Yīng’ér lùn 嬰兒論
Discourse on Infants by 周士禰 Zhōu Shìmí (撰); printed in Japan with preface by 吉村正隆 Yoshimura Masataka
About the work
A single-juǎn mid-Qīng paediatric clinical discourse by 周士禰 Zhōu Shìmí, surviving only through its Japanese transmission. The work is structured in the syntactic mould of the Shānghán lùn 傷寒論 — each disorder presented as a clinical clause (xíngzhèng bìng zhì dì N 行證並治第N) followed by a numbered prescription with explicit dosing — a distinctive stylistic choice that aligns it with Edo-period Japanese kobō-ha 古方派 (Classical Formulas School) reading practice. The Japanese reception was substantial; the present jicheng.tw recension follows the Kansei 9 (1797) Nagasaki printing brought into print by Yoshimura Masataka.
Prefaces
The Japanese-edition preface, by 吉村正隆 Yoshimura Masataka (zì Shìxìng 士興) of Nagasaki 長崎, dated Kansei 9 / Qīng Jiāqìng 2, dīngsì 寬政丁巳 = 1797, Mèngzōu 孟陬 (1st month) full moon, gives the work’s Japanese transmission history. A Kyoto (Píng’ān 平安) physician known as 廣川子 Guǎngchuānzǐ (Hirokawa-shi), professionally specialising in yǎkē 啞科 (paediatrics, “the silent department”), had come to Nagasaki and stayed two years, during which his practice flourished. He brought with him a manuscript of Yīng’ér lùn by the Qīng-period Zhōu, which he had previously acquired as an yìbǎo 異寶 (extraordinary treasure) and clinically tested — finding it miàojīng 妙精 (subtle and refined) on jīng 驚 (convulsion), gān 疳 (chronic malnutrition), pǐ 癖 (chronic abdominal masses) and similar disorders. Hirokawa requested Yoshimura’s preface for the Nagasaki edition. The preface compares Hirokawa’s discovery of the work to Yuèrén zhī yù Chángsāngjūn 越人之遇長桑君 (Biǎn Què’s encounter with Chángsāngjūn).
Abstract
The body of the Yīng’ér lùn opens with a section Chūshēng màizhèng bìng zhì dì yī 初生脈證並治第一 (Initial-birth pulse-symptoms and treatment, section 1) — a deliberate echo of Shānghán lùn / Jīnguì yàolüè 金匱要略 chapter-headings. Disorders covered include the constitutional classification of the newborn (chúnyáng 純陽 fiery type, xū 虛 deficient type, hándú 寒毒 cold-poison type, rèdú 熱毒 heat-poison type) and characteristic neonatal disorders: yǎkǒu 啞口 (silent mouth), ékǒu 鵝口 (thrush), rǔé 乳蛾 (tonsillitis), xiělú 解顱 (open fontanelle), yǔchí 語遲 / xíngchí 行遲 (delayed speech / walking), qí chuāng 臍瘡 (umbilical ulcer), chóngshé 重舌 (double-tongue). Each disorder is followed by a fāng 方 with named ingredients in fēn/qián/liǎng dosing and a decoction or pill preparation: Gānlián tāng 甘連湯, Wǔxiāng tāng 五香湯, Mìfù tāng 蜜附湯, Huóxuè tāng 活血湯, Jiàngǔ tāng 健骨湯, Huǒjì tāng 火濟湯, Huǒtànmǔ tāng 火炭母湯, Bìxuě fāng 碧雪方, Táohuā jiān 桃花箋. The work’s distinctive feature is its rigorous parallelism between clinical zhèng 證 (symptom-pattern) and fāng 方 (prescription), free of the inflated zàngfǔ speculative theorising characteristic of the contemporary mainland Chinese paediatric trade.
Translations and research
- No substantial English-language scholarship on the Yīng’ér lùn located. The work is best known to Japanese kanpō-igaku 漢方醫學 historians; it was a standard reference in late-Edo paediatric kobō-ha practice.
- For context on Sino-Japanese medical exchange in the Nagasaki period see Marta Hanson, Speaking of Epidemics in Chinese Medicine (Routledge, 2011); and Mathias Vigouroux, “The Reception of the Circulation Channels Theory in Japan (1500–1800)” (in Memory, Medicine, and Religion in East Asia, 2017).
- A modern Chinese punctuated edition is available in the Hǎiwài huíguī zhōngyī shànběn gǔjí cóngshū 海外回歸中醫善本古籍叢書.
Other points of interest
The work is one of the few Qīng-period Chinese paediatric texts whose primary witness is Japanese rather than Chinese — a pattern more typical of medieval Chinese medical literature (e.g. the Ishinpō 醫心方) than of the Qīng. The preface’s identification of the physician-transmitter as Píng’ān Guǎngchuānzǐ 平安廣川子 — Hirokawa-shi of Heian (Kyoto) — is informative for the social history of Edo-period medicine: such two-year residences of Kyoto physicians in Nagasaki for the purpose of Chinese-text acquisition and clinical training are well-attested in the kobō-ha biographical literature.