Wànshì mìchuán Piànyù xīnshū 萬氏秘傳片玉心書
The Wàn-Family Secretly Transmitted Heart-Book of the Jade Slip by 萬全 Wàn Quán (撰); preface by 張坦議 Zhāng Tǎnyì
About the work
A five-juǎn mid-Míng paediatric clinical handbook by 萬全 Wàn Quán (1499–1582, hào Mìzhāi 密齋), bearing the formal title prefix Wànshì mìchuán 萬氏秘傳 (Wàn-Family Secretly Transmitted) and the substantive title Piànyù xīnshū 片玉心書 (Heart-Book of the Jade Slip — piànyù evoking a polished tablet of precious jade for the transmitted family doctrine). One of the principal works of the Wàn Mìzhāi medical lineage, the Piànyù xīnshū is the discursive theoretical-and-clinical paediatric treatise of the family, complementing the prescription-handbook Yùyīng jiāmì (KR3ej043) and the theoretical Yòukē fāhuī (KR3ej001). The work was prefaced by 張坦議 Zhāng Tǎnyì, hào Kèzhāi 恪齋, of Hànyáng 漢陽 at the Wǔzhī zhuāng 五知莊 study.
Prefaces
Preface by 張坦議 Zhāng Tǎnyì (hào Kèzhāi 恪齋) of Hànyáng 漢陽, signed at the Wǔzhī zhuāng 五知莊. Zhāng frames the paediatric problem in the standard yǎkē idiom: in paediatric medicine, jiǎn ér míng 簡而明 (simple and clear) cannot be the standard, because the infant cannot communicate symptoms; the disorders shift unpredictably (zhèng biàn qí chū 症變奇出), the therapies are diverse, and a too-simple presentation produces a clinical qí 乖 (going wrong) on which the xiǎo’ér zhī suǒyǐ shēngsǐ cúnwáng xì yān 小兒之所以生死存亡系焉 (the life-and-death of small children depends). Zhāng then characterises Wàn’s Yùyīng paediatric writings as: shǐ yǐ fēnmén xīnjué, jì yǐ gè zàng fāhuī, zhōng yǐ dòuzhěn kēmù 始以分門心訣，繼以各髒髮揮，終以痘疹科目 (beginning with categorical heart-method verses, continuing with five-organ elucidations, ending with the dòuzhěn department). Zhāng concludes: xiānshēng chéngqiú zhī xīn zé kǔ yǐ, xiānshēng bǎochì zhī xīn bùxiǔ yǐ 先生誠求之心則苦矣，先生保赤之心不朽矣 (the master’s heart of sincere seeking has been bitter [in its labour], but the master’s heart of protecting the infant is immortal).
Abstract
The Wànshì mìchuán Piànyù xīnshū is the discursive paediatric treatise of the Wàn Mìzhāi medical lineage, structured around: (1) opening fēnmén xīnjué 分門心訣 (categorical heart-method mnemonic verses); (2) middle section gèzàng fāhuī 各臟發揮 (elucidations of the five-zàng paediatric pathology) — closely parallel to but distinct from the parent Yòukē fāhuī; (3) closing section dòuzhěn kēmù 痘疹科目 (smallpox-and-eruption clinical chapters). The work’s role in the Wàn-family textual corpus is as the more public-pedagogical companion to the more clinical Yùyīng jiāmì: both transmit the family’s paediatric expertise, but the Piànyù xīnshū foregrounds the heart-method (xīnjué) and fāhuī (elucidation) elements suitable for textual transmission outside the family lineage. The work circulated through the late Míng and Qīng as one of the canonical Wàn-family paediatric references. Date: c. 1549–1582 (Wàn Quán’s principal clinical-writing period).
Translations and research
- 熊秉真 Xióng Bǐngzhēn (Hsiung Ping-chen), A Tender Voyage. Stanford UP, 2005 — Wàn-family lineage discussion.
- Hinrichs and Barnes (2013), pp. 145–146 — the foundational discussion of the Wàn family in English.
- Wàn Mìzhāi yīxué quánshū 萬密齋醫學全書, ed. 傅沛膺 Fù Pèiyīng et al. (Beijing: Zhōngguó zhōngyīyào chūbǎnshè, 1999) — modern collected edition.
- No substantial English translation located.