Cíyòu biànlǎn 慈幼便覽
Handy Reference for Compassionate Childcare anonymous Qīng-period compilation; principal source: 夏鼎 Xià Dǐng’s Yòukē tiějìng 幼科鐵鏡 (KR3ej011)
About the work
A single-juǎn anonymous Qīng-period paediatric handbook. The received text opens directly with the substantive content (no preface), beginning Xiǎo’ér jiǎnyào biànzhèng 小兒簡要辨證 (Simple-and-essential Paediatric Diagnosis) and explicitly attributes its facial-and-tongue diagnostic core to jiélù Xià Yǔzhù 節錄夏禹鑄 (extracted from Xià Yǔzhù = 夏鼎 Xià Dǐng). The work is therefore a Qīng-period derivative compilation drawing principally on the Yòukē tiějìng 幼科鐵鏡 (KR3ej011, 1695) of Xià Dǐng, supplemented with material from other paediatric sources. The catalog meta records no author and dynasty unspecified; internal evidence places the work after 1695 and before the end of the Qīng (1911).
Prefaces
The received text contains no separate preface; the work opens directly with the substantive content Xiǎo’ér jiǎnyào biànzhèng: the seven hot symptoms (xiǎo’ér rèzhèng yǒu qī 小兒熱證有七 — flushed cheeks, constipation, yellow urine, persistent thirst, hurried respiration, hot palms, red eyes — all shírè 實熱, contraindicating warming-supplementation), and the seven cold symptoms (xiǎo’ér hánzhèng yǒu qī 小兒寒證有七 — pale face, pale stool, abdominal distension preferring pressure, blue eye-whites, vomiting-and-diarrhoea without heat, cold legs, sleeping with eyes half-open — all xūhán 虛寒, contraindicating cooling). The text then proceeds to the wàng miáoqiào jué 望苗竅訣 (Visual-diagnosis Verses on the Sprout-Orifices, i.e. the qīqiào 七竅 facial orifices) attributed to Xià Yǔzhù.
Abstract
The Cíyòu biànlǎn is a Qīng-period paediatric digest-handbook of the kind produced for household and apothecary reference in the late-imperial period. Its principal source is Xià Dǐng’s Yòukē tiějìng (1695), from which the work extracts the facial-orifice visual diagnostic jué 訣 (verse-mnemonic) doctrine and the hot/cold symptom pairs. Other sources include the conventional Qián Yǐ zàngfǔ paediatric framework. The handbook circulated principally in late-Qīng household and apothecary practice. The author is unknown — possibly a working paediatrician or pharmacist of mid-to-late Qīng date who compiled the work for personal-clinical use. Date bracket: 1695 (Xià Dǐng’s Yòukē tiějìng) to 1911 (end of Qīng).
Translations and research
- No substantial scholarship on the Cíyòu biànlǎn located. For Xià Dǐng’s Yòukē tiějìng source see KR3ej011.