Yī jìng 醫鏡
The Medical Mirror by 王肯堂 Wáng Kěntáng (zì Yǔtài 宇泰, 1549–1613) — collated and edited by 蔣儀 Jiǎng Yí (zì Yíyòng 儀用), Wáng’s late-Míng / Chóng-zhēn-era pupil-collator of Jiànān 建安 (Fújiàn).
About the work
A four-juǎn late-Míng / Chóng-zhēn-era recension of Wáng Kěntáng’s clinical-theoretical doctrine — Jiǎng Yí’s editorial selection from Wáng’s Zhèngzhì zhǔnshéng KR3e0078 (1597–1607) and other late-Míng materials, prepared for practical clinical use. The title’s jìng 鏡 (“mirror”) metaphor, developed in the front-matter preface, treats the work as a clinical mirror in which the practitioner can reflect on diagnostic-and-prescription practice with the precision of the Hàn-era polished bronze mirror — an analogy to the Yīzōng 醫宗 tradition (medicine-as-classical-canon) with which Wáng’s Zhèngzhì zhǔnshéng is generally associated. Jiǎng Yí’s editorial decisions concentrate on (a) the systematic typology of zhèng 症 (disease-syndromes), (b) the corresponding fāngyào 方藥 (prescription-and-drug) responses, (c) a careful exclusion of the more discursive doctrinal material from Wáng’s larger encyclopaedia in favour of focused clinical-practical content.
Prefaces
The jicheng.tw text opens with a preface by 柯元芳 Kē Yuánfāng (zì Chǔhéng 楚蘅), dated HuángMíng Chóngzhēn xīnsì yángyuè 皇明崇禎辛巳陽月 = tenth month of Chóngzhēn 14 = November 1641, signed at the Jiànān 建安 (Fújiàn) prefectural seat where Kē was serving as a magistrate. Kē’s preface develops the Yījìng title-metaphor, framing the work as a jiànyú yīyuàn 鑑於醫苑 (“mirror in the garden of medicine”) that the practising clinician can consult. The 1641 date — at the very close of the Míng dynasty — makes the work one of the last late-Míng editorial-medical productions before the dynastic collapse.
Abstract
The Yī jìng is a posthumous editorial selection from Wáng Kěntáng’s clinical-theoretical corpus (Wáng died 1613), prepared by Jiǎng Yí under the patronage of Kē Yuánfāng at Jiànān in 1641. The composition window 1597–1641 reflects (a) the earliest possible date — the publication of the first parts of Zhèngzhì zhǔnshéng in 1597 — and (b) the 1641 JiǎngKē editorial cut. The work is methodologically interesting as a late-Míng / Chóng-zhēn-era practical-clinical condensation of the larger Wáng Kěntáng encyclopaedia, prepared for actual bedside use rather than scholarly reference. It entered modern Chinese circulation through the jicheng.tw digitisation.
CBDB records Wáng Kěntáng at 1549–1613 — see person note 王肯堂. Jiǎng Yí and Kē Yuánfāng are not in CBDB.
Translations and research
No substantial European-language translation of the Yī jìng located. Wáng Kěntáng’s broader corpus is treated in Joanna Grant 2003 and Charlotte Furth, A Flourishing Yin (UC Berkeley, 1999).
Links
- Wáng Kěntáng (zh)
- Person note 王肯堂.
- Kanseki DB
- 醫鏡 (jicheng.tw)