Huóyòu xīnshū 活幼心書
Heart-Book for Reviving the Young by 曾世榮 Zēng Shìróng (撰)
About the work
A three-juǎn paediatric treatise by 曾世榮 Zēng Shìróng (1253–1332, zì Déxiǎn 德顯) of Héngyáng 衡陽, completed in Zhìyuán jiǎwǔ 至元甲午 = 1294, and one of the canonical Yuán-period paediatric works. The three juǎn are organised as: shàngjuǎn — juézhèng shīfù 決證詩賦 (rhymed mnemonic verses on diagnostic decisions); zhōngjuǎn — míngběn lùn 明本論 (treatises elucidating fundamentals) plus shíyí 拾遺 (supplementary notes); xiàjuǎn — xìnxiào fāng 信效方 (reliably effective prescriptions) plus supplementary materials. The received recension descends from the Yuán original (元至元甲午曾氏原刻全帙) preserved in the Shìlǐjū 士禮居 collection of 黃丕烈 Huáng Pīliè and the later Yìfēng 藝風 (繆荃孫 Miù Quánsūn) library, and re-cut by 柯逢時 Kē Féngshí in 1910.
Prefaces
The received text carries two postfaces: Postface 1 (跋一) by 黃丕烈 Huáng Pīliè (Fùwēng 復翁, 1763–1825, the great bibliophile of Sòng and Yuán imprints), dated Jiāqìng xīnwèi 嘉慶辛未 mid-autumn = 1811, recounts how he initially saw a defective copy of the work, then acquired another copy through an exchange of medical books with the Wǔyànlóu 五硯樓 library destined for a Hǎiníng friend; finding the second copy also defective, he had the missing leaves yǐngchāo 影鈔 (facsimile-traced) from a separate witness to complete it, then rebound and added a colophon. Postface 2 (跋二) by 柯逢時 Kē Féngshí of Wǔchāng 武昌, dated Xuāntǒng 2 gēngxū 庚戌 = 1910: identifies his base-text as the Yuán Zhìyuán jiǎwǔ (1294) original from the Yìfēng library (繆荃孫 Miù Quánsūn’s Shìlǐjū transcription), notes the corrupted Xīnshū 新書 / Xīnshū 心書 title in the Héngyáng xiànzhì 衡陽縣志, Qiānqǐngtáng shūmù 千頃堂書目, Guāngxù Húnán tōngzhì 光緒湖南通志, and the Bàojīngtáng 抱經堂 supplement to the Yuánzhì — all of which use the erroneous Xīnshū 新書 — and confirms Xīnshū 心書 as the correct received title. He also notes the inferiority of the Míng Xuāndé gēngxū 1430 修補本 and the Japanese Kyōhō kōin 享保甲寅 1734 校刻本, and acknowledges the editorial collation of 翟鳳翔 Zhái Fèngxiáng (Zhǎnchéng 展成) and 蕭延平 Xiāo Yánpíng (Bóchéng 伯丞).
Abstract
The Huóyòu xīnshū is one of the three canonical Yuán-period paediatric works (alongside Zēng’s own Huóyòu kǒuyì 活幼口議 (KR3ej024) and the late-Yuán Buddhist paediatric materials). Zēng’s self-preface (preserved in the body of the text) traces his medical descent from his teacher 劉斯道 Liú Sīdào and articulates his theoretical alignment with 錢乙 Qián Yǐ’s zàngfǔ paediatric framework, modified by 陳文中 Chén Wénzhōng’s dòuzhěn doctrines. The work’s distinctive feature is its rhymed-mnemonic format in juǎn 1: each diagnostic decision is set as a four-character shī 詩 or longer fù 賦 verse, making it functionally a clinical kǒujué 口訣 for memorisation by apprentices. Juǎn 2 expands these into discursive lùn 論, and juǎn 3 supplies the corresponding fāng 方 (formulary). The work is the principal Yuán-period paediatric source for the Míng paediatric tradition; 萬全 Wàn Quán, 魯伯嗣 Lǔ Bósì, and 薛鎧 Xuē Kǎi all cite it. The 1294 dating is the canonical bibliographic dating, fixed by Zēng’s own preface and confirmed by Kē Féngshí’s 1910 collation against the Zhìyuán original.
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 Zēng Shìróng in the Yuán-period paediatric tradition.
- Hinrichs and Barnes, Chinese Medicine and Healing: An Illustrated History. Harvard UP, 2013 — references Zēng in the post-Qián Yǐ paediatric lineage.
- Huóyòu xīnshū jiàozhù 活幼心書校注, ed. 田代華 Tián Dàihuá et al. Beijing: Rénmín wèishēng chūbǎnshè, 1985 — standard punctuated edition.
- No substantial English translation located.
Other points of interest
The transmission history of the Huóyòu xīnshū is itself a notable case in late-imperial bibliography: the work survived through the Míng with a corrupted title (Xīnshū 新書 for Xīnshū 心書), and the correct received title was only restored by Kē Féngshí’s 1910 collation against the Yìfēng library Yuán original. Huáng Pīliè’s 1811 postface, by the most celebrated Qīng bibliophile of Sòng and Yuán imprints, gives a glimpse into the secondary-market circulation of incomplete Yuán paediatric witnesses in early-nineteenth-century Jiāngnán.