the dòu 痘 smallpox-eruption section.
Prefaces
Shěn’s preface — characteristically learned and reserved — explains that he writes only on subjects in which he has personally received clinical instruction (qīn xí qí shì, yǒu yǐ zhèng qí lǐ zhī bù chā 親習其事，有以證其理之不差). His master 孫慶曾 Sūn Qìngzēng had been a fellow-student of 葉天士 Yè Tiānshì (葉桂 Yè Guì) in paediatric dòuzhěn practice; but since Shěn himself had not in his apprenticeship attended Sūn’s smallpox-clinic, he professes himself incompetent to write authoritatively on smallpox and accordingly omits the dòu section, leaving it as a deliberate quē 闕 (lacuna) for some future scholar to fill. He acknowledges 錢乙 Qián Zhòngyáng (Qián Yǐ) and 陳文中 Chén Wénzhōng as the founding paediatric authorities; Zēngshì 曾氏 (曾世榮 Zēng Shìróng), Wànshì 萬氏 (萬全 Wàn Quán), Tāngshì 湯氏, Wèishì 魏氏, Zháishì 翟氏, and Nièshì 聶氏 as the principal subsequent expositors. The fánlì (凡例, editorial principles) explain the four-character yùnyǔ 韻語 (rhymed mnemonic verse) for each disorder, followed by curated quotations from the principal predecessors, and articulate Shěn’s therapeutic principle of zhōnghé dāngbìng 中和當病 (moderation matched to the disorder).
Abstract
The Yòukē shìmí is one of the most influential Qīng-period paediatric treatises and the standard paediatric volume of the Shěnshì Zùnshēngshū curriculum. Each of the twenty-four classes (mén) — covering jīngfēng 驚風, gān 疳, yīyīng zhūbìng 一嬰諸病 (general neonatal disorders), xièlì 瀉痢, géyē 噎膈, shuǐzhǒng 水腫, hóubì 喉痺 (throat closure), and the eye, ear, nose, mouth, and dental disorders of childhood — opens with Shěn’s own four-character mnemonic verse synthesising the pathological doctrine, then collects the principal predecessor opinions (Qián, Chén, Wàn, 薛己 Xuē Jǐ, 張景岳 Zhāng Jǐngyuè, 李東垣 Lǐ Dōngyuán, 朱丹溪 Zhū Dānxī), arranged dialectically to converge on the yī shì 一是 (single correct view) Shěn adopts. The deliberate omission of dòu 痘 smallpox is itself a methodological statement: Shěn refuses to publish on a subject in which his clinical training was, on his own report, incomplete — a striking inversion of the encyclopaedic-completeness norm of the late-Qīng medical cóngshū. The first English-language summary of the work appears in 熊秉真 Xióng Bǐngzhēn’s Tender Voyage.
Translations and research
- 熊秉真 Xióng Bǐngzhēn (Hsiung Ping-chen), A Tender Voyage: Children and Childhood in Late Imperial China. Stanford UP, 2005 — discusses Yòukē shìmí in the context of Qīng paediatric theory.
- Shěnshì Zùnshēngshū jiàozhù 沈氏尊生書校注, multiple modern editions (Zhōngguó zhōngyīyào chūbǎnshè).
- 俞詠敏 Yú Yǒngmǐn (ed.), Yòukē shìmí jiàoshì 幼科釋謎校釋 — standard punctuated annotated edition.
- No substantial English-language monograph translation located.