Wàikē shífǎ 外科十法
Ten Methods of External Medicine by 程國彭 (Chéng Guópéng, zì Zhōnglíng 鍾齡, hào Pǔmíngzǐ 普明子, 1680–1733)
About the work
A short single-juǎn surgical handbook composed by Chéng Guópéng in the winter of Yōngzhèng 10 (1732), originally circulated as the supplementary sixth juǎn of his celebrated Yīxué xīnwù 醫學心悟 (1732). Chéng, the founder of the influential late-Qīng eight-methods (bāfǎ 八法: 汗、吐、下、和、溫、清、補、消) clinical synthesis, set the work down at the Pǔtuóshān 普陀山 shrine where, in semi-retirement, he was treating workmen during the imperial reconstruction of the monastery and realised that his earlier Yīxué xīnwù had omitted external medicine. The book is short, pedagogically transparent, and pairs Chéng’s classical-internal bāfǎ idiom with surgery — its conscious aim is to make 外科 teachable to ordinary 內科 physicians.
Abstract
The self-preface dates the composition to the winter of rénzǐ (Yōngzhèng 10 = 1732), with Chéng at age 53. Chéng explains that, having spent thirty years practising medicine before retreating to Pǔtuó, he encountered many external-medicine cases among the temple’s workmen and consequently filled the gap in his earlier Yīxué xīnwù. The work is organised around ten methods for the management of yōngjū 癰疽: (1) nèixiāo 內消 (internal dispersion), (2) àijiǔ 艾灸 (moxibustion), (3) shénhuǒ zhào 神火照 (divine-fire illumination — a candle technique for diagnosis), (4) dāo zhēn biān shí 刀針砭石 (lancing instruments), (5) wéi yào 圍藥 (encircling drugs), (6) kāikǒu chú nóng 開口除膿 (opening and draining), (7) shōu kǒu 收口 (closure), (8) fú yào 服藥 (oral medication in eight principles), (9) wǔ shàn qī è jiùyuán 五善七惡救援 (rescue at the five-good / seven-bad prognostic signs), and (10) jiāngxī 將息 (convalescent care). A topical 症治方藥 section follows, covering the standard high-stakes cases — fābèi 發背, nǎojū 腦疽, bìnjū 鬢疽, dīngchuāng 疔瘡, hóubì 喉痹, luǒlì 瘰癧, rǔyōng 乳癰 / rǔyán 乳岩, chángyōng 腸癰, zhì 痔, yángméi dú 楊梅毒, and dàmá fēng 大麻風 — each with a named formula. Chéng’s bāfǎ of internal medicine was later highly influential in Edo Japanese kanpō (cited by Tanba no Mototane and others); the Wàikē shífǎ extends that systematic idiom to surgery.
Translations and research
- Frequently reprinted as the supplementary sixth juǎn of Yī-xué xīn-wù in standard PRC editions (人民衛生出版社, 中國中醫藥, etc.).
- No standalone Western-language translation located.
Other points of interest
The work’s brevity (just over 10,000 characters) and clear bāfǎ-style logic made it a favoured beginner’s text in Qīng and Republican TCM colleges. Chéng’s “shénhuǒ zhào” (passing a lit lamp behind the swelling to read its colour) is a rare instance of an external-medicine diagnostic technique that is not in the orthodox yīzōng jīnjiàn curriculum but became locally widespread through this textbook.