Yòukē zhǐnán 幼科指南
Compass for Paediatrics by 周震 Zhōu Zhèn (撰); 1925 reprint preface by 蔬香居士 Shūxiāng jūshì for 衡廬主人 Hénglú zhǔrén
About the work
A four-juǎn early-Qīng paediatric handbook by 周震 Zhōu Zhèn (hào Shènzhāi 慎齋), composed in the Shùnzhì 18 (1661) — Kāngxī 18 (1679) range and first printed in 1789 by the Yíxīng Dàoshēngtáng. The received recension preserves a Republican-era 1925 reprinting with a fresh preface by 蔬香居士 Shūxiāng jūshì for the contemporary editor 衡廬主人 Hénglú zhǔrén who had paired the work with his own Fùkē zhǐnán 婦科指南 (gynaecology compass). The work covers paediatric four-diagnostic procedures (sìzhěn 四診), pulse and finger-vein diagnosis, the five-zàng meridian disorders, jīngfēng 驚風, and the principal miscellaneous paediatric disorders.
Prefaces
The received front-matter carries the 1925 reprint preface by 蔬香居士 Shūxiāng jūshì, dated 民國十四年歲次乙丑孟夏月 = 1925 fourth lunar month. It frames paediatric medicine in Lúnyǔ 論語 idiom (the yǎng 養 / yī 醫 of nǚzǐ yǔ xiǎorén 女子與小人 being notoriously difficult), and recounts the biography of 衡廬主人 Hénglú zhǔrén — twenty years of fēngchén 風塵 (dusty travels) in government administration and judiciary, frustrated ambition, retirement into medical study, composition of the Fùkē zhǐnán and Yòukē zhǐnán. The preface presents the Yòukē zhǐnán as the rediscovered and re-presented form of Zhōu Zhèn’s Qīng original. After the preface, the body of the work opens with Sìzhěn zǒngkuò 四診總括 (general outline of the four diagnostic procedures), followed by separate sections on chásè 察色 (visual diagnosis from facial coloration), tīngshēng 聽聲 (auscultation of the five vocal sounds correlated with the five zàng), shěnbìng / wèn 審病問 (clinical questioning), and qièmài 切脈 (pulse-taking).
Abstract
The Yòukē zhǐnán is one of the standard Qīng-period paediatric handbooks of the post-Kāngxī era. Its juǎn 1 contains paediatric gēfù 歌賦 (rhymed verses and rhapsodies) including the distinctive Hǔkǒu màiwén gē 虎口脈紋歌 (Verses on the Tiger’s-mouth Pulse Pattern) — a supplement to the conventional sānguān zhǐwén 三關指紋 finger-vein diagnostic doctrine, identifying qīngzǐ (blue-purple) patterns as xīngān (heart-liver) disorders, huángbái (yellow-white) as gānfèi (liver-lung), and hēi (black) as shèn (kidney). Juǎn 2 covers miscellaneous paediatric disorders. Juǎn 3–4 cover the five-zàng meridian disorders (xīn gān fèi pí shèn jīng 心肝肺脾腎經) with case-histories appended. The work’s píngzhèng (moderate, balanced) approach to prescription distinguishes it from the more polemical works of the Wàn-family, 陳復正 Chén Fùzhèng, and 夏鼎 Xià Dǐng paediatric lineages. Standard modern edition: Yòukē yīxué zhǐnán 幼科醫學指南 jiàozhù, ed. 鄭春素 Zhèng Chūnsù et al. (Zhōngyī gǔjí chūbǎnshè, 2013, ISBN 9787513220149) based on the 1789 Qiánlóng Dàoshēngtáng base-text with collation against the 1789 Lìyáng Bǎochìtáng Yùshùtáng edition and the 1814 Jiāqìng 19 Lìyáng Bǎochìtáng edition.
Translations and research
- No substantial English-language scholarship on the Yòukē zhǐnán located.
- 鄭春素 Zhèng Chūnsù (ed.), Yòukē yīxué zhǐnán 幼科醫學指南 in the Zhōngguó gǔ-yījí zhěnglǐ cóngshū 中國古醫籍整理叢書. Beijing: Zhōngyī gǔjí chūbǎnshè, 2013 — modern critical edition.