Mákē huórén quánshū 麻科活人全書
Comprehensive Book of Life-Saving Measles Medicine by 謝玉瓊 Xiè Yùqióng (撰)
About the work
A four-juǎn mid-Qīng specialty treatise on measles (mázhěn 麻疹) by 謝玉瓊 Xiè Yùqióng, fl. Qiánlóng — Jiāqìng era. The work is one of the three principal Qīng-period measles references — alongside the Yīzōng jīnjiàn yòukē xīnfǎ yàojué 醫宗金鑑幼科心法要訣 measles chapter (KR3ej029) and 張霖 Zhāng Lín’s Mázhèng jíchéng 麻症集成 — and is the most clinically organised of the three: Xiè codified the 72 measles symptom-patterns (the qīshíèr zhèng 七十二症) that became the standard nosological framework of late-Qīng measles paediatric practice.
Prefaces
The received text opens with a fùlù mázhěn lùn 附錄麻疹論 (Appended Discourse on Measles), beginning jīng yún: dòu bǐng yú yīn, ér chéng yú yáng; má bǐng yú yáng, ér chéng yú yīn 經云：痘稟於陰，而成於陽。麻稟於陽，而成於陰 (the canon says: smallpox inherits from yin and completes in yang; measles inherits from yang and completes in yin). The discourse articulates the yīnyáng hùgēn 陰陽互根 (yin-yang mutual-rooting) doctrine as the foundation of measles pathology, identifies measles as xiāntiān zhēnyáng zhōng zhī tāidú 先天真陽中之胎毒 (a prenatal-heaven true-yang fetal-poison) that must engage yin (manifest as the eruptive sweat zhézhé sì hàn 漐漐似汗) to complete its physiological course. Treatment principle: fán dòuzhèng zhòng zài yǎngjiāng, mázhèng zhǐ yào qímiáo 凡痘症重在養漿，麻症只要齊苗 (for smallpox, the priority is nourishing the pustular fluid; for measles, the priority is ensuring even and complete eruption) — miáo qí gōng jū bājiǔ 苗齊功居八九 (when the eruption is complete, eight-or-nine-tenths of the cure is achieved).
Abstract
The Mákē huórén quánshū is the most comprehensive Qīng-period specialty treatise on measles. Its four juǎn are organised around the 72 measles symptom-patterns: each pattern is identified by its clinical presentation, related to one of the principal pathological mechanisms (biǎo 表 / lǐ 裡 / xū 虛 / shí 實 / fēng 風 / huǒ 火 / tán 痰 / shī 濕), and matched with a specific prescription. The work also treats the principal measles complications: hóutòng 喉痛 (throat pain, with Gānjié tāng 甘桔湯 as base, modified with Huángqín shēngdì niúbàng 黃芩生地牛蒡 for èrè kǒukě niàochì presentations, Bànxià 半夏 for bùèrè shétāi báihuá presentations) and the post-recovery convalescence. The work is one of the few Qīng paediatric texts to specifically address regional variations in measles presentation. Date: conventionally placed in the second half of the eighteenth century (1748–1800), after the Yīzōng jīnjiàn (1742) which the work assumes as background.
Translations and research
- 張嘉鳳 Zhāng Jiāfèng (Chia-Feng Chang), Aspects of Smallpox and Its Significance in Chinese History. SOAS dissertation, 1996 — context for the Qīng smallpox / measles paediatric tradition.
- Marta Hanson, Speaking of Epidemics in Chinese Medicine. Routledge, 2011 — context for Qīng disease-specialty literature.
- Mákē huórén quánshū jiàozhù 麻科活人全書校注 — modern punctuated edition.
- No substantial English-language monograph translation located.