Wáng Mèngyīng yīàn 王孟英醫案
Topically Arranged Medical Case Records of Wáng Mèngyīng by 王士雄 Wáng Shìxióng (Mèngyīng 孟英, 1808–1868); topically rearranged by 陸士諤 Lù Shìè (1878–1944), of Qīngpǔ 青浦.
About the work
A three-juǎn topically rearranged selection from the Wángshì yīàn trilogy (KR3ep083, KR3ep084, KR3ep085) plus 歸硯錄 Guīyàn lù, prepared by the Sōngjiāng / Qīngpǔ Republican-period physician and novelist Lù Shìè 陸士諤 in 1921. Lù complained that the original case-records were “edited chronologically and very inconvenient to consult,” so he rearranged them by syndrome category.
Prefaces
The hxwd _000.txt opens with two prefaces:
- Lù Shìè’s self-preface dated Mínguó shí nián wǔ yuè (May 1921), signed Qīngpǔ Lù Shìè xù yú Sōngjiāng yīshì 青浦陸士諤序於松江醫室. Lù argues that Wáng Mèngyīng’s clinical methodology drew its strength from shūjī qìhuà (樞機氣化, hinge-mechanism qi-transformation) and that his characteristic yúzhī 逾智 (transcendent-skilled) prescriptions reveal his deep study of Xiǎo Cháihú tāng and Máhuáng fùzǐ xìxīn tāng — the Shānghán lùn core that Wáng deployed under wēnbìng presentation. The preface explicitly defends Wáng against the contemporary criticism that his prescribing was “too light” (太輕) by arguing that the apparent lightness conceals deep classical-formula judgement.
- A patient-testimonial preface by an unsigned anonymous patient who had been ill for over a year with persistent left-flank pain, had been failed by both Chinese and Western physicians, and had finally been cured by Lù Shìè after travelling to Sōngjiāng.
Abstract
Lù Shìè’s reorganisation provides a syndrome-indexed access-point to the dispersed Wángshì yīàn corpus. The reorganisation makes the work usable as a topical reference — by far the most popular access-form for Wáng Mèngyīng cases in the twentieth century. The text places “外感” (exogenous-pathogen) cases at the head of each category, with wēnbìng (溫病), shīwēn (濕溫), fēngwēn (風溫), and other warm-disease subcategories receiving distinct treatment.
Lù Shìè (1878–1944), of Qīngpǔ 青浦 / Sōngjiāng 松江, was a Republican-period physician, prolific novelist, and member of the Shànghǎi medical-literary milieu; his medical activity ran in parallel with a substantial career as a popular fiction-writer.
The composition window 1830–1921 brackets Wáng Mèngyīng’s mature clinical period through Lù’s Republican-period topical rearrangement. Note: the catalog meta carries this work without an author; the de facto clinical author is Wáng Shìxióng.
Translations and research
Hinrichs and Barnes 2013, pp. 224–226.