Yīxué qióngyuán jí 醫學窮源集
A Collection Tracing the Sources of Medical Learning by 王肯堂 Wáng Kěntáng (Niànxī lǎorén 念西老人, Yùtài 宇泰, 1549–1613) — with editorial commentary (ji-shì 輯釋) by his pupil 殷宅心 Yīn Zháixīn (Lújiāng 廬江, fl. 1611–1628) and a Qīng-era 1808 (Jiāqìng 13) republication preface by 湯世質 Tāng Shìzhì (the Yúncháo lǎorén 雲巢老人).
About the work
A six-juǎn compilation in two layers: the first two juǎn are Wáng Kěntáng’s own Chǐmùlóu túshuō 尺木樓圖說 (Diagrams-and-Discussion from the Foot-Tall Tree Pavilion) — a systematic exposition of the yùnqì 運氣 (movement-and-qì cosmological doctrine) integrating the Yuánhuì yùnshì 元會運世 and Sānyuán yùnqì 三元運氣 frameworks — recorded by Wáng’s pupil Yīn Zháixīn after 1611 (the xīnhài 辛亥 year in which Yīn first met Wáng at the Hánjiāng 邗江 / Yángzhōu travelling clinic). The last four juǎn are Wáng’s záàn 雜案 (miscellaneous case-records) from his Huáihǎi 淮海 (Yángzhōu region) period of practice, selected and explained by Yīn. The work is doctrinally important as the principal late-Míng exposition of the medical yùnqì doctrine — the SòngYuán cosmological framework that Wáng deployed to adjudicate between the JīnYuán Four Masters’ partisan positions. Wáng’s argument is that the apparent contradictions between 劉完素 Liú Héjiān (cold-and-cooling), 張從正 Zhāng Cóngzhèng (sweat-vomit-purge), 李杲 Lǐ Gǎo (warming-tonifying), and 朱震亨 Zhū Dānxī (yīn-supplementing) reflect not doctrinal incompatibility but the yùnqì variability of disease patterns across decades — different epochs of yùnqì call for different therapeutic regimes, and the wise clinician selects from the JīnYuán inheritance according to the cosmological reading of the present epoch.
Prefaces
The jicheng.tw text opens with three principal paratexts: 湯世質 Tāng Shìzhì (hào Yúncháo lǎorén 雲巢老人 of Nánshuǐ 難水) republication preface signed Jiāqìng shísān nián suìcì wùchén jìqiū zhōnghuàn Nánshuǐ Yúncháo lǎorén Tāng Shìzhì shū yú Yùmíng cǎotáng 嘉慶十三年歲次戊辰季秋中浣難水云巢老人湯世質書於玉茗草堂 — i.e. autumn 1808 — recording Tāng’s discovery of the work through the Lújiāng physician 殷合宗 Yīn Hézōng (Yīn Zháixīn’s descendant) at a Nánchāng inn, his purchase of the manuscript, and his decision to print the work after a decade of further editorial review; followed by Wáng Kěntáng’s own yuánxù 原敘 (original preface) signed Tiānqǐ sānnián suìcì guǐhài liùyuè zhōnghuàn Jīntán Niànxī lǎorén Wáng Kěntáng Yǔtài shū 天啟三年歲次癸亥六月中浣金壇念西老人王肯堂宇泰書 = sixth month of Tiānqǐ 3 = 1623 (a posthumous date: Wáng died 1613; this is most likely a Yīn-side ascription of the original preface to Wáng’s own pen at a date when the manuscript was being prepared, or a zhuīyì 追憶 reconstruction); and Yīn Zháixīn’s bá 跋 postface signed Chóngzhēn yuánnián suìcì wùchén mèngchūn shànghuàn Lújiāng Yīn Zháixīn bá 崇禎元年歲次戊辰孟春上浣廬江殷宅心跋 = first month of Chóngzhēn 1 = 1628 — Yīn’s account of his discipular relationship with Wáng from 1611 onward.
Abstract
The work has a complex composition history: Wáng Kěntáng’s Chǐmùlóu túshuō original text dates from his late-life Yángzhōu practice (post-1611), and the case-records from his Huáihǎi practice; Yīn Zháixīn’s editorial commentary and final compilation in Chóngzhēn yuánnián 1628; Tāng Shìzhì’s republication preface and editorial cut in 1808. The composition window 1611–1808 reflects this layered history. The internal yuánxù dated 1623 is likely a posthumous ascription. The work is methodologically interesting as the principal late-Míng yùnqì-doctrine medical work and as an indirect transmission of Wáng Kěntáng’s mature clinical thinking through Yīn’s editorial recension and Tāng’s Qīng-era republication. CBDB records Wáng Kěntáng. Yīn Zháixīn and Tāng Shìzhì are not in CBDB.
Translations and research
No substantial European-language translation of the Yīxué qióngyuán jí located. For Wáng Kěntáng’s broader corpus see Joanna Grant 2003. The medical yùnqì doctrine is treated in Catherine Despeux, “The System of the Five Circulatory Phases and the Six Seasonal Influences (wuyun liuqi): A Source of Innovation in Medicine under the Song”, in Elisabeth Hsu (ed.), Innovation in Chinese Medicine (Cambridge, 2001).
Links
- Wáng Kěntáng — see person note 王肯堂.
- Yīn Zháixīn — see person note 殷宅心.
- Kanseki DB
- 醫學窮源集 (jicheng.tw)