Yuàntǐ yīhuà 願體醫話
Medical Conversations of the Body-Aiding [Hall] by 史典 Shǐ Diǎn (zì Jìnchén 搢臣, fl. mid-Qīng, late Qiánlóng — Jiāqìng period), with parallels-and-supplements by 俞世貴 Yú Shìguì (zì Guìtíng 桂庭) and final editorial-printing supervision by 王士雄 Wáng Shìxióng (1808–1868, the great late-Qīng Wēnbìng-school physician).
About the work
A one-juǎn clinical-practical compendium of emergency rescue and short-cut clinical methods by Shǐ Jìnchén — preserving the kind of bedside-clinical material that the canonical Zhǒuhòu fāng 肘後方 and Jīfēng 雞峰 traditions had specialized in but that, the editorial preface notes, late-Qīng physicians had ceased to practise. The work passed through three hands: (1) Shǐ’s original composition; (2) Yú Shìguì’s elimination of one questionable yīnzhèng entry and addition of supplementary formulas; (3) Wáng Shìxióng’s editorial-printing supervision twenty years after Yú’s death. Wáng’s preface explicitly compares the work’s bedside-clinical utility to that of his own Zhǒngfútáng xuǎnfāng 種福堂選方 and Yǎngshēng jīngyàn 養生經驗 (the two canonical late-Qīng household-clinical texts).
Prefaces
The hxwd _000.txt opens with Wáng Shìxióng’s editorial preface (1853 or shortly after), recording the transmission history: Wáng’s maternal uncle Yú Guìtíng (俞桂庭, the cānbǔ compiler) had kept the manuscript for twenty years after Yú’s death; Wáng later acquired the original yuángǎo 原稿 from Xǔ Lǐngsān 許領三 (i.e. the full text without Yú’s edits), and at this point recognized that Yú had performed substantial editorial work — eliminating one yīnzhèng entry and adding supplementary formulary material. The preface dates the final compilation to Wáng’s guǐmǎo (1843) and gēngxū (1850) editorial work.
Abstract
Shǐ Diǎn 史典 (Jìnchén), mid-Qīng physician of the late Qiánlóng — Jiāqìng period, was the original author of the bedside-clinical material that makes up the Yuàntǐ yīhuà. Yú Shìguì 俞世貴 (Guìtíng), Wáng Shìxióng’s maternal uncle, performed substantial editorial work in the early-to-mid Dàoguāng period. Wáng Shìxióng 王士雄 (1808–1868) — already represented in the present division by KR3eq009 Huíchūn lù and KR3eq021 Guīyàn lù — supervised the final printing in the early Xiánfēng period (1853 or shortly after). The composition window 1820–1853 reflects this multi-hand transmission. The work entered Chinese circulation via the late-Qīng / Republican Hǎiwài huíliú zhōngyī gǔjí (hxwd) repatriation programme.
Historiographical significance: the Yuàntǐ yīhuà is one of the most useful single texts for studying mid-to-late-Qīng emergency-rescue and household-clinical literature — the genre that occupied the practical gap between the formal SòngYuán formulary tradition (e.g. Zhǒuhòu fāng, Jīfēng) and the high-doctrinal Wēnbìng-school. The text’s three-hand transmission (Shǐ → Yú → Wáng) is also useful for studying mid-Qīng manuscript-revision practices. None of the three principals is in CBDB.
Translations and research
No substantial European-language translation of Yuàn-tǐ yī-huà located. For Wáng Shì-xióng and his late-Qīng Wēn-bìng-school medical practice see Marta Hanson, Speaking of Epidemics in Chinese Medicine (Routledge, 2011); for the broader mid-Qīng emergency-clinical literature see Bridie Andrews, The Making of Modern Chinese Medicine 1850–1960 (UBC, 2014).