Piànyù dòuzhěn 片玉痘疹
Jade Fragments on Smallpox and Eruptive Fever by 萬全 Wàn Quán (撰)
About the work
A thirteen-juǎn late-Míng smallpox-and-measles compendium by Wàn Quán 萬全 (style Mìzhāi 密齋, 1499/1500–1583), the most prolific late-Míng paediatric author and one of the Húběi yīwǔ shìjiā 湖北醫吾世家 (Húběi medical-lineage families). Wàn Quán was based at Luótián 羅田 (Húběi) and produced eight major paediatric works in his long career; Piànyù dòuzhěn is one of the three principal smallpox works (the others being KR3ej066 Dòuzhěn xīnfǎ and Dòuzhěn shìyī xīnfǎ 痘疹世醫心法). Together these constitute the Wàn Quán smallpox triology, the most complete late-Míng synthesis of the Qián Yǐ / Chén Wénzhòng paediatric dòuzhěn doctrines.
Prefaces
Source file extraction shows the body content of the work but no preface frontmatter in the _001.txt file. The work opens directly with the Dòuzhěn suìjīn fù 痘疹碎金賦 — a long versified didactic introduction (fù-form rhapsody) systematically introducing the dòuzhěn clinical-pathological doctrine. The suìjīn fù is itself one of the most celebrated late-Míng paediatric mnemonic compositions.
Abstract
The work’s fù opens with the founding aetiological doctrine: dòu běn tāidú, sú yuē tiānchuāng 痘本胎毒，俗曰天瘡 (smallpox is fundamentally fetal-poison; the vulgar call it ‘heaven-pustules’); chuánrǎn yóu yú wài gǎn, qīngzhòng guò yú nèishāng 傳染由於外感，輕重過於內傷 (contagion is from external triggers; severity exceeds internal-injury severity). The phased disease progression: chū qǐ tàiyáng, rénshuǐ kè hū bǐnghuǒ; hòu guī yángmíng, xuèshuǐ huà wéi nóngjiāng 初起太陽，壬水克乎丙火；後歸陽明，血水化為膿漿 (begins in Tàiyáng with rénshuǐ water overcoming bǐnghuǒ fire; concludes in Yángmíng with blood-water converting to pus).
The fù then provides a systematic clinical-prognostic survey covering, in versified rhyme: aetiology (tāihuǒ 胎火), epidemiology (lìqì liúxíng 癘氣流行 perverse-qi epidemic), four-seasons timing rules (spring-summer favorable, autumn-winter unfavorable), organ-correspondence (Liver→tears + water-blisters; Lung→runny nose + pus-blisters; Heart→red maculae; Spleen→red-yellow), facial diagnostic regions, prognostic signs (shēngrè fever-onset, jiànrè visible-heat, etc.), morphology of eruption (preferred cānglà 蒼蠟 wax-color vs feared zǐhuáng 紫黃 purple-yellow), unfavorable signs (hóushé chuāngduī throat-densely-eruptive, yǎnchì féngbì eye-closed, etc.), clinical management (qìrè wèi ér wèihán yǐnlěng zhě, huágài xiān shāng — drinks of cold-cooled water injure the Lung-canopy), Qián Yǐ-style cooling and Chén Wén-zhòng-style warming approaches, prescription guidelines, and disease complications. The fù concludes with a discussion distinguishing dòu and zhěn nosologically (Dòu míng tiānchuāng, zhěn hū mázǐ 痘名天瘡，疹呼麻子).
The work is firmly within the late-Míng Wànshì jiāxué 萬氏家學 (Wàn family tradition) of paediatric medicine and is roughly contemporary with KR3ej066 Dòuzhěn xīnfǎ. Both works are by Wàn Quán; the Piànyù dòuzhěn tends to be the more fù-format mnemonic-pedagogical work, while the Dòuzhěn xīnfǎ is more lùn-format theoretical. The hxwd recension of Piànyù dòuzhěn is one of three current recensions; the principal alternative is the Wànshì quánshū 萬氏全書 collected-works recension.
Wàn Quán’s CBDB entries should give birth-death 1499/1500–1583; Wikidata: Q11168478.
Translations and research
- Yi-Li Wu, Reproducing Women: Medicine, Metaphor, and Childbirth in Late Imperial China. UC Press, 2010 — references to Wàn Quán in the broader late-Míng paediatric-obstetric context.
- Charlotte Furth, A Flourishing Yin: Gender in China’s Medical History, 960–1665. UC Press, 1999 — Wàn Quán positioned within late-Míng jiā-xué family-medicine tradition.
- Joanna Grant, A Chinese Physician: Wang Ji and the “Stone Mountain Medical Case Histories”. RoutledgeCurzon, 2003 — Wàn Quán’s contemporary position in late-Míng Xīn-ān / Wàn-shì paediatric writing.
- Marta Hanson, Speaking of Epidemics in Chinese Medicine. Routledge, 2011 — references to the Wàn Quán smallpox writings.
- Chinese-language studies of Wàn Quán are extensive; the Wàn Mì-zhāi yī-xué quán-shū 《萬密齋醫學全書》 (Beijing: Zhōng-yī gǔ-jí, 1999 and later) is the standard collected edition.
Other points of interest
The Piànyù dòuzhěn is one of three smallpox monographs by Wàn Quán; the others are KR3ej066 Dòuzhěn xīnfǎ and Dòuzhěn shìyī xīnfǎ. The three should be read together; they represent the most complete late-Míng paediatric smallpox synthesis. Wàn Quán’s positioning between Qián Yǐ (qīngxiè) and Chén Wénzhòng (wēnbǔ) is the canonical late-Míng version of the Qián vs Chén mediation: Qián zhī yòng liángxiè, yīn qí fánzào dà xiǎo biàn bù tōng yě; Chén zhī yòng wēnbǔ, yīn qí xièkě, shǒuzú lěng yě 錢之用涼瀉，因其煩躁大小便不通也；陳之用溫補，因其瀉渴，手足冷也 (Qián’s cooling-purging treats heat-related restlessness and constipation; Chén’s warming-supplementation treats diarrhoea, thirst, and cold extremities; both are situationally indicated, neither dogmatically correct).
The work’s fù opening — versified rhapsody — is itself one of the most celebrated late-Míng medical poems, widely memorised by Qīng-period medical apprentices.
Links
- 片玉痘疹 jicheng.tw
- Kanseki DB
- Wan Quan (physician) Wikidata — for the author.