Àiyuèlú yīàn 愛月廬醫案
Medical Case Records of the Moon-Loving Cottage anonymous (the catalog meta records no author); studio name Àiyuèlú 愛月廬 (“Moon-Loving Cottage”).
About the work
A single-juǎn anonymous casebook named for the Àiyuèlú 愛月廬 (“Moon-Loving Cottage”) consulting studio of an unnamed late-Qīng physician. The opening of the hxwd _000.txt is a paradigmatic hóufēng 喉風 (throat-wind / quinsy / acute pharyngitis with stridor) case in mature mid-to-late-nineteenth-century parallel-prose style — an unusual choice for a casebook opening and a sign that the editor (or the physician himself) considered the hóufēng case representative of the consulting style.
Prefaces
The hxwd _000.txt opens directly with the Hóufēng (案 1) case in elegant parallel prose: “Zhì běn yīn xū, hánrú shǎo shàng chéng zhī yòng (the constitution is yīn-deficient, with limited use of moistening to bear-upward); gǎn yóu qiūzào, qīngsù shī xiàjiàng zhī quán (the affection is from autumn-dryness, with the clearing-and-purifying function losing its descent-power). Xié shí zhèng xū, kǒng yù shāng ér yù sǔn (perversity replete and orthopaedic deficient, one fears that it will further injure and further damage); yīn xū yáng wàng, bì huà huǒ ér huà tán (yīn-deficient and yáng-prosperous, the necessary result is transformation into fire and into phlegm). The wind takes advantage of fire’s force and is therefore extended; phlegm by fire’s steaming and so is upwardly disturbed; gathering and binding in the lungs and stomach channels, it brews into the symptoms of throat-wind. The body suddenly cold and suddenly hot — the fire-force is owl-extended; the throat suddenly obstructed and suddenly painful — the toxic perversity bee-rises. Upwardly blocking the gate of respiration, I fear the supply of grain does not reach; internally obstructing the path of food and drink, I worry that gēng and guǐ will call repeatedly. Phlegm scrapes, qì invades — the opening-and-discharging of celestial qì has lost its office; urine difficult and stools difficult — the through-regulating of the earth-way has lost its post. Fire burns and earth dries; mouth thirsts as it drinks. Fire prosperous and water lacks; teeth scorched or dirtied…”
This is a fine specimen of late-Qīng pseudo-medical-belle-lettres clinical writing — the prose form is more important than the practical specifics.
Abstract
The Àiyuèlú yīàn is anonymously transmitted; the catalog meta records no author, and biographical data are absent. The clinical idiom — qiūzào 秋燥, hóufēng 喉風 in elegant parallel-prose presentation, yīnxū yángwàng 陰虛陽旺 reasoning — places the unnamed physician firmly in the late-Qīng Jiāngnán warm-disease tradition, probably in the second half of the nineteenth century. The composition window 1850–1900 reflects this conventional placement.
The work is interesting principally as a specimen of the late-Qīng piānwén yīàn 駢文醫案 (parallel-prose casebook) form — a literary genre in which medical cases are presented in elegant balanced phrasing for literati appreciation rather than for clinical replication.
Translations and research
No substantial European-language secondary literature located.
Links
- Compare other late-Qīng parallel-prose casebook prefaces in this division: KR3ep029, KR3ep030.
- Kanseki DB
- 愛月廬醫案