Zhèngzhì zhǔnshéng · Yòukē 證治準繩·幼科
Standards of Diagnosis and Treatment — Paediatric Section by 王肯堂 Wáng Kěntáng (撰)
About the work
The paediatric volume of 王肯堂 Wáng Kěntáng’s (zì Yǔtài 宇泰, 1549–1613) monumental late-Míng general medical compendium Zhèngzhì zhǔnshéng 證治準繩 (Standards of Diagnosis and Treatment, also titled Liùkē zhǔnshéng 六科準繩, 120 juǎn total, completed in successive volumes 1602–1607). The paediatric section was completed in Wànlì 35 = 1607. Wáng — jìnshì of 1589, retiring from official career to dedicate himself to medicine — produced one of the most authoritative late-Míng medical syntheses, with the paediatric volume notable for its systematic Five-zàng organisation, careful preservation of Qián Yǐ doctrine, and the most thorough Míng-period treatment of mázhěn 麻疹 (measles) and dòuzhěn 痘疹 (smallpox) within the paediatric corpus.
Prefaces
Author’s self-preface by Wáng Kěntáng (zì Yǔtài 宇泰, hào Niànxī jūshì 念西居士) dated Wànlì sānshíwǔ nián zài dīngwèi xià wǔshí yòu sān rì 萬曆三十五年在丁未夏五十又三日 (1607, summer, fifty-three days [into summer]) at the Niànxī jū 念西居 study. The preface engages the yǎkē (silent department) problem: Wáng cites the Yellow Emperor’s reported reluctance — wú bùnéng chá qí yòuxiǎo wéi bié shì yījiā liàolǐ ěr 吾不能察其幼小為別是一家料理耳 (I cannot examine the very young; let it be the responsibility of a separate family of specialists) — but then disagrees with this conventional wisdom. Paediatric medicine, Wáng argues, is in fact relatively easier than adult medicine: since the infant jīngshén wèi shòu qīqíng liùyù zhī gōng, zàngfǔ wèi jīng bāzhēn wǔwèi zhī zì 精神未受七情六慾之攻，臟腑未經八珍五味之漬 (the spirit has not yet been damaged by the seven emotions and six desires, the organs have not yet been steeped in the eight delicacies and five flavours), prescriptions act more directly and effectively. Wáng then reviews the prior paediatric authorities: Quányòu xīnjiàn 全幼心鑑 is wúhuì 蕪穢 (overgrown and confused); Yòukē lèicuì 幼科類萃 (KR3ej014) is cūlüè 粗略 (rough and superficial); Xīnshū 新書 (probably the Huóyòu xīnshū 活幼心書 KR3ej007) is yǒu gǔ wú jīn 有古無今 (has the old but not the new); Bǎiwèn 百問 (Yīngtóng bǎiwèn KR3ej006) is guà yī lòu wàn 掛一漏萬 (one hung but ten thousand missed) — none of these is adequate as a paediatric zhǔnshéng (plumb-line / standard). The Zhèngzhì zhǔnshéng yòukē is offered as the corrective. Wáng’s distinctive editorial principle is the systematic Five-zàng organisation: paediatric disorders are classified by their primary zàngfǔ (organ) of disorder, with the constitutional doctrine of zàngqì xūshí shèng chéng zhī bìng 臟氣虛實勝乘之病 (organ-qi deficiency-excess overcoming-impeding disorders) as the central nosological frame. The preface closes by acknowledging 沈太素 Shěn Tàisù as Dà zhōngchéng 大中丞 (Vice Censor-in-chief) — who from Dàliáng (Kāifēng) sent fèngjīn 俸金 (official-salary funds) of one hundred liǎng to assist with the printing.
Abstract
The Zhèngzhì zhǔnshéng · Yòukē is one of the two or three most authoritative paediatric works of the late Míng (alongside 薛己 Xuē Jǐ’s Bǎoyīng cuōyào KR3ej015 and 萬全 Wàn Quán’s Yòukē fāhuī KR3ej001). Its nine juǎn (of the 120-juǎn parent compendium Zhèngzhì zhǔnshéng) cover paediatric disorders in a systematic Five-zàng organisational frame, with each zàng (heart, liver, spleen, lung, kidney) treated in turn with its characteristic paediatric pathology, diagnostic verses, and prescription. The work’s most extensive single section is the mázhěn 麻疹 (measles) and dòuzhěn 痘疹 (smallpox) treatment — Wáng explicitly notes that he had assembled píngshēng jù mádòu shū bǎishùshí jiā 平生聚麻痘書百數十家 (a lifetime’s accumulation of more than a hundred works on measles-and-smallpox), most of them měilòu 猥陋 (vulgar and shallow) but a subset of value. The 1607 date is fixed by Wáng’s self-preface. The work circulated widely through the late Míng and Qīng and is the principal late-Míng paediatric reference for the Yīzōng jīnjiàn compilers and for 陳復正 Chén Fùzhèng (whose Yòuyòu jíchéng KR3ej013 takes the Zhǔnshéng as one of its principal precursors).
Translations and research
- 熊秉真 Xióng Bǐngzhēn (Hsiung Ping-chen), A Tender Voyage. Stanford UP, 2005 — extensive discussion of Wáng Kěntáng’s paediatric work.
- Furth, A Flourishing Yin. Berkeley: UC Press, 1999 — context for Wáng Kěntáng’s medical career.
- Hinrichs and Barnes (2013) — Wáng Kěntáng as canonical late-Míng general-medical author.
- Zhèngzhì zhǔnshéng yòukē jiàoshì 證治準繩幼科校釋 — standard modern punctuated edition (Rénmín wèishēng chūbǎnshè).
- Wáng Kěntáng yīxué quánshū 王肯堂醫學全書 — collected modern edition of Wáng’s works.
Other points of interest
The work’s distinctive position in late-Míng paediatric literature — neither the case-driven yīàn approach of Xuē Jǐ nor the family-secret jiāmì approach of Wàn Quán, but a systematic Five-zàng organisational paediatric encyclopaedia — made it the principal late-Míng paediatric reference for both Qīng imperial-medical authority (the Yīzōng jīnjiàn) and for the polemical heterodox-paediatric tradition (Chén Fùzhèng).