Méilì xīnshū 黴癘新書
A New Book on Syphilis and Leprosy (Japanese: Bairai shinsho) by 片倉元周 (Katakura Genshū / Kakuryō, Sino-Japanese reading Piàncāng Yuánzhōu, 1751–1822, 江戶) — Edo-period Japanese physician.
About the work
A bipartite specialist Edo wàikē monograph — one half on lì 癘 (leprosy / numbing wind) and one half on méi chuāng 黴瘡 (the disease later classified as syphilis) — completed in Tenmei 6 (1786) and printed under prefaces dated Tenmei 7 (1787). The catalog title preserves both characters in sequence. Katakura was a long-time pupil of the Tanba 丹波 medical lineage (his teachers were Taki Mototane and his father), and the present work is perhaps the most influential Edo-period Sino-Japanese monograph on syphilis and leprosy treatment, transmitted back to China in the early 19th century and explicitly cited by Western missionary-doctors. Particularly notable for incorporating three Dutch (lán 蘭) surgical plaster recipes transmitted to Katakura via an unnamed teacher at Seikendō in 1784.
Abstract
Three prefaces frame the work: (a) Taki Genkan 丹波元簡 (Tanba no Mototane) preface (Tenmei 7) introducing Katakura as a long-time pupil of his father and praising his obstetric and surgical accomplishments; the preface describes how Katakura obtained the mìfāng of an old physician who treated lì by purging worms and removing yūxuè 瘀血 with fán zhēn 燔針 (heated needle), and how Katakura tested it widely on tours through Settsu / Ise / Kii. Taki cites the Sòng anecdote of Qián Zǐfēi 錢子飛 (who feared tiān nù “heavenly wrath” for spreading a leprosy cure) and Sū Shì 蘇軾’s reply pledging to bear divine punishment himself — Katakura is praised for likewise sharing the cure publicly. (b) Katakura’s own preface (Tenmei 7 dīngwèi làyuè) defends the title xīnshū 新書 — invoking the principle that “ritual is not bound by ritual” (the Confucian classics on abrogating xiānglǐ 饗禮): if gǔ fǎ 古法 (ancient method) is inadequate, the present author must legislate anew, since lìfēng 癘風 is treated only obscurely in the Sùwèn. (c) Self-preface (Tenmei 6, 1786) recounting his three generations of family medical practice, twenty years of work on méi chuāng and lìfēng, and his purchase of a Dewa hermit-doctor’s secret method.
The lì (leprosy) section comprises 24 jǔ 舉 (24 theoretical sections) treating the distinction of qīng zhèng / zhòng zhèng 輕證 / 重證 (light versus severe cases), the use of fán zhēn / shāo zhēn 燔針 / 燒針 (red-hot needle to draw out dead blood), preparation of dropping-light by camphor flame (zhāngnǎo 樟腦) to read subcutaneous yūxuè distribution, and three sequential Shénxiào sǎn 神效散 (Shinkō-san) purge powders administered over seven nights.
The méi chuāng (syphilis) section systematises the disease’s many synonyms (lists 50+ names), distinguishes méi chuāng / xià gān 下疳 / biàndú 便毒 / jiédú 結毒, and gives ranked formulae including lóngdǎn xiègān tāng 龍膽瀉肝湯, jiāwèi jiědú tāng 加味解毒湯, hónghuā sànyū tāng 紅花散瘀湯, qīngróng tāng 清榮湯, qībǎo sǎn 七寶散, jiāwèi huàdú dān 加味化毒丹, báishé wán 白蛇丸, jíliáng wán 集良丸, liǎnglún sǎn 兩輪散. Critically, the work incorporates three Dutch (lán) surgical plaster recipes under transliterated names: Báibì gāo 白璧膏 (干膚刺 = Diachylon), Cāngyù gāo 蒼玉膏 (遏僕斯 = ophthalmic?), Xùyù gāo 煦育膏 (跋日慄 = Basilicum), explicitly attributed to a Hewitt / Heister / Schultz tradition transmitted to Katakura by an unnamed teacher in Tenmei 4 / 1784 while Katakura was teaching obstetrics at the Seikendō 成顯堂.
The composition is dated by the self-preface in the body to Tenmei 6, 1786, and the publication-front-matter prefaces to Tenmei 7, 1787 — with a small chronological inconsistency between the Tenmei 7 wùshēn (a printer’s slip — Tenmei 7 was dīngwèi; wùshēn = Tenmei 8) and the body. The composition-1786 / publication-1787 chronology is adopted here.
Translations and research
- Leung, Angela Ki Che. Leprosy in China: A History. New York: Columbia University Press, 2009 (esp. ch. 4) — discusses Katakura prominently as the Edo Japanese vector by which Chén Sī-chéng’s Méi-chuāng mì-lù 黴瘡秘錄 (1632) doctrine on contagion entered late-Qīng Chinese medical thought.
- 富士川游 Nihon igakushi 日本醫學史 (1904, repr. 1979).
- Modern Japanese translations in Kōkan igaku sōsho 皇漢醫學叢書.
Other points of interest
The work is the principal Edo bridge for the transfer of méichuāng contagion theory from Chén Sīchéng’s Méichuāng mìlù (1632) into late-Qīng Chinese practice — discussed in Hinrichs and Barnes 2013, p. 156 (citing Leung 2009). The shāo zhēn / fán zhēn (red-hot needle) method on leprosy is the first sustained published manual for that technique.
Links
- (no stable URL beyond Japanese kanpō archives)
- Kanseki DB
- 黴癘新書