Xiǎo’ér zhūzhèng bǔyí 小兒諸證補遺
Supplements on the Various Symptoms of Children by 張昶 Zhāng Chǎng (撰)
About the work
A single-juǎn late-Míng paediatric supplement by 張昶 Zhāng Chǎng of Dàliáng 大梁 (Kāifēng, Hénán), composed in Chóngzhēn 9 = 1636 at the author’s age of seventy-four (born 1563). The work is a companion supplement (bǔyí 補遺) to Zhāng’s earlier work Wènduì 問對 (Question-and-Reply, an adult internal-medicine yīàn collection), specifically treating paediatric disorders not covered in the parent work: facial-orifice visual diagnosis, finger-vein examination, tāihán / tāirè (fetal cold / heat), qífēng / cuōkǒu (umbilical wind and puckered mouth — neonatal tetanus), biànzhèng (developmental crises), zàngfǔ jīngluò (organs and meridians), yètí (night crying), jīngfēng, gānxián, dāndú (erysipelas), nángzhǒng (scrotal swelling), yóufēng (wandering wind), guīxiōng (pigeon chest), dīngxī (chronic emaciation), wǔruǎn / jiélú (five-soft / open fontanelle), and dòuzhěn (smallpox-eruptive fevers).
Prefaces
Author’s self-preface by Dàliáng qīshísì suì lǎorén Zhāng Chǎng 大梁七十四歲老人張昶, dated Chóngzhēn 9 (1636) ninth lunar month 5th day. The preface critically engages the standard paediatric authorities: 錢乙 Qián Zhòngyáng (= Qián Yǐ) is identified as xiǎo’ér yīfāng zhī zǔ 小兒醫方之祖 (founder of paediatric prescription), with his doctrine qí lùnshù bèi zài Zhǔnshéng zhōng 其論述備載準繩中 (its discussion preserved in 王肯堂 Wáng Kěntáng’s Zhèngzhì zhǔnshéng); the Chénshì prescriptions (presumably 陳文中 Chén Wénzhōng) are dismissed as piānhán piānrè 偏寒偏熱 (excessively cold or excessively hot) and not suitable for both south and north — i.e. inadequate to regional climatic differentials. Zhāng frames his task as supplying what is missing: yǐ guān qìsè, yàn zhǐwén 以觀氣色，驗指紋 (observing vital signs and verifying finger-vein patterns) and the specific paediatric disorders. The preface closes with the Lǐjì 禮記 maxim wéi rén fù zhě, bùkě yǐ bù zhī yī 為人父者，不可以不知醫 (one who is a father cannot fail to know medicine). The text then proceeds to the Miànbù wǔsè tú 面部五色圖 (Five-Colour Diagram of the Facial Regions) and the Miànbù wǔsè gē 面部五色歌 (Five-Colour Verse) — a seven-character mnemonic correlating the five seasonal-elemental cycles (spring-liver, summer-heart, late-summer-spleen, autumn-lung, winter-kidney) with the facial-region symptoms and their seasonal-derangement implications (gān bìng shēngshí miàn qīnglí, bái sè chūn lái wèiwéi jí 肝病生時面青黧，白色春來未為吉 — liver disease produces dark-blue facial coloration; white in spring is inauspicious as it indicates lung-metal overcoming liver-wood).
Abstract
The Xiǎo’ér zhūzhèng bǔyí is a focused supplementary paediatric handbook addressing specific neonatal and paediatric disorders not covered in standard general-medical wènduì works. The work’s date (1636) places it at the very end of the Míng, on the eve of dynastic transition; the author’s age (74) makes it a late-life summation. The five-element facial-coloration verse is a particularly clear mnemonic statement of the Qián Yǐ paediatric zàngfǔ doctrine in its seasonal-derangement form. The work circulated in Hénán paediatric practice and was preserved in late-imperial cóngshū; the jicheng.tw recension is its principal modern witness.
Translations and research
- No substantial English-language scholarship on the Xiǎo’ér zhūzhèng bǔyí located.
- Xiǎo’ér zhūzhèng bǔyí jiàozhù 小兒諸證補遺校注 — modern punctuated edition.