Gǔjīn míngyī huìcuì 古今名醫彙粹
Distillation of Famous Physicians, Ancient and Modern by 羅美 (輯)
About the work
The Gǔjīn míngyī huìcuì is an eight-juan early-Qīng florilegium of medical theory and case practice drawn from physicians of the Hàn through the early Qīng, compiled by 羅美 Luó Měi 羅美 (zì Dànshēng 澹生, hào Dōngyì 東逸, fl. Kāngxī) of Xīn’ān 新安 (Huīzhōu, Ānhuī). It is structured in three parts: juan 1 Lùn jí 論集 (collected discussions, expounding doctrine); juan 2 Mài jí 脈集 (essentials of the pulse); juan 3–8 Bìngnéng jí 病能集 (the zàngfǔ and external-symptom approach to disease), which concentrates on miscellaneous internal disorders 雜病 but also includes gynaecology 婦人, ophthalmology and otolaryngology 眼耳, and external medicine 外科. The work is one of the principal early-Qīng compendia of the Wēnbǔ 溫補 school of 薛己 Xuē Jǐ and 張介賓 Zhāng Jièbīn (Jǐngyuè 景岳); its hallmark — already visible in the cited preface that opens juan 1 with Zhāng Jièbīn’s Dà bǎo lùn 大寶論 — is the doctrinal centrality of yángqì and mìngmén warmth. Luó Měi nonetheless reproduces the Liú Wánsù and Zhū Zhènhēng cooling positions in full, so the volume reads as a balanced doxography rather than a sectarian tract.
Abstract
The catalog meta gives the author as Luó Měi and the dynasty as Qīng, both correct. The Kanripo edition is taken from the Hǎiwài huíguī / Hǎixué wéndòng (hxwd) medical-rarities series, since the Huìcuì was not received into the Sìkù quánshū. Luó Měi completed the work in Kāngxī yǐmǎo 14 = 1675; the bracket notBefore = notAfter = 1675 reflects the firm dating of the Gǔhuáitáng 古懷堂 Kāngxī yǐmǎo MS, which is the textual base.
The transmission is significant. The Huìcuì was originally drafted together with the Gǔjīn míngyī fānglùn 古今名醫方論 as a single twelve-juan work titled Gǔjīn míngyī jīnglùn zhèngzhì huìcuì 古今明醫經論證治匯粹; the four-juan formula-discussion section was extracted and printed first in 1675 as the standalone Fānglùn, which became a runaway success (it was later partially absorbed into Wú Qiān 吳謙’s Yīzōng jīnjiàn 醫宗金鑑 of 1742). The remaining eight juan — the present Huìcuì — circulated only in manuscript for 126 years. It was first printed by Xǔ Wénmíng 許文明 in cooperation with the Táo family’s Bóyúntáng 柏筠堂 in Jiāqìng 6 = 1801, and re-engraved by Shèng Xīnfǔ 盛新甫 of Jiāxīng in Dàoguāng 3 = 1823 (癸未), whose preface is preserved at the head of the present edition’s _000.txt. The 1823 preface explicitly states that “the world had no printed copy; the manuscripts handed down had become corrupted with hàishǐ and lǔyú errors” — flagging that all extant prints derive from a manuscript line.
The work’s structural decision to open the Lùn jí with Zhāng Jièbīn’s Dà bǎo lùn — a defence of the priority of yáng over yīn against Zhū Zhènhēng’s “yáng always in surplus, yīn always in deficit” doctrine — and to lead the Bìngnéng jí’s gynaecology section (juan 8) with 薛己 Xuē Jǐ’s 薛新甫 jīngbìng discussion makes the doctrinal alignment unambiguous.
Translations and research
- Gǔjīn míngyī huìcuì, ed. Bāo Xiǎodōng 包曉東, Beijing: Zhōngyī gǔjí chūbǎnshè, 1990 (reissue 2017) — modern punctuated edition.
- Yú Yùnxiù 余雲岫 et al. (1936) and the later Zhōngguó yījí dà cídiǎn 中國醫籍大辭典 (Yán Shìyún 嚴世芸 ed., 2002, vol. 1, s.v.) provide the standard bibliographic notice.
- Pī Bóliáng 皮博良, “Gǔjīn míngyī huìcuì tànxī” 《古今名醫彙粹》探析, Zhōnghuá zhōngyīyào zázhì 中華中醫藥雜誌, 2010 — short scholarly profile.
- TJ Hinrichs & Linda L. Barnes (eds.), Chinese Medicine and Healing: An Illustrated History, Harvard 2013, ch. on Qīng medicine — places the Wēn-bǔ / Mìng-mén school in context.
- No European-language translation is known.
Other points of interest
The companion work Gǔjīn míngyī fānglùn 古今名醫方論 — much more widely read than the Huìcuì — was the principal channel by which the formulary side of Luó Měi’s compendium entered the Yīzōng jīnjiàn 醫宗金鑑 (1742) imperial textbook. The two pieces are therefore best read as a single project artificially severed by 18th-century printing economics.