Lìkē quánshū 癧科全書
Complete Book on Scrofula by 梁希曾 (Liáng Xīzēng, zì Zhèxuān 柘軒, of Gǔméi 古梅, fl. 1909, 清-late).
About the work
A rare specialised late-Qīng monograph on luǒlì 瘰癧 (scrofulous lymphadenopathy / cervical scrofula), printed at Tuójiāng (Shàntóu / Swatow) under three prefaces dated 1909–1910. The work is distinctive in two ways: (1) it adopts an explicitly comparative anti-Western-surgery stance, having been informed by the author’s exposure to Singapore, Hong Kong, and the Nányáng during his decade-long itinerant practice; (2) it proposes a diǎnyào fǎ 點藥法 (caustic point-application) protocol for scrofulous nodes that the author claims to have refined over decades from a xiù 羽 (Hagi / 羽州 i.e. Dewa) hermit-doctor’s secret method. Funded by the Siamese-Chinese merchant Hóu Lántīng 侯蘭汀.
Abstract
The Kanripo digitisation preserves three prefaces in _000.txt: (1) Hóu Jiājì 侯家驥 (hào Pǐnméi xiǎozhù* 品梅小築) preface, Xuāntǒng 2 (1910), praising Liáng’s career trajectory — zhù Shànghǎi, zhù Xiānggǎng, yóulì Nányáng shíyú dǎo (residencies in Shanghai and Hong Kong, travels across more than ten islands of the Nányáng / Southeast Asia), and his eventual settlement in Shàntóu, where he served at the Tóngjì 同濟 and Yánshòu 延壽 hospitals and at the local jiǎnchá yànbìngsuǒ 檢查驗病所 (disease-inspection bureau). (2) Zhāng Hénggāo 張衡皋 (of Jiāyìng 嘉應), holder of the xiàolián 孝廉 degree, dated Xuāntǒng 1 (1909), records that Liáng was a hán rú 寒儒 (poor scholar) with the will to be both liáng xiàng 良相 and liáng yī 良醫. (3) Liáng’s self-preface (Xuāntǒng 1 zhòngqiū zhī yuè / autumn 1909) insists that the diǎnyào fǎ was a personally purchased mìfāng 秘方 from the unnamed Dewa hermit-physician, refined by Liáng over decades.
The work proper rejects the orthodox 十二經絡 / 二十四 / 三十六症 nomenclatures for luǒlì as scholastic, and reduces the disease to two axes: rètán 熱痰 vs hántán 寒痰; shí 實 vs xū 虛. Liáng distinguishes fifteen clinical types: qì lì 氣癧, xuè lì 血癧, yīnhuǒ lì 陰火癧, wúmíng lì 無名癧, lǎoshǔ lì 老鼠癧, tóngzǐ lì 童子癧, cuīmìng lì 催命癧, juémìng lì 絕命癧, fēnghuǒ lì 風火癧, zhēnyuán xūsǔn lì 真元虛損癧, shānggān lì 傷肝癧, tóufēng lì 頭風癧, shāngfèi lì 傷肺癧, wánhé lì 頑核癧, and huāliǔ lì 花柳癧 — each with internal and external (point-application) treatment, supplemented by diet lists (yí shí 宜食 / jì shí 忌食) and detailed instructions for preparing the caustic point-medicine from xīnchuāng huī 新窗灰 (fresh slaked window-lime) + chún jiǎn 純鹼 (sodium carbonate) + zhūshā 硃砂 + gāoliáng shāojiǔ 高粱燒酒.
The work polemicises against both Chinese yòng dān diào hé 用丹吊核 (caustic-pellet-extraction methods) and Western pōu gē 剖割 (surgical excision), arguing that the diǎnyào fǎ is a clinically superior third path. Liáng Xīzēng is not in CBDB; his lifedates and full biography are not documented.
Translations and research
- Full text at jicheng.tw.
- Some discussion in PRC Chinese-medicine history surveys of luǒ-lì treatment.
- No substantial Western-language secondary literature located.
Other points of interest
The work is a rare turn-of-the-20th-century specialist text written from Shàntóu — a treaty-port city — and explicitly shaped by the author’s overseas-Chinese diaspora experience in Singapore, Hong Kong, and the Nányáng. The anti-Western-surgery polemic combined with a chemical-caustic alternative is an unusual hybrid clinical-political position; the work is an important document for the medical-modernity transition.