Huánxī cǎotáng yīàn 環溪草堂醫案
Medical Case Records of the Huánxī Thatched Hall by 王旭高 Wáng Xùgāo 王旭高 (Wáng Tàilín 王泰林, 1798–1862), of Wúxī 無錫 — the catalog meta records no author for this entry, but the title and clinical style strongly identify it as a recension of Wáng Tàilín’s clinical record, the Huánxī cǎotáng 環溪草堂 being Wáng’s consulting studio.
About the work
A three-juǎn clinical casebook named for the Huánxī cǎotáng 環溪草堂 (“Thatched Hall of the Encircling Stream”) consulting studio of Wáng Tàilín (王旭高 Wáng Xùgāo) in Wúxī. The opening of the hxwd _000.txt is on the topic Gǔzhàng — shuǐzhǒng 臌脹·水腫 (drum-distension and water-swelling — i.e. ascites and oedema), with cases of severe oedema treated with combinations of KR3ep017-reference Wú Yòukě’s 吳又可 Dáyuán yǐn 達原飲 with Gānsuì 甘遂 and Dàhuáng 大黃 — a characteristic Wáng Tàilín move drawing on the Wēnyì lùn tradition. The work is one of two casebook recensions of Wáng Tàilín’s clinical record alongside KR3ep011 Wáng Xùgāo línzhèng yīàn, with this Huánxī cǎotáng recension differing in editorial selection and arrangement.
Prefaces
The hxwd _000.txt opens directly with a Gǔzhàng / Shuǐzhǒng case: “Lián [patient surname]: water-swelling on first recovery, again afflicted by seasonal-warm perversity (時令溫邪), so the swelling has again become severe; in addition there is epigastric pain and irritability, robust heat with thick respiration, scant urine, no bowel movement — this is what Wú Yòukě calls ‘oedema recurring because of epidemic’ (因疫復腫). One must guard against the addition of panting and mental cloudiness, with critical danger then arriving in a moment. I prescribe to plan: dàn dòuchǐ 3 qián, hēi shānzhī 1.5, huā bīngláng 1.5, dàn qín 1, chuānpò 1, cǎoguǒ 3 fēn roasted, zhīmǔ 1.5, gānsuì 4 fēn flour-wrapped and roasted, zéxiè 1.5, tínglì zǐ 1.5 ground, dàhuáng 3 qián wine-soaked-strained for juice, fried.”
This is a paradigmatic late-Wáng-Tàilín case in the Wú Yòukě / wēnyì 溫疫 / drastic-discharge tradition. No formal preface in _000.txt.
Abstract
For Wáng Tàilín (王旭高) see KR3ep011; the present Huánxī cǎotáng recension is one of two main casebook recensions of his clinical material, differing in selection and arrangement from KR3ep011. The studio name Huánxī cǎotáng (“Encircling Stream Thatched Hall”) is one of two studio names Wáng used over his career (the other being Tuìsī jūshì 退思居士). The composition window 1830–1862 reflects his mature clinical decades through to his death in 1862. The casebook circulated in late-Qīng printings alongside the Línzhèng yīàn recension.
Translations and research
See KR3ep011 for general Wáng Tàilín references. Volker Scheid, Currents of Tradition (2007), discusses Wáng at length.
Links
- Parallel recension of Wáng Tàilín’s clinical material: KR3ep011 Wáng Xùgāo línzhèng yīàn.
- Kanseki DB
- 環溪草堂醫案