Zàngfǔ zhèngzhì túshuō Rénjìng jīng 臟腑證治圖說人鏡經
The “Human Mirror” Canon: Illustrated Explanation of Visceral Pattern-Diagnosis and Treatment (alt. title Rénjìng jīng fùlù quánshū 人鏡經附錄全書 / abbreviated Rénjìng jīng 人鏡經) original author unknown; supplemented by 錢雷 Qián Léi (zì Yùzhāi 豫齋, late-Míng physician of Sìmíng 四明 = Níngbō, Zhèjiāng).
About the work
A late-Míng eight-juǎn treatise on the twelve channels (shíèr jīng 十二經) and the eight extraordinary vessels (qíjīng bāmài 奇經八脈), with each channel-and-vessel discussed in terms of its corresponding zàng 臟 (viscus) or fǔ 腑 (bowel): zàngfǔ physiology, characteristic pathologies, and treatment protocols. The work is one of the principal late-Míng acupuncture-and-channel reference handbooks and is particularly notable for its combination of anatomical detail, channel-tracing diagrams, and clinical-treatment guidance.
The work has a complicated authorial history:
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Original 8-juǎn recension (Zàngfǔ zhèngzhì túshuō rénjìng jí 臟腑證治圖說人鏡集): pre-existing late-Míng compilation of uncertain authorship.
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Late-Míng supplement by Qián Léi: in Wànlì 36 / 1608, Qián Léi (a Níngbō physician zì Yùzhāi 豫齋) supplemented the original 8-juǎn work with a 2-juǎn Rénjìng jīng fùlù 人鏡經附錄 of his own composition, integrating the original with his channel-physiology and acupuncture clinical doctrine. The combined work was published as the Rénjìng jīng fùlù quánshū 人鏡經附錄全書, and this Wànlì 36 / 1608 edition is the editio princeps of the unified work.
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Early-Qīng continuation: Zhāng Jùnyīng 張俊英 of the early Qīng compiled a further 2-juǎn continuation, the Rénjìng jīng xùlù 人鏡經續錄, which extensively cited Qián Léi’s Fùlù.
Qián Léi’s acupuncture-doctrinal contribution is the central late-Míng theoretical advance preserved in this work: he develops the jīngluò túshuō 經絡圖說 (“channel-and-collateral diagrams-and-explanations”); the shísì jīng jīngluò lüè 十四經經絡略 (a compressed summary of the canonical fourteen-channel doctrine); the biànzhèng lùnzhì 辨證論治 protocols specific to each channel; the sìhǎi bāhuì 四海八會 doctrine; and a programmatic emphasis on integrating anatomical-structural observations with the channel-tracing diagrams, plus an unusual emphasis on the xiāntiān 先天 (pre-celestial) integration of channels.
The work was an important influence on the late-Imperial acupuncture tradition and is one of the most-cited late-Míng channel-and-acupuncture handbooks.
Prefaces
The hxwd _001.txt (no _000.txt) is header-only and does not transcribe the body of the text or its prefatory matter. The catalog notes the work’s zuòzhě bùxiáng 作者不詳 (author unclear) status for the original 8 juǎn, with Qián Léi as the zēngbǔ 增補 (supplementing editor).
Abstract
The 1608 Wànlì 36 dating is the editio princeps date of the unified work. Qián Léi (zì Yùzhāi 豫齋) was a Níngbō physician of the late Wànlì era; his lifedates are not securely fixed but he was active c. 1580–1620.
The work was reprinted multiple times in the late Míng and Qīng. The hxwd recension is header-only and the full text is not transcribed in the surviving digital witness; the work’s reception must be reconstructed from external recensions.
CBDB has no entry for Qián Léi or for the original 8-juǎn compiler.
Translations and research
No European-language translation of the Rén-jìng jīng located. For late-Míng acupuncture theory and practice see Linda Barnes, Needles, Herbs, Gods, and Ghosts: China, Healing, and the West to 1848 (Harvard, 2005); for the zàng-fǔ / jīng-luò integration tradition see Manfred Porkert, The Theoretical Foundations of Chinese Medicine (MIT, 1974).
Other points of interest
The work is one of the principal late-Míng monographic statements on the integration of zàngfǔ pattern-diagnosis with jīngluò channel-doctrine, and constitutes an important antecedent of the Yīzōng jīnjiàn 醫宗金鑑 (1742) imperial-curriculum chapter on acupuncture-moxibustion.