Wàikē chuánxīn jí 外科傳薪集
Surgical Collection of Transmitted Embers by 馬培之 (Mǎ Péizhī, míng Wénzhí 文植, zì Péizhī, 1820–1903)
About the work
A short one-juǎn clinical formulary compiled by the great late-Qīng Mènghé 孟河 physician Mǎ Péizhī in Guāngxù 18 (1892); transmitted privately to his pupil Dèng Xīngbó 鄧星伯 and from him to Xǔ Héng 許恆, before being copied and prefaced by Zhōu Zhèn 周鎮 (zì Xiǎonóng 小農) of Wúxí. First published 1893. The title “transmitted embers” (chuánxīn 傳薪) — the Zhuāngzǐ image of fire passing from log to log — captures the work’s status as a lineage-transmission digest: about 218 formulae, classified by use, that Mǎ wished to entrust to his disciples.
Abstract
Zhōu Zhèn’s preface, written in dīngyǒu (1897), narrates the chain of transmission: Zhōu had studied internal medicine with Dèng Gēnghé 鄧羹和, learned of the manuscript through Dèng’s nephew Xīngbó (Mǎ’s pupil), copied it, and used it successfully to treat his own mother’s dāshǒu 搭手 (a back carbuncle on the shoulder-blade). Mǎ Péizhī himself — by then the most prestigious yángkē practitioner of late Qīng China, “the South-of-the-Yangzi first-rate hand” — was the leading representative of the Mènghé synthesis. Born 1820 in Mènghé village (Wǔjìn 武進, Chángzhōu, Jiāngsū) into a five-generation medical family, he trained under his grandfather Mǎ Shěngsān 馬省三 and incorporated the teachings of Wáng Jiǔfēng 王九峰 and Fèi Bóxióng 費伯雄. In 1880 (Guāngxù 6) he was summoned to Beijing to treat the Empress Dowager Cíxǐ 慈禧, receiving imperial calligraphy of the characters “福” (fortune) and a plaque reading “務存精要” (devote yourself to preserving the essential).
The work is arranged as a series of approximately 218 prescriptions for clinical use, spanning external, internal, gynaecological, throat, eye, and dental conditions; pill, powder, ointment, and dān 丹 forms; and internal, topical, insufflation, and eye-drop applications. Among them are the Mǎ-family signature formulae Mǎshì bābǎo dān 馬氏八寶丹, Mǎshì bājiàng sǎn 馬氏八將散, and an incorporation of Wáng Jiǔfēng’s zhì tǔxuè wán 治吐血丸. The collection notably preserves an opium-cessation (jiè yān 戒菸) formula attributed to Lín Zéxú 林則徐.
Translations and research
- 《外科傳薪集》, 人民衛生出版社, 1959 (single-volume edition).
- Scheid, Volker. Currents of Tradition in Chinese Medicine 1626–2006. Seattle: Eastland Press, 2007 — the standard English-language treatment of the Mèng-hé tradition, with extensive coverage of Mǎ Péizhī and his lineage.
- 鄭金生, 黎潤紅 et al., 孟河醫派三十八家：臨床特色及驗案評析. Modern Chinese monograph on the Mèng-hé school.
Other points of interest
The work is an essential primary source for the Mènghé (Menghe) medical lineage whose downstream descendants — Dīng Gānrén 丁甘仁 (1865–1926) and the Shanghai Republican-era TCM colleges — would reshape modern Chinese medicine. Mǎ’s writings (this Chuánxīn jí together with KR3ed066 Héhuǎn yífēng and the Mǎ Péizhī yīàn 馬培之醫案) are central to Scheid’s Currents of Tradition.