Dàyī Mǎshì xiǎo’ér màizhēn kē 大醫馬氏小兒脈珍科
Master Physician Mǎ’s Treasured-Pulse Paediatrics anonymous compilation under the Mǎ-family physician rubric
About the work
A two-juǎn (shàngjuǎn / xiàjuǎn) anonymous paediatric handbook circulating under the family-attribution rubric Mǎshì 馬氏 (Mǎ-family) with the honorific dàyī 大醫 (master-physician). The catalog meta lists no author and no dynasty. The work is organised in chapters (pián 篇 / lùn 論) and treats paediatric matter in the conventional Sòng-Yuán paediatric framework but with the distinctive xíngzhì zǎoyāo 形質夭壽 (constitutional life-span prognostication from infant physiognomy) doctrine as its opening discourse. Internal evidence — the fǔ jīng mǔ xuè 父精母血 conception doctrine, the Daoist yīyuè rú lùzhū, èryuè rú táohuā 一月如露珠，二月如桃花 monthly developmental progression doctrine, and the prognostic anatomies of infant yīnqì genital signs and eye-coloration as life-span indicators — places the work in the late-Míng to mid-Qīng range.
Prefaces
The received front-matter is empty; the work opens directly with the substantive content Chūshēng shòuyāo lùn 初生壽夭論 (Discourse on Newborn Long-life-or-Early-death). The opening discourse explains: the infant inherits cái yú fù mǔ zhī yú qì 稟父母之餘氣 (the surplus qi of father and mother), so féi bùkě shēng shòu, shòu bùkě shēng féi 肥不可生瘦，瘦不可生肥 (the fat cannot produce the thin, nor the thin produce the fat); when child and parents are dissimilar, nán yǎng 難養 (difficult to rear), when similar, yìshēng 易生 (easy to thrive). The doctrine is then applied: xiǎo’ér yùzhī rényì, shēnqīng lìruò zhě, yāo zhī zhào yě 小兒預知人意，身輕力弱者，夭之兆也 (infants who anticipate adult intentions and are body-light and weak are signs of early death); huízhuǎn shūchí, shāofèi rén diāozhuó zhě, shòu zhī zhēng yě 迴轉舒遲，稍費人雕琢者，壽之徵也 (infants slow to turn-over and requiring more parental cultivation are signs of longevity). Specific anatomical prognostics are given: yīn dà ér hēi zhě, kě yǎng 陰大而黑者，可養 (large-and-dark genitals, viable); yīn xiǎo ér bái zhě, nán yù 陰小而白者，難育 (small-and-pale genitals, hard to raise); large black iris and small white sclera, longevity; small black iris and large white sclera, early death.
Abstract
The Dàyī Mǎshì xiǎo’ér màizhēn kē is a paediatric handbook organised around the mài 脈 (pulse and finger-vein diagnostic) tradition — its title’s màizhēn 脈珍 (pulse-treasure) signals the diagnostic centrality of the work. The book covers paediatric constitutional prognostication, neonatal care (chūshēng tiáoshè lùn 初生調攝論 — wet-nurse hygiene, breastfeeding contraindications, the standard neonatal disorders), and the principal paediatric disorders. The work is plausibly the product of a regional Mǎ-family paediatric lineage of unknown geographical origin; internal evidence is insufficient for confident dating beyond a late-Míng to late-Qīng range. The jicheng.tw recension is its principal modern witness; the work is otherwise rare in late-imperial bibliographic catalogues.
Translations and research
- No substantial scholarship on the Dàyī Mǎshì xiǎo’ér màizhēn kē located.