Yángkē zhǐnán yīàn 瘍科指南醫案
Compass-Guide Medical Case Records of Suppurative Disorders by an unnamed Lètíng 樂亭 master (the source identifies him as “Lètíng Wáng tàifūzǐ” 樂亭王太夫子), transmitted through his pupil Kāng Huá 康華 and recorded by Wáng Yùzhēn 王豫貞.
About the work
A single-juǎn surgical casebook focused on yángkē 瘍科 (suppurative-disorder branch of external medicine — abscesses, carbuncles, deep-seated suppurations, fistulae) by an unnamed Lètíng 樂亭 master, transmitted through his pupil and recorded by his eldest son Wáng Yùzhēn (sometimes Wáng Yùzhēn 王豫貞). The opening of the hxwd _000.txt is a substantial preface by the pupil Kāng Huá’s lineage outlining the work’s provenance and the master’s clinical formation.
Prefaces
The hxwd _000.txt opens with a substantial preface: “The names and categories of the yángkē are extremely numerous, but their essential rubrics do not depart from the four great outlines of xū 虛 (deficient), shí 實 (replete), hán 寒 (cold), and rè 熱 (hot). Named ‘external medicine’ (wàikē 外科), it actually shares the same source as ‘internal medicine’. The book says: ‘formed within, taking shape without’ — this is the master-formula of treating external medicine. The Lètíng Wáng tàifūzǐ 樂亭王太夫子 from his youth learned the QíHuáng arts, deeply researching the Língshū and Sùwèn, taking Zhòngjǐng as his measure; only when his accomplishment in internal medicine was complete did he also undertake yángkē. Therefore the tàifūzǐ’s treatment of external symptoms is unlike the vague utterances of common medical talk. For duìkǒu 對口 [boil at nape], fābèi 發背 [carbuncle on the back], dīngdú 疔毒 [furuncle-toxin], liúzhù 流注 [travelling abscess] and the other great syndromes, when all the doctors hold up their hands without resource, the tàifūzǐ is uniquely able to penetrate to their source, treat step by step, and turn the wheel of creation; therefore the yìshèng 邑乘 [local gazetteer] has recorded him in the yīshù 醫術 (medical arts) section. There is no need to repeat the loftiness of his learning. This àn 按 [casebook] is from the tàifūzǐ’s direct clinical practice, handed on to his pupil my Kāng Huá yèshī 業師 [teacher Kāng Huá]; this is what his eldest son Yùzhēn 豫貞 has recorded and preserved. I have written a brief preface as to the origins, so that we do not forget the kindness of nurture from our teacher Master Huá. Guāngxù 26 [1900], gēngzǐ year [庚子].”
This dates the editorial frame to 1900, with the underlying master active in the generation before (mid-to-late nineteenth century).
Abstract
The Lètíng Wáng tàifūzǐ 樂亭王太夫子 is the principal clinical authority behind the work. Lètíng 樂亭 is a place name in northeast Zhílì (Héběi) — though the location of “Lètíng” here may be a different place of the same name in the Jiāngnán region; the catalog meta provides no further authorial information. The work was transmitted through the chain master → Kāng Huá → Wáng Yùzhēn → preface-writer, and edited and printed in 1900 (Guāngxù 26, gēngzǐ year). The composition window 1850–1900 reflects this trajectory.
The work is one of several late-Qīng yángkē casebooks documenting the continuing development of Chinese surgical medicine in the second half of the nineteenth century — a period when European surgical techniques were beginning to challenge Chinese clinical orthodoxy through the missionary medical establishment but the indigenous tradition still maintained its dominant position in non-urban medical practice.
Translations and research
No substantial European-language secondary literature located.
Links
- Compare other late-Qīng surgical casebooks: KR3ep015 Mǎ Péizhī yīàn, KR3ep042 Chén Xīntián wàikē fāngàn.
- Kanseki DB
- 瘍科指南醫案