Fābèi duìkǒu zhìjué lùn 發背對口治訣論
A Treatise of Treatment-Formulae for Back and Nape Carbuncles by 謝應材 (Xiè Yīngcái, hào Suìqiáo 邃喬, fl. late Qiánlóng – Jiāqìng, 清).
About the work
A specialised one-juǎn Qīng monograph on fābèi 發背 (dorsal carbuncles) and duìkǒu 對口 (nape carbuncles) — characteristic of the late-Qīng “one-disease-one-book” specialist genre. The grandson Xiè Sūnyìwéi 謝孫翼為 prefaced the printed edition in Dàoguāng 20 zhòngchūn qīrì (1840), explaining that Xiè Yīngcái had compiled medical case-notes and zhìjué 治訣 (treatment formulae) over a lifetime and that the family edited and printed them in that year at the urging of Yáng Zǐyì 楊子逸. The printed recension thus dates to 1840, while the medical content draws on Xiè’s late-18th- to early-19th-century practice.
Abstract
The Dàoguāng 20 grandson’s preface explains the family transmission: Xiè Suìqiáo, a scholar-physician trained in both internal and external medicine, observed that classical methods failed on fābèi / duìkǒu carbuncles and developed his own approach distinguishing zuǒyòu shàngxià 左右上下 (left / right / upper / lower), sè zhī chìbái 色之赤白 (red / white colour), and mài zhī fúchén 脈之浮沉 (floating / sinking pulse). His sons Dōnghuángōng 東環公 and Dōngkuígōng 東揆公 continued the practice. The grandsons edit and publish to prevent loss.
The work itself comprises a single zǒnglùn 總論 followed by a Xièshì wàikē mìfǎ biànzhèng 謝氏外科秘法辨證, with sub-sectioned methods (jūn yào 君藥 = zhì gāncǎo 制甘草; correspondence-charts of yǐnjīng yào 引經藥 / channel-conducting drugs); a series of formulae (fán chūqǐ fāng 凡初起方; fúyīn zhèng fāng 伏陰證方; tuōnóng 托膿; fǔròu tuō hòu 腐肉脫後; shōugōng 收功); separate duìkǒu zuǒ / yòu 對口左 / 右 prescriptions; and a fù 附 (appendix) of Yángzhōu cúnjìtáng yàojú gāoyào fāng 揚州存濟堂藥局膏藥方 — Yúntái gāo 雲臺膏, Wūlóng dìng-zi 烏龍錠子, Lónghǔ sǎn 龍虎散, Bádīng huáng wán-zi 拔疔黃丸子 — attributed to Shīgǔzhāi zhǔrén 師古齋主人.
The therapeutic core is shēngyáng sànhuǒ 升陽散火 (elevating yang and dispersing fire), with zhì gāncǎo 制甘草 as the sovereign drug in three doses (dà / zhōng / xiǎo jì 大中小劑) plus guālóu rén 栝蔞仁 and shānjiǎ 山甲, modified by site (left = cháihú 柴胡; right = shēngmá 升麻 + jiégěng 桔梗) and stage. The work includes signs of wǔ shàn qī è 五善七惡 drawn directly from KR3ek014 Wàikē zhèngzōng.
Xiè Yīngcái’s lifedates are not documented; not in CBDB. Known only through the family preface of his grandson.
Translations and research
- Available at zh.wikisource.
- Relevant context in Yi-Li Wu, Reproducing Women (2010) and in Hinrichs & Barnes (2013) on Qīng local medical printing.
- No dedicated study located.
Other points of interest
The appendix preserves the formulary of the Yángzhōu cúnjìtáng yàojú 揚州存濟堂藥局 — a rare snapshot of a Qīng yàojú shīsòng 藥局施送 (charitable-dispensary) pharmacy’s actual stocked formulary, of independent interest to social-historians of Qīng pharmacy and charity-distribution practice.