Hóukē xīnfǎ 喉科心法
Heart-Methods of Laryngology by 沈善兼 Shěn Shànjiān (Pān Bǎozhēn 潘葆真, Pān Chéng 潘誠).
About the work
A late-Qīng single-juǎn clinical handbook of throat-medicine (hóukē 喉科) by 潘誠 Pān Chéng (zì Bǎozhēn 葆真), a Héngyáng 衡陽 (Húnán) physician. The text systematically distinguishes yángzhèng hóubì 陽症喉痹 (yáng-pattern throat-occlusion) from yīnzhèng hóubì 陰症喉痹 (yīn-pattern throat-occlusion), criticises the prevailing reflex of treating every sore throat with bitter-cold purgatives, and recovers the older tradition (citing 張仲景 Zhāng Zhòngjǐng, 李杲 Lǐ Dōngyuán, 薛己 Xuē Lìzhāi, 舒馳遠 Shū Chíyuǎn, and 張介賓 Zhāng Jǐngyuè) of warming Shàoyīn cold-pattern throat-occlusion with Sìnìtāng 四逆湯, Lǐzhōng tāng 理中湯, and Fùzǐ tāng 附子湯. It treats the classical Qīng-era throat-disease set — chánhóufēng 纏喉風 (encircling throat-wind), zǒumǎ hóufēng 走馬喉風 (galloping throat-wind), jǐnhóufēng 緊喉風, yǎzhàng 啞瘴, nòngshé 弄舌, dàtóu wēn 大頭瘟, dāné 單蛾 / shuāngé 雙蛾 (single/double moth = tonsillitis), hóudīng 喉疔, suǒhóu dú 鎖喉毒, shàngè yōng 上齶癰, hóuliú 喉瘤, hóuchuāng 喉瘡, méihé qì 梅核氣, plus paediatric, obstetric, and post-partum throat-disorders — with a closing pharmacopoeia of internal decoctions and external mòyào 末藥 (insufflation powders).
Prefaces
The work survives in a reprint at the Shùdé táng 樹德堂 in Yángzhōu 揚州 organised in 1878 (光緒四年戊寅) by an editor signing as 浣月居士 Wǎnyuè jūshì of Héngyáng. He reports that the Hóukē xīnfǎ of “Mister Pān Bǎozhēn 潘葆真先生” had been printed at the request of the late 林端甫 Lín Duānfǔ, then yìhóu 邑侯 (magistrate) of Héngyáng, on the occasion of an epidemic hóufēng outbreak in that prefecture, and had proved life-saving in many cases; concerned that the work was not yet circulating widely, the Wǎnyuè jūshì and like-minded friends pooled funds to reissue it. The author’s own colophon (bá 跋), dated Dàoguāng 27 (1847, 道光二十七年歲次丁未), is signed Pān Chéng Bǎozhēn shì 潘誠葆真氏 and discusses the 1846 (道光丙午, Dàoguāng 26) drought-induced huǒshèng kèjīn 火勝剋金 throat-epidemic in his region that prompted him to write up his observations against the prevailing dogma that throat-disease must never be treated with sudoresis. The author thus identifies himself as Pān Chéng 潘誠, zì Bǎozhēn 葆真.
Abstract
Bibliographic identity: the author’s preface signs Pān Chéng Bǎozhēn 潘誠葆真 of unspecified provenance but plainly active in the Húnán–Húběi region (the Dàoguāng bǐngwǔ throat-epidemic of 1846 forms his case-history corpus). The catalog metadata gives the author as 沈善兼 Shěn Shànjiān, which appears to be an editorial error (or a different attribution-tradition); no internal evidence in the text supports the Shěn attribution, and the colophon is unambiguously by 潘誠 Pān Chéng. The Shěn attribution is followed here in the frontmatter to match the catalog, but the substantive author is Pān Chéng; a person note has been written for Shěn Shànjiān with an explicit cross-link to a note for Pān Chéng until the discrepancy can be resolved. CBDB has no entry for either name.
Date: the author’s colophon is dated 1847 (the Dàoguāng dīngwèi year); the editor’s republication preface is dated 1878 (Guāngxù wùyín). The composition window for the received text is therefore 1847–1878. The work is best dated by the colophon to 1847.
The clinical doctrine of the work is that throat-disease has been historically over-treated with kǔhán 苦寒 (bitter-cold) attacking medicines, leading to shāngyáng (yáng-injury) and iatrogenic deaths. The author’s signature programmatic statement (in the bá): “kǔhán shārén, shí kěwèi yě” 苦寒殺人，實可畏也 (“bitter-cold kills people, truly to be feared”). He insists on (i) early use of biǎosàn (surface-discharging) formulas such as Jīngfáng bàidú sǎn 荊防敗毒散 for surface-bound throat-wind, against the prevailing dogma that throat-disease must not be sudorific; (ii) tonifying qì-vacuity and yīn-vacuity throat-pain with Bǔzhōng yìqì tāng 補中益氣湯 (following 薛己 Xuē Jǐ) and Liùwèi dìhuáng wán 六味地黃丸; and (iii) warming Shàoyīn cold-pattern throat-occlusion with Sìnì tāng and Fùzǐ tāng. The pharmacopoeia at the end is substantial, including the signature insufflation powders Yùzhūdān 玉珠丹, Pánzhūdān 磐珠丹, Qībǎo sǎn 七寶散, Dúxíng sǎn 獨行散, Jiàngxuě sǎn 絳雪散, Báixuě sǎn 白雪散, Jīn-yào-shi 金鑰匙, and Kāiguān sǎn 開關散.
The book is one of the better organised provincial Qīng laryngology manuals, distinguished by its principled reaction against the late-Qīng “everything is fire” school and its willingness to use fùzǐ-warming drugs for cold-pattern throat-disease.
Translations and research
No substantial Western-language secondary literature located.
For the broader Qīng hóukē genre (the school of 鄭宏綱 Zhèng Méijiàn, 張宗良 Zhāng Zōngliáng, and the Báihóu 白喉 specialists) see Bridie Andrews in Hinrichs and Barnes (eds.), Chinese Medicine and Healing: An Illustrated History (Harvard, 2013), and the regional Qīng-throat compilations in the Hǎiwài huíliú zhōngyī shànběn gǔjí cóngshū collection.