Yòuyòu jí 幼幼集
Collection of “Caring for the Young” by 孟繼孔 Mèng Jìkǒng (撰); edited and printed by 胡文煥 Hú Wénhuàn (校梓)
About the work
A four-juǎn late-Míng paediatric clinical compendium by 孟繼孔 Mèng Jìkǒng (hào Chūnyí 春沂) of Nánjīng, with postface by the Qiántáng (Hángzhōu) scholar-publisher 胡文煥 Hú Wénhuàn dated Wànlì 23 yǐwèi 1595 autumn first month full-moon. The title — Yòuyòu jí (Collection of yòuyòu — caring for the young) — derives from Mencius’s yòu wú yòu yǐ jí rén zhī yòu 幼吾幼以及人之幼 (extending one’s love of one’s own children to others’ children). The work was published together with an edition of 錢乙 Qián Yǐ’s Qiánshì fāng 錢氏方, the two works prepared and edited by Hú Wénhuàn for joint publication.
Prefaces
The received front-matter contains a postface (hòuxù 後序) by 胡文煥 Hú Wénhuàn of Qiántáng 錢唐, dated Wànlì yǐwèi mèngqiū wàngrì 萬曆乙未孟秋望日 = 1595 autumn-first-month full-moon (the fifteenth). Hú recounts his initial unfamiliarity with the author: bùyìniǎn yóuxué Báixià, jí wén Chūnyí xiānshēng zhī míng, wèi shí qí miàn yě 不佞遊學白下，即聞春沂先生之名，未識其面也 (when I — your humble servant — was studying at Báixià [Nánjīng], I had heard of Chūnyí xiānshēng [Mèng Jìkǒng] by reputation but had not met him). Hú met Mèng through a friend, but had not yet experienced his medical practice; subsequently, when Hú’s own children fell dangerously ill with dòu (smallpox) and were pronounced beyond hope by other physicians, Mèng — visiting three times a day — successfully treated them and saved their lives. Hú then describes Mèng’s clinical practice as treating fùrén pínfù 富貧 (rich and poor) equally, háoxiá 豪俠 in character, zīshēn wéi qīng 資身為輕 (treating personal livelihood lightly), jīdé wéi zhòng 積德為重 (treating moral accumulation as primary). Hú frames the publication context: Mèng had been too busy in clinical practice to engage in book-writing, but when yǒu shì yú ànbì 有事於犴狴 (an episode of legal-judicial difficulty — apparently Mèng had been imprisoned or otherwise prevented from clinical work) freed him from practice, he completed the Yòuyòu jí during this period of forced leisure. Hú prepared the work along with Qián Yǐ’s Qiánshì fāng and gave it the joint title Yòuyòu (caring-for-the-young). Hú closes by hoping that Wànshì zhī xià, jiàn xiānshēng zhī shū, bùchì shí xiānshēng zhī miàn yǐ 萬世之下，見先生之書，不啻識先生之面矣 (across ten thousand generations, those who see this book will be as if meeting the man face-to-face). The text then proceeds directly to the Běncǎo yàoxìng 本草藥性 (Materia Medica with Drug-properties) of the principal paediatric prescription ingredients, beginning with Shēngmá 升麻 (Cimicifuga rhizome).
Abstract
The Yòuyòu jí is one of the major late-Míng paediatric works of the post-薛己 Xuē Jǐ generation. Its four juǎn cover the standard paediatric disease-range; the work is notable for its careful integration of materia-medica pharmacological fù (rhapsodies) into the paediatric clinical sections, reflecting Mèng’s emphasis on prescription ingredient knowledge. The work circulated widely in late-Míng / early-Qīng Jiāngnán paediatric practice. The 1595 date is fixed by the Hú Wénhuàn postface. Hú Wénhuàn (1547–c.1620) was one of the most prolific late-Míng scholar-publishers, head of the Wénhuìtáng 文會堂 publishing house in Hángzhōu, and editor of many medical cóngshū (including the Shòuyǎng cóngshū 壽養叢書 and the Bǎijiā míngshū 百家名書 collections). His collaboration with Mèng Jìkǒng on the Yòuyòu jí is one instance of the late-Míng yīrúshū 醫儒書 (scholar-publisher–physician) collaboration that produced much of the period’s medical literature.
Translations and research
- 熊秉真 Xióng Bǐngzhēn (Hsiung Ping-chen), A Tender Voyage. Stanford UP, 2005 — references Yòuyòu jí in the late-Míng paediatric corpus.
- Cynthia Brokaw, Commerce in Culture: The Sibao Book Trade in the Qing and Republican Periods. Cambridge MA: Harvard UAP, 2007 — context for the Hú Wénhuàn–style scholar-publisher tradition.
- Yòuyòu jí jiàozhù 幼幼集校注 — modern punctuated edition.
- No substantial English translation located.
Other points of interest
The Hú Wénhuàn postface’s documentary record of Mèng Jìkǒng’s háoxiá (chivalrous) character, his clinical treatment of patients regardless of social class, and his composition of the work during a period of forced leisure (imprisonment? official confinement?) is one of the most vivid biographical sketches of a late-Míng paediatrician outside the Tàiyīyuàn imperial-medical-academy hierarchy.