Bǎochì xīnshū 保赤新書
New Book on the Protection of the Newborn by 惲鐵樵 Yùn Tiěqiáo (撰)
About the work
A Republican-era paediatric monograph by Yùn Tiěqiáo 惲鐵樵 (1878–1935), one of the most influential twentieth-century Chinese-medicine reformers and a key figure in the early zhōngxī huìtōng (Chinese-Western synthesis) movement. The hxwd source file KR3ej072_001.txt contains only the file header; substantive content must be consulted via the surviving printed editions of Yùn’s writings.
Catalog correction: the catalog meta entry lists dynasty: 清 (Qīng), but Yùn Tiěqiáo (1878–1935) is firmly a Republican-era figure; the Bǎochì xīnshū was composed in the 1920s–early 1930s. The dynasty assignment should be 民國 (Republican).
Prefaces
No preface or substantive content preserved in the hxwd recension; the source file _001.txt contains only the file-header metadata.
Abstract
The Bǎochì xīnshū is one of Yùn Tiěqiáo’s paediatric writings, published in the 1920s–early 1930s as part of his Yùnshì yīxué cóngshū 惲氏醫學叢書 (Collected Medical Writings of Mr Yùn) series. Yùn Tiěqiáo was originally trained in Western literature (he was a Commercial Press editor for the influential Xiǎoshuō yuèbào 小說月報 journal) before turning to Chinese medicine in middle age, motivated by the deaths of three of his own children to acute paediatric illnesses that Western medicine had been unable to address. His paediatric writings reflect this personal motivation: they are characterised by a sustained, sometimes acerbic, dialogue between classical Chinese paediatric doctrine and the emerging Western paediatric science of the 1920s.
The Bǎochì xīnshū — “New Book on the Protection of the Newborn” — is part of this dialogue: a self-consciously new (新) work of paediatric medicine, integrating classical paediatric doctrine (biànzhèng developmental fevers, jīngfēng convulsive syndromes, gān malnutrition syndromes, dòuzhěn smallpox-eruption complex) with Western medical concepts of nutrition, infection, and physiology. The work is part of Yùn’s broader programme of gǎizào zhōngyī (reforming Chinese medicine) — preserving classical doctrine while incorporating modern empirical findings.
Yùn Tiěqiáo’s birth-death dates 1878–1935 are well-attested; he died young from a chronic illness exacerbated by his teaching schedule at his private medical-correspondence school. The Bǎochì xīnshū is part of the 1924–1932 publication wave of the Yùnshì yīxué cóngshū.
Translations and research
- Bridie J. Andrews, The Making of Modern Chinese Medicine, 1850–1960. UBC Press, 2014, pp. 137–168 — detailed discussion of Yùn Tiě-qiáo’s reform programme, his correspondence school, and his pedagogical and clinical writings.
- Sean Hsiang-lin Lei, Neither Donkey nor Horse: Medicine in the Struggle Over China’s Modernity. University of Chicago Press, 2014 — Yùn Tiě-qiáo’s role in the 1920s–30s Chinese-medicine reform debates.
- Volker Scheid, Currents of Tradition in Chinese Medicine, 1626–2006. Eastland Press, 2007 — Yùn Tiě-qiáo’s position in the modern zhōng-yī tradition.
- Chinese-language: the Yùn-shì yī-xué cóng-shū 《惲氏醫學叢書》 has been reissued in collected editions; the standard modern reference is the Yùn Tiě-qiáo yī-xué quán-shū 《惲鐵樵醫學全書》 (Beijing: Zhōng-yī gǔ-jí chū-bǎn-shè, multiple editions).
Other points of interest
Yùn Tiěqiáo’s paediatric writings are notable for their personal voice. The motivation — the deaths of his own children to acute paediatric illnesses — is openly acknowledged in his published writings and provides the emotional and intellectual substrate for his sustained engagement with paediatric medicine. The Bǎochì xīnshū title’s reference to bǎochì (protection of the newborn) draws on the classical Confucian Kānggào 康誥 phrase rú bǎo chìzǐ 如保赤子 (“as a mother protects her newborn”) that opens many Chinese paediatric texts — but the xīn (new) qualifier signals Yùn’s distinctive reform position.
The work belongs to the same 1920s–1930s Chinese-medicine paediatric reform tradition as Lǐ Cōngfǔ’s KR3ej058 Mázhěn zhuānlùn (1940); both are Republican-era reform writings that integrate classical and Western paediatric concepts. The catalog’s assignment to 清 is incorrect; the work is firmly Republican.
Links
- 保赤新書 jicheng.tw
- Kanseki DB
- Yun Tieqiao Wikidata — for the author.