Gǔjīn yītǒng dàquán 古今醫統大全
The Great Comprehensive Compendium of the Medical Tradition, Ancient and Modern by 徐春甫 Xú Chūnfǔ (zì Rǔyuán 汝元, hào Dōnggāo 東皋, c. 1520 – c. 1596).
About the work
A hundred-juǎn encyclopaedic compendium of Chinese medical doctrine — by far the most ambitious mid-Míng synthetic medical work and one of the foundational Wàn-lì-era medical encyclopaedias. The work covers in order: medical-historical biography (the lineage of HuángQí, Biǎnquè, Cāng Gōng, Zhāng Zhòngjǐng, and the post-Hàn major physicians); foundational Nèijīng doctrine (wǔyùn liùqì, yīnyáng and wǔxíng, zàngfǔ jīngluò); diagnostic methods (pulse, colour, voice, inquiry); and a comprehensive internal-medicine, gynaecology, pediatrics, ophthalmology, otolaryngology, dermatology, and external-medicine clinical section. The work is the principal mid-Míng instrument by which the developing Jīn–Yuán synthesis and the late-Sòng / early-Míng Yìshuǐ doctrine were carried forward into a single integrated framework, and it served as a major source for Lǐ Shízhēn’s KR3jb0072 Běncǎo gāngmù (1593), the KR3eq044 Zhèngzhì zhǔnshéng of Wáng Kěntáng 王肯堂 (1602), and the Yīzōng jīnjiàn 醫宗金鑑 (1742).
Prefaces
The hxwd _000.txt opens with a preface comparing the physician to “the sīmìng 司命 (commander of fate)” of the body — to be ranked with the ruler (sīmìng of the empire) and the general (sīmìng of the army). The preface frames Xú Chūnfǔ as having spent thirty years on the work, having “treated tens of thousands of patients”, and produces the work in the spirit of “Confucius gathering the great sage tradition” and “Zhū Xī gathering the great Confucian tradition” — Xú’s Yītǒng is therefore framed as the medical jí dàchéng 集大成 (great-synthesis) of the tradition. The preface is signed by an imperial-commissary official of the Cǎoyùn (transport bureau, Huái region) — the full official titulary truncates in the source.
Abstract
Xú Chūnfǔ was a Hīzhōu Qímén 祁門 physician active in Běijīng for much of his career; he served at the Tàiyī yuàn 太醫院 (Imperial Academy of Medicine) and founded the Yīlín yīshè 一體一社 / 醫林醫社 (Medical-Forest Medical Society), the first formal medical-professional organisation in China (1568). His other principal work is the Jīngluò qìtǒng tújiě 經絡氣統圖解 (KR3eb046). The Gǔjīn yītǒng was completed in Jiājìng 35 (1556) and was first printed in the Wànlì era; the dating follows the modern Chinese-medicine consensus and the Sìkù quánshū 四庫全書 catalog notice. Xú’s lifedates are conventionally bracketed c. 1520–1596. The work was carried into Korea and Japan and was a major reference work for the Dōngyī bǎojiàn 東醫寶鑑 (1613) and the Edo-period Japanese medical tradition.
Translations and research
No comprehensive European-language translation of the Gǔ-jīn yī-tǒng dà-quán located. For Xú Chūn-fǔ and the late-Míng medical-encyclopaedic tradition see Volker Scheid, Currents of Tradition in Chinese Medicine 1626–2006 (Eastland, 2007); Charlotte Furth, A Flourishing Yin (California, 1999). For Xú’s Yī-lín yī-shè and the formation of medical-professional identity in late-Míng China see Wang Hu 王虎, Mìng-dài yī-lín yī-shè yǔ Wàn-lì yī-jiè 明代一體醫社與萬曆醫界 (Beijing Zhōng-yī gǔ-jí, 2010).
Links
- Gǔjīn yītǒng dàquán (zh.wikipedia)
- Person note 徐春甫.