Wàikē xīnfǎ 外科心法
Heart-Methods of External Medicine by 薛己 (Xuē Jǐ, zì Xīnfǔ 新甫; hào Lìzhāi 立齋, 1487–1559) — Míng imperial physician of Wújùn 吳郡 (Sūzhōu).
About the work
Xuē Jǐ’s most-cited and most-discursive wàikē manual, in 7 juǎn. Where the KR3ek022 Wàikē shūyào (printed 1571) is a “pivot / essentials” digest of Xuē’s surgical doctrine, the Wàikē xīnfǎ is a fuller pedagogical exposition that drew the Yuán pulse-doctrine of yōngjū (Qí Dézhī’s KR3ek005 Wàikē jīngyì, c. 1330) systematically into Míng practice. Through this work the YuánJīn surgical pulse-and-pattern apparatus was transmitted into the Qīng yīzōng jīnjiàn line. Printed during Xuē’s lifetime and circulated through the multi-work Xuē shì yīàn 薛氏醫案 collected editions.
Abstract
There is no _000.txt in this directory — no preface, no postface, no colophon preserved here. The text opens directly into juǎn 1 with the Mài zhèng míng zhuàng èrshíliù zhǒng suǒ zhǔ bìng zhèng 脈證名狀二十六種所主病症 — the twenty-six pulse-types and their corresponding chuāng pathology, drawn explicitly from Qí Dézhī’s Yuán-period KR3ek005 Wàikē jīngyì. This opening establishes the work’s distinctive methodological commitment: pulse-diagnosis as the foundation of wàikē practice. The remainder of juǎn 1 covers the Twelve Channels (with the suǒshēngbìng clauses), the shíbā fǎn 十八反 (eighteen incompatibles), drug ascendency/precipitation theory, and Luó Tiānyì 羅天益 (Wèishēng bǎojiàn 衛生寶鑑) case anecdotes — including the famous “汗之則瘡已” (“sweat-it-out and the sore is gone”) case and “凡治病必察其下” (“in treating disease always investigate below”).
The remaining juǎn continue topographically, with disease-by-disease treatment principles, tuōlǐ 託裡 tonifying decoctions, and Xuē’s signature emphasis on bǔzhōng yìqì tāng 補中益氣湯 and liùwèi wán 六味丸 / bāwèi wán 八味丸 applied to ulcer recovery. Many entries are case-based and discursive — Xuē’s medical reasoning is exposed in detail rather than reduced to formula prescriptions. Compare the more streamlined KR3ek022 Wàikē shūyào and the more lesion-focused KR3ek039 Lìzhāi wàikē fāhuī.
The composition window adopted here (1528, the date of Wàikē fāhuī’s preface — establishing Xuē’s surgical-writing programme — through 1559, his death) is conservative; the work was clearly mature by the 1550s.
Translations and research
- 薛立齋醫學全書, 中國中醫藥出版社 — collected edition of Xuē’s yī-àn corpus.
- The Yuán source-text KR3ek005 Wài-kē jīng-yì itself in 中華醫典 — for comparing Xuē’s adaptation against the original.
- No Western-language translation located.
Other points of interest
The Xuē Jǐ “surgical trilogy” — Wàikē xīnfǎ (this text, 7 juǎn), Wàikē shūyào KR3ek022 (4 juǎn, 1571 print), and Lìzhāi wàikē fāhuī KR3ek039 (8 juǎn, 1528) — together with KR3ek038 Lìyáng jīyào on leprosy, constitutes one of the most extensive single-author surgical-medical corpora of the Míng. The repeated re-organisation of essentially overlapping material into multiple titles is characteristic of Xuē’s yīàn publishing practice.