Bǎo yīng cuì yào 保嬰粹要
Distilled Essentials for the Protection of Infants by 薛己 (撰)
About the work
The Bǎo yīng cuì yào 保嬰粹要 (“Distilled Essentials for the Protection of Infants”), 1 juàn, is one of 薛己 Xuē Jǐ’s short pediatric treatises included in his Xuēshì yīàn corpus (KR3e0070). The work distils the principal SòngMíng pediatric doctrines — particularly the five-organ gān 疳 taxonomy and jīngfēng 驚風 (convulsion) typology developed by 錢乙 Qián Yǐ — into a single condensed manual oriented at general (rather than specialist) clinical use. It is the shortest member of the Xuē pediatric trilogy that further includes the Bǎo yīng jīnjìng lù 保嬰金鏡錄 (also by Xuē) and the larger Bǎo yīng cuō yào 保嬰撮要 (whose authorship between Xuē and his father Xuē Kái 薛鎧 the Sìkù tíyào notes is disputed).
Abstract
The Bǎo yīng cuì yào presents Xuē’s selection from earlier pediatric literature, condensed by symptom and presented with the characteristic Xuē-school annotation — interpolated case records and a marked preference for warming-tonifying intervention (the Liùwèi wán and Bāwèi yuán combination, with Bǔzhōng yìqì tāng for centre deficiency) over the cold-cooling regimens that the Dānxī school had popularized for pediatric gān and convulsion. As with all of Xuē’s pediatric works, the doctrinal foundation is 錢乙 Qián Yǐ’s Xiǎo’ér yào zhèng zhí jué (cf. KR3eu009 = Qiánshì xiǎo’ér zhí jué), whose categorical scheme of five-organ gān, the eight kinds of childhood epilepsy, and the fēngguān / qìguān / mìngguān index-finger-vein diagnostics underlies the chapter.
Composition window 1510–1559 follows Xuē’s mature career; for the parent compendium and overall transmission see KR3e0070.
Translations and research
No substantial Western translation located.
- Hsiung, Ping-chen. 2005. A Tender Voyage. Stanford: Stanford University Press — the principal English-language monograph on premodern Chinese pediatrics; treats Xuē’s pediatric output.
- Wáng Yáng 王陽 (ed.). 1999. Xuē Jǐ yī-xué quán-shū 薛己醫學全書. Beijing: Zhōng-yī Gǔjí. — standard modern critical edition.
Links
- Parent compendium: KR3e0070 Xuēshì yīàn.