Chénshì yòukē mìjué 陳氏幼科秘訣
Chén-Family Paediatric Secret Discussions anonymous compilation under Chén-family attribution
About the work
A single-juǎn anonymous paediatric handbook circulating under the family-attribution rubric Chénshì 陳氏 (Chén-family). The catalog meta records no author and no dynasty. The work is presented as transmitted family secrets (mìjué 秘訣) of a Chén paediatric lineage; the actual identification of the Chén family is uncertain — there are at least three plausible candidates in the late-imperial paediatric literature: (1) the Sòng paediatrician 陳文中 Chén Wénzhōng (active c. 1241, author of Xiǎo’ér dòuzhěn fānglùn KR3ej053 / KR3ej056) and his family lineage; (2) the Míng paediatrician 陳復正 Chén Fēixiá (1736–c.1750, author of Yòuyòu jíchéng KR3ej013) and his hypothetical antecedent family practice in Lǐngnán; (3) one of several Míng-Qīng regional Chén family paediatric practices documented in local gazetteers. Internal stylistic and pharmacological evidence (the use of fúlíng wán 茯苓丸, the jīnfēng 噤風, cuōkǒu 撮口 neonatal nosology, the integration of folk and scholar-physician practice) suggests a late-Míng or early-Qīng compilation.
Prefaces
The received text opens directly with the substantive content (Chūshēng xiǎo’ér 初生小兒, the neonatal-care section) with no separate preface. Standard household paediatric practice is described: Gāncǎo, Huánglián, and mǎliào dòu 馬料豆 decoction administered to the newborn to evacuate prenatal huì 穢 (impurity); Fúlíng wán 茯苓丸 for neonatal abdominal distension; Yìmǔcǎo 益母草 decoction (with Huánglián, Shéchuángzǐ, Kǔshēn, Gǎoběn, Zhūshā, Xiónghuáng) or a Táo + Zǐ twig decoction for bathing; the Jīnfēng 噤風 (silent-mouth wind) — neonatal qífēng 臍風 tetanus presenting with closed eyes, mute crying, blue-green stools, and inability to suckle, attributed to zài tāi shòu rèdú 在胎受熱毒 (heat-poison received in the womb) — and the Cuōkǒu 撮口 (puckered-mouth) presentation. The prescription for Cuōkǒu is the standard bái jiāngcán 白殭蠶 (white silkworm) powder applied to the philtrum.
Abstract
The Chénshì yòukē mìjué is one of several family-attributed paediatric handbooks of obscure provenance. The work covers principally the neonatal disorders jīnfēng (mute-mouth wind) and cuōkǒu (puckered-mouth) — both manifestations of what modern medicine identifies as Clostridium tetani infection of the umbilical stump (neonatal tetanus), and one of the principal causes of premodern infant mortality. The work’s prescriptions draw on the standard Sòng-Yuán paediatric formulary (錢乙 Qián Yǐ, the Tàipíng huìmín héjì jú fāng tradition) and emphasise folk-paediatric techniques (mián guǒ zhǐ zhàn shuǐ 綿裹指蘸水, cotton-wrapped finger dipped in water to wipe the bái lì 白慄 white-pellet lesions of the newborn’s mouth). Date bracket: c. 1600–1911 (late Míng to end of Qīng).
Translations and research
- No substantial scholarship on the Chénshì yòukē mìjué located.
Other points of interest
The jīnfēng / cuōkǒu / qífēng 噤風/撮口/臍風 trio is one of the most consequential paediatric nosological categories of premodern China — virtually all instances refer to neonatal tetanus, with mortality rates approaching 100 per cent before mid-twentieth-century antibiotic therapy. The standard premodern preventive techniques — careful umbilical-cord care, avoidance of cold-water bathing in the first week, monitoring of the newborn’s mouth for the bái lì (white pellet) lesions — represent significant empirical paediatric public-health knowledge.