Xiǎo’ér wèishēng zǒngwēi lùnfāng 小兒衛生總微論方
A General Discussion and Formulary on Comprehensive Paediatric Hygiene anonymous Southern-Sòng compilation; rediscovered by 朱臣 Zhū Chén and prefaced by 李延壽 Lǐ Yánshòu (1489); recollated and reprinted by 柯逢時 Kē Féngshí (1910)
About the work
A twenty-juǎn anonymous Southern-Sòng paediatric encyclopaedia, originally printed by Héshì 何氏 at the Hángzài Tàiyījú 行在太醫局 (the wartime Imperial Medical Academy) in Jiādìng 9 bǐngzǐ 丙子 = 1216. The Sòng original’s preface acknowledges that the author’s name was already unknown to its first printer; the work is conventionally identified as the product of an unnamed yǐn jūnzǐ 隱君子 (hidden gentleman) of the Southern Sòng who survived the Jiànyán dynastic catastrophe of 1127 and composed the work in the early Southern Sòng. The work is also known under the alternative Míng title Bǎoyòu dàquán 保幼大全 (Great Compendium for Protecting the Young), an editorial renaming attributed to a Míng-period editor and reflected in the Fànshì shūmù 范氏書目 attribution to one “Zhū Chén of the Míng” (a misattribution to the rediscoverer-publisher, not the actual author). The work is one of the principal anonymous Sòng paediatric sources, transmitting the Shèngjì jīng 聖濟經 and 錢乙 Qián Yǐ paediatric doctrines together with original case-and-prescription material.
Prefaces
The received text carries two postfaces. Postface 1 by 李延壽 Lǐ Yánshòu of Jǐnán 濟南, cì jìnshì wénlínláng Xuānchéng zhīxiàn qián Hénán dào jiānchá yùshǐ (Magistrate of Xuānchéng and former Investigating Censor of Hénán Circuit), dated 弘治己酉孟秋之吉 = Hóngzhì 2, 1489 autumn first month. Lǐ recounts the discovery: his colleague 朱臣 Zhū Chén (zì Shízuǒ 時佐), tōngshǒu 通守 (deputy prefect) of Níngguó 寧國, produced from his collection a paediatric work which had reportedly been recovered from an ancient tomb (xī yǒu rén dé zhī gǔzhǒng zhōng 昔有人得之古塚中) and presented to a senior official; subsequently used clinically with jī yàn 奇驗 (extraordinary efficacy). Lǐ examined the work — wèi xiáng zuòzhě hé rén 未詳作者何人 (its author cannot be determined) — found its disease-classification and prescription-discussion exhaustive, and (with Zhū Chén) commissioned its printing. Postface 2 by 柯逢時 Kē Féngshí of Wǔchāng 武昌, dated Xuāntǒng 2, 1910.03.03: identifies the Sòng base-text as the 1216 Jiādìng bǐngzǐ Hángzài Tàiyījú Héshì imprint, notes that the original preface there already records the author as unknown, and that the work cites the Shèngjì jīng 聖濟經 (1118) and Qián Yǐ’s prescriptions extensively. Kē also notes the juǎn 7 closing self-memorandum on the compiler’s Shānghán lèizhèng zhū fāng 傷寒類證諸方 (Various Prescriptions Organised by Cold-Damage Symptom Pattern) — a separate three-juǎn Shānghán work first printed in Jīn Dàdìng (i.e. mid-12th c.) and later reprinted by Yúshān Zhàoshì 虞山趙氏 (趙開美 Zhào Kāiměi?) into the Zhòngjǐng quánshū 仲景全書 — establishing that the anonymous compiler was also an accomplished Shānghán scholar. Kē identifies the title Bǎoyòu dàquán 保幼大全 as a Míng renaming, and the Fànshì shūmù attribution to “Míng Zhū Chén” as a confusion of the 1489 publisher with the original Sòng author. The 1910 reprinting was edited by 蕭北承 Xiāo Běichéng (xiàolián 孝廉, head of the Wǔchāng yīguǎn 武昌醫館).
Abstract
The Xiǎo’ér wèishēng zǒngwēi lùnfāng is one of the major Sòng-period paediatric encyclopaedias, surviving alongside the 1150 Yòuyòu xīnshū of 劉昉 Liú Fǎng (KR3ej010) and the Xiǎoér yàozhèng zhíjué of Qián Yǐ (KR3ej020). Its twenty juǎn cover all the standard paediatric disease-categories — neonatal disorders, jīngfēng 驚風, gān 疳, the liùyín 六淫 external pathogens (including a dedicated paediatric Shānghán section in juǎn 7), dòuzhěn 痘疹, and the various organ-system and miscellaneous disorders. Each disease is presented as lùn 論 (theoretical discussion) followed by fāng 方 (prescriptions), the prescriptions drawn from a wide range of pre-Sòng sources including the Qiānjīn 千金, Wàitái 外台, and Shèngjì zǒnglù 聖濟總錄 corpora as well as Sòng jiāfāng 家方. The work’s anonymity reflects the post-1127 dynastic-collapse generation’s preference for yǐnjū 隱居 hidden-author practice. The compositional date bracket is set by the Shèngjì jīng (1118) as terminus a quo and the 1216 Hángzài printing as terminus ante quem; the late-Northern-Sòng jiànyán refugee generation is the most likely social context, so a date range of c. 1127–1216 is conservative. The 1489 Míng edition is the principal late-imperial transmission witness; the 1910 Kē Féngshí–Xiāo Běichéng collation against multiple recensions is the standard modern critical edition base.
Translations and research
- 熊秉真 Xióng Bǐngzhēn (Hsiung Ping-chen), A Tender Voyage. Stanford UP, 2005 — references the work in the Sòng paediatric encyclopaedia tradition.
- Hinrichs and Barnes, Chinese Medicine and Healing. Harvard UP, 2013 — context.
- Xiǎo’ér wèishēng zǒngwēi lùnfāng jiàozhù 小兒衛生總微論方校注, multiple modern editions.
- No substantial English translation located.
Other points of interest
The reported provenance — xī yǒu rén dé zhī gǔzhǒng zhōng (recovered from an ancient tomb) — is a topos of Sòng-Míng bibliographic mythologisation also seen for other anonymous Sòng paediatric and obstetric texts. The historical reality is more probably that the work circulated continuously in manuscript through the Míng but was rediscovered in published form by Zhū Chén of Níngguó in the late Hóngzhì era. The work’s renaming as Bǎoyòu dàquán 保幼大全 by Míng editors is one of several documented Míng-period retitlings of anonymous Sòng medical works to fit the early-modern dàquán 大全 (comprehensive) genre-marker.