Chén Xīntián wàikē fāngàn 陳莘田外科方案
Surgical Case-and-Prescription Records of Chén Xīntián by 陳莘田 Chén Xīntián 陳莘田 (mid-to-late Qīng Sūzhōu surgeon).
About the work
A six-juǎn wàikē 外科 (external-medicine / surgical) casebook of the mid-to-late Qīng Sūzhōu surgical specialist Chén Xīntián. The opening of the hxwd _000.txt is a long mnemonic-verse compendium of wàikē prescriptions (Wàikē bèiyòng zhūfāng 外科備用諸方 — “all the prescriptions for surgical use”) in seven-syllable rhyming couplets — a standard Qīng pedagogical format for committing prescription compositions to memory. The first prescription is Zhēnrén huómìng yǐn 真人活命飲 — the foundational late-Míng / Qīng surgical formula for yōngjū 癰疽 (abscesses and carbuncles) — with the mnemonic: “Zhēnrén huómìng yòng yínhuā, Fángbái guī chén cǎojié jiā, bèimǔ tiānhuā jiā jiān rǔmò, chuānshān jiǎocì jiǔ jiān jiā” (Real-person life-saving uses jīnyínhuā; add fángfēng, báizhǐ, dāngguī, chénpí, gāncǎo jié; bèimǔ, tiānhuā fěn added with rǔxiāng and mòyào; chuānshānjiǎ, zàojiǎo cì, wine-decocted, excellent). The verse-mnemonic format extends through more than thirty prescriptions covering the entire Qīng wàikē repertoire.
Prefaces
The hxwd _000.txt opens directly with the Wàikē bèiyòng zhūfāng mnemonic-verse compendium; no standalone preface precedes it. No formal preface in _000.txt.
Abstract
Chén Xīntián 陳莘田 — mid-to-late Qīng Sūzhōu surgeon, conventionally dated to the early-to-mid nineteenth century (Dàoguāng / Xiánfēng era). Biographical data are thin; he is treated in modern Chinese surveys as one of the principal Sūzhōu wàikē practitioners of his generation. CBDB has no entry. The composition window 1820–1880 reflects his conventional floruit.
The work is one of several mid-to-late Qīng Sūzhōu surgical casebooks — a regional specialism of the Sūzhōu medical tradition that descends from Chén Shígōng’s 陳實功 Míng-period Wàikē zhèngzōng 外科正宗 (1617) and from the Qiánlóng-era imperially-commissioned Wàikē xīnfǎ yàojué 外科心法要訣 of the Yīzōng jīnjiàn 醫宗金鑑. The verse-mnemonic compendium at the head of the work is a pedagogical companion to the cases proper, allowing students to commit the standard formulas to memory.
Translations and research
No substantial European-language secondary literature located. For the broader Qīng surgical tradition see the modern Chinese surveys (e.g. Zhū Wénfēng 朱文鋒 et al., Wài-kē-xué shǐ 外科學史).
Links
- Compare other Qīng surgical casebooks in this division: KR3ep015 Mǎ Péizhī yīàn (Ménghé surgical specialist), KR3ep043 Yángkē zhǐnán yīàn.
- Kanseki DB
- 陳莘田外科方案