Zhèngtǐ lèi yào 正體類要
Categorical Essentials of Bone-Setting by 薛己 (撰)
About the work
The Zhèngtǐ lèi yào 正體類要 (“Categorical Essentials of Bone-Setting / Orthopaedic Medicine”), 2 juàn, is 薛己 Xuē Jǐ’s specialist treatise on the treatment of fractures, dislocations and traumatic injury — the first specialist Chinese orthopaedic monograph after the Yuán Shìyī déxiào fāng 世醫得效方 of 危亦林 Wēi Yìlín. The work is the seventh sub-title of the Xuēshì yīàn corpus (KR3e0070); the Sìkù tíyào of the Yīzōng jīnjiàn (KR3e0090) specifically notes that the Yīzōng jīnjiàn added a bone-setting section (Zhènggǔ xīnfǎ yàozhǐ) because Xuē’s Zhèngtǐ lèi yào had been the only specialist book in that field for almost two centuries.
Abstract
The work pairs an upper juàn of clinical doctrine on injury patterns — including blunt trauma, fracture, dislocation, soft-tissue contusion, and the management of post-traumatic deficiency / blood-stasis / qì-stasis sequelae — with a lower juàn of representative case records illustrating Xuē’s practice. As elsewhere in the Xuē corpus, the doctrinal core is the Spleen-and-Stomach school of 李杲 Lǐ Gǎo combined with the Bāwèi yuán 八味元 / Liùwèi wán 六味丸 strategy: post-traumatic qì-and-blood deficiency is treated with Bǔzhōng yìqì tāng 補中益氣湯 and Guīpí tāng 歸脾湯; underlying kidney-deficiency with Liùwèi / Bāwèi. The work’s importance lies in being almost the unique Míng-period literate-physician treatment of an art that was otherwise the domain of the lower-status bone-setting craft (zhènggǔ jiàng 正骨匠); it bridges the literate-medical and craft-medical traditions and was the principal model for the Qīng imperial-edition bone-setting chapter.
Composition is conventionally dated to the second quarter of the 16th century — within Xuē’s mature Sūzhōu clinical period. For the parent compendium see KR3e0070.
Translations and research
- 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, with notes on the Zhèng-tǐ lèi yào.
- Lú Shǒu-yán 陸守焰 et al. 2010. Zhōng-yī gǔ-shāng-kē xué shǐ-lüè 中醫骨傷科學史略. Beijing: Rénmín Wèishēng. — modern Chinese history of the orthopaedic tradition; identifies the Zhèng-tǐ lèi yào as the foundational literate-physician orthopaedic monograph.