Zhōngfēng jiàoquán 中風斠詮
A Critical Exposition of Stroke by 張壽頤 Zhāng Shòuyí (zì Shānléi 山雷, 1873–1934, Jiādìng 嘉定 → Lánxī 蘭溪, Zhèjiāng).
About the work
A three-juǎn Republican-period medical-historical-and-clinical monograph on zhōngfēng 中風 (“stroke” / cerebrovascular accident) by the Lánxī TCM educator Zhāng Shòuyí, composed in Mínguó 6 / 1917. The work integrates Chinese-medical doctrine with Western medical anatomy of the brain, arguing that zhōngfēng — long misclassified in the Chinese tradition as an external-wind-induced disorder — is in fact the xuèwǎn yú shàng 血菀於上 (blood-pooling-above) condition described in Sùwèn 5 (Shēngqì tōngtiān lùn) and the xuè zhī yǔ qì bìng zǒu yú shàng 血之與氣並走於上 condition of Sùwèn 62 (Tiáojīng lùn) — i.e., the same condition the Western medical tradition identifies as cerebral hemorrhage and stroke.
The title-glyph jiào 斠 (“to level / to make equal”) is a deliberate technical-philological loan: the work jiàoquán 斠詮 is a “critical-equalising exposition” that brings the Chinese and Western medical accounts of stroke into proper alignment.
The work’s intellectual genealogy is explicit: Zhāng builds on the prior synthesis of Zhāng Shìxiāng 張士驤 (zì Bólóng 伯龍, of Pénglái 蓬萊) in the Xuěyǎtáng yīàn 雪雅堂醫案 (which had first integrated the Sùwèn 62 passage with the Western xuèchōng nǎojīng 血沖腦經 doctrine) and corrects Zhāng Bólóng’s residual errors (especially Zhāng Bólóng’s continued use of ējiāo 阿膠 and the two dìhuáng 地黃, which Zhāng Shòuyí argues are inappropriate when phlegm is actively rising). Zhāng Shòuyí instead applies a strict qiánzhèn jièlèi 潛鎮介類 (subduing-mineral / shell-class drug) treatment — shíjuémíng 石決明, mǔlì 牡蠣, zǐbèichǐ 紫貝齒, xuándàimào 玄玳瑁, qīng lóngchǐ 青龍齒, císhí 磁石, língyángjiǎo 羚羊角 — combined with phlegm-clearing drugs (dǎnxīng 膽星, tiānzhúhuáng 天竺黃, xiānlù bànxià 仙露半夏) and the Méngshí gǔntán wán 礞石滾痰丸 for vigorous descending-phlegm therapy. The bedrock evidence is two clinical cases: Húshì 70-year-old of Níngbō 甬人, and Chén Rúshēn 陳如深 of Nánxiáng 南翔 (initially 1916, then again 1917 after misdiagnosis with guìzhī 桂枝 / cháihú 柴胡 / qiānghuó 羌活 disasters); both responded to the qiánzhèn jièlèi protocol with rapid recovery from severe stroke presentations.
The work proceeds in three juǎn:
- Doctrinal-historical: the demonstration that Sùwèn distinguishes internal-wind zhōngfēng from external-wind colds, but the Jīnguì, Jiǎyǐ jīng, Qiānjīn and Wàitái tradition conflated them — a 2000-year error.
- Clinical-therapeutic: the specific qiánzhèn protocols and their formulary, with detailed case-records.
- Pharmacological: the materia medica of the jièlèi (shell-class) and the contraindications for cānzhú 參朮 (ginseng-atractylodes) and the heavy dìhuáng / ējiāo drugs in the acute phase.
Prefaces
The hxwd _000.txt carries four substantial paratextual items:
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Xù 序 by Zhāng Wényàn 張文彥 (hào Luòjūn 洛鈞), Zhāng Shòuyí’s classmate from the Nánxiáng 南翔 academy of Lǐ Móuyún 李眸云 (Zhāng Shòuyí’s youth) and later disciple of the Shanghai master Huáng Lǐquán 黃醴泉, dated Mínguó liù nián chén zài dīngsì dōng shí yuè 民國六年辰在丁巳冬十月 = ROC 6 / 1917 winter tenth month, yú Hùchéng yùjū zhī Bànlú 於滬城寓居之半廬 (Shanghai). Zhāng Luòjūn died in wǔwǔ xià wǔ 戊午夏五 = ROC 7 / 1918 fifth month at age 38 — Zhāng Shòuyí’s funeral couplet for him is preserved here, with substantial autobiographical detail (Nánxiáng’s old name Cháxī 槎溪 / “raft-stream,” twenty-year friendship from study days).
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Self-preface signed Jiādìng Zhāng Shòuyí Shānléi fǔ 嘉定張壽頤山雷甫, dated Mínguó jìyuán dīngsì shí yuè 民國紀元丁巳十月 = ROC 6 / 1917 tenth month, yú Hùběi yùzhāi 滬北寓齋 (Shanghai). With sub-prefatory notes (pī 批) interpolated throughout.
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Author’s supplementary note dated Jǐwèi jiǔ yuè 已未九月 = ROC 8 / 1919 ninth month.
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Postface (hòuxù 後序) by Cáo Zǔpéi 曹祖培 (zì Bóhéng 伯蘅), of Sōngjiāng 松江, shòuyè (apprentice-disciple) of Zhāng Shòuyí, dated Mínguó jiǔ nián suì zài gēngshēn mèngzōu yuè 民國九年歲在庚申孟陬月 = ROC 9 / 1920 first month.
Abstract
The 1917 composition date is established beyond doubt. The work was published in 1920 with Cáo Zǔpéi’s postface (the hxwd recension may descend from this editio princeps or from a slightly later reprint). Zhāng Shòuyí (1873–1934) was a key figure in the early-Republican TCM-education movement, founding the Lánxī Zhōngyī Xuéxiào 蘭溪中醫學校 in Mínguó 5 / 1916 and directing it for the rest of his life; the Zhōngfēng jiàoquán was composed at the school’s formative period and is one of his principal scholarly works.
The work is a notable monument of early-Republican zhōngxī huìtōng 中西匯通 (Sino-Western integrative medicine) and is widely regarded as the most successful Chinese-medical reception of Western cerebrovascular pathology — a work that integrates the new knowledge while preserving classical Chinese-medical clinical method.
CBDB has no entry for Zhāng Shòuyí (a 20th-c. figure).
Translations and research
No European-language translation of the Zhōng-fēng jiào-quán located. For Zhāng Shòu-yí and the early-Republican zhōng-xī huì-tōng movement see Bridie Andrews, The Making of Modern Chinese Medicine, 1850–1960 (UBC, 2014). For the Lán-xī Zhōng-yī Xué-xiào and its place in Republican TCM history see Xiao-tian Zhang, The Politics of Medicine in Republican China (Hong Kong, 2018, in Chinese).
Other points of interest
The work is one of the most theoretically ambitious early-Republican Chinese-medical interventions in the zhōngxī huìtōng tradition. Zhāng’s strict qiánzhèn jièlèi therapeutic programme — the systematic use of mineral-and-shell drugs for stroke — became a standard protocol in 20th-c. TCM neurology and remains in active clinical use.