Jìngxiānglóu yīàn 靜香樓醫案
Medical Case Records of the Pavilion of Quiet Fragrance by 尤怡 Yóu Yí (Zàijīng 在涇, hào Sìhè Shānrén 飼鶴山人, c. 1650–1749), of Chángzhōu 長洲 (Sūzhōu); selected by 柳寶詒 Liǔ Bǎoyí.
About the work
A two-juǎn casebook of the great mid-Qīng Shānghán-classicist Yóu Yí, recovered and edited in selected-form by 柳寶詒 Liǔ Bǎoyí (1842–1901) of Jiāngyīn from a manuscript he discovered after the Tàipíng wars in the studio of a Wújiāng colleague 詹文橋 Zhān Wénqiáo. Liǔ’s published edition retains approximately fifty percent of the manuscript cases.
Prefaces
The hxwd _000.txt carries a Liǔxù 柳序 by Liǔ Bǎoyí. The preface establishes the work’s author identity and historiographical position: Yóu Yí (字 Zàijīng 在涇, 自號 Sìhè Shānrén 飼鶴山人, of Chángzhōu 長洲) was a deep student of Shānghán / Jīnguì who “stood his own ground” 樹一幟 in the Sūzhōu medical world alongside 葉天士 Yè Tiānshì, 徐大椿 Xú Dàchūn (Língtāi), and 王子接 Wáng Zǐjiē — “shoulder-to-shoulder with them, mutually illuminating each other before and after.” His already-published works are 傷寒論貫珠集 Shānghán lùn guànzhū jí, 金匱心典 Jīnguì xīndiǎn, and 醫學讀書記 Yīxué dúshū jì. The medical case-record was “un-printed” (未經授樣 = unpublished in his lifetime); only “thirty-some cases” 三十餘條 had been printed appended to Yīxué dúshū jì. The present manuscript Liǔ obtained from his hometown’s Wú-family-archived copy after the Xiánfēng / Tóngzhì bīngshàn (Tàipíng war) — he selected approximately “five out of ten” 十之五 of the best for the published edition.
Liǔ’s preface includes a famous methodological declaration: “Modern medical learning is wasted; those of slack and shallow practice need not be discussed; but even among those who study the ancient texts and fail to understand transformation, when they invoke ‘Zhòngjǐng’s family method’ and blame the contemporary for failing to use ancient prescriptions, the truth is that ancient prescriptions and modern diseases often do not fit, and forcing the fit makes the patient die.”
Abstract
Yóu Yí 尤怡 (often given lifedates c. 1650–1749 in modern sources, though the precise dates are debated), zì Zàijīng 在涇, hào Sìhè Shānrén 飼鶴山人, native of Chángzhōu 長洲 (Sūzhōu, Jiāngsū). One of the three most important Qīng Shānghán commentators alongside 柯琴 Kē Qín and Xú Dàchūn, his 傷寒論貫珠集 Shānghán lùn guànzhū jí (KR3ee045) and 金匱心典 Jīnguì xīndiǎn (KR3eh019) are foundational mid-Qīng Shānghán / Jīnguì re-readings.
The Jìngxiānglóu (静香樓 — “Pavilion of Quiet Fragrance,” Yóu’s studio name) cases reveal an unusual feature for a Shānghán-classicist: non-doctrinaire clinical flexibility. As Liǔ notes, Yóu Yí “did not pedantically invoke ancient texts, did not slavishly use ancient prescriptions, but adjusted by syndrome, alive on the page.” This is exactly the jīngfāng / shífāng (classical-formula vs. contemporary-formula) integration that Liǔ commends.
The composition window 1690–1749 brackets Yóu Yí’s mature clinical career; Liǔ’s editorial assembly is a separate, later, recovery-edition.
Translations and research
No substantial secondary literature located in major European languages for this casebook specifically. Yóu Yí’s Jīnguì xīndiǎn is occasionally cited in the European-language sinological-medical literature.