Tuìān yīàn 退庵醫案
Medical Case Records of the Retirement Studio by 凌淦 Líng Gàn (1833–1895), zì Zhòngqīng 仲清, hào Lìshēng 礪生 / Tuìān 退庵; transcribed by 沈陳麟 Shěn Chénlín (Nángyǐn dàorén 囊隱道人).
About the work
A single-juǎn casebook of the late-Qīng Wújiāng 吳江 (Jiāngsū) physician Líng Gàn, transcribed in Guāngxù 22 (1896) by his colleague Shěn Chénlín (“Hidden-Bag Daoist”) from manuscript materials kept on Shěn’s desk. Líng Gàn was simultaneously a juren-degree scholar — Xiánfēng jǐwèi (1859) provincial graduate — civil official (hòuxuǎn nèibù zhèngláng 候選內部正郎), and accomplished physician, an unusually scholarly combination.
Prefaces
The 漢學文典 _000.txt opens with two layered prefaces both dated Bǐngshēn (Guāngxù 22, 1896) by Shěn Chénlín (Nángyǐn dàorén 囊隱道人 of his Zhěnshízhāi 枕石齋 studio). Shěn explains that he had earlier transcribed ten volumes of case-records of Líng’s teacher 李齡壽 Lǐ Língshòu (字 Xīntuó 辛坨, of Yánzézhèn 盛澤鎮 in Wújiāng), and recovered this single-juǎn fragment of Líng’s own cases on rebinding. A second editorial note by 巢今 Cháo Jīn confirms that Líng was Cháo’s “second jǔrén” relative, a Wújiāng colleague, and that Líng acquired his medical learning from Lǐ Xīntuó plus the clan elder 李嘉六 Lǐ Jiāliù.
Abstract
Líng Gàn 凌淦 (CBDB 87718, 1833–1895), of Xīntǎzhèn 莘塔鎮 in Wújiāng 吳江 (Jiāngsū), was a Xiánfēng jǐwèi (1859) jǔrén and candidate for nèibù zhèngláng 內部正郎 (Ministry of the Interior). Tuìān 退庵 was his late-life hào. Although a degree-holding gentry-official, he is principally remembered as a competent physician of the Wújiāng / Sūzhōu Sìjiā 四家 / Yè-school lineage, working in succession from his teachers Lǐ Língshòu and Lǐ Jiāliù.
The fragmentary surviving casebook (only one juǎn) opens with a wind-rash 風疹 case (徐, 30 歲, 春元錢莊). The text is brief but carefully observed and reflects a measured Yè-school doctrinal orientation.
Note: 沈金鰲 Shěn Jīnáo (1717–1776) also used the hào Tuìān 退庵, but his casebook is not the present work; the present Tuìān yīàn is unambiguously Líng Gàn’s per Shěn Chénlín’s preface.
Translations and research
No substantial secondary literature located.
Links
- CBDB 87718 (Líng Gàn).
- Kanseki DB
- 退庵醫案