證治準繩

Zhèngzhì zhǔnshéng 證治準繩

The Plumb-Line for Pattern-and-Treatment by 王肯堂 (撰)

About the work

The Zhèngzhì zhǔnshéng 證治準繩 (“Plumb-Line for Pattern-and-Treatment”) is the late-Míng clinical encyclopaedia by 王肯堂 Wáng Kěntáng (1549–1613), in 120 juàn divided over 44 cè — the most comprehensive Míng-period clinical-medical reference after 朱橚 Zhū Sù’s Pǔjì fāng (KR3e0067) and 薛己 Xuē Jǐ’s Xuēshì yīàn (KR3e0070). The work is constructed of six sub-titles, composed and printed in stages over a decade and conventionally treated together:

1. Zázhèng zhǔnshéng 雜病準繩 (Miscellaneous Diseases, 8 cè, 13 categorical gates) — completed Wànlì 25 / dīngyǒu (1597);
2. Lèifāng 類方 (Categorical Prescriptions, 8 cè) — completed Wànlì 26 / wùxū (1598);
3. Shānghán zhǔnshéng 傷寒準繩 (Cold-Damage, 8 cè) — completed Wànlì 32 / jiǎchén (1604);
4. Yángyī zhǔnshéng 瘍醫準繩 (Surgery, 6 cè) — completed Wànlì 32 / jiǎchén (1604);
5. Yòukē zhǔnshéng 幼科準繩 (Paediatrics, 9 cè) — completed Wànlì 35 / dīngwèi (1607);
6. Nǚkē zhǔnshéng 女科準繩 (Women, 5 cè) — completed Wànlì 35 / dīngwèi (1607).

The full work in the present hxwd reprint is the standard Wànlì recension. For the canonical Sìkù form see KR3e0078.

Abstract

Authorship and dating are secured by Wáng Kěntáng’s own prefaces to the six sub-works (preserved in the SKQS print), which give the year-by-year completion dates above and 1597–1607 as the composition window. Wáng — a jìnshì of 1589 (Wànlì 17), Hànlín shùjíshì 翰林庶吉士, and ultimately Fújiàn bùzhèngsī cānzhèng 福建布政司參政 — had composed the work over a decade of public service interrupted by repeated returns to private medical study. He represents the late-Míng rúyī 儒醫 (literate-physician) tradition at its institutional peak: a Hànlín-grade literatus who simultaneously held one of the most respected clinical reputations of his generation.

The doctrinal stance of the Zhèngzhì zhǔnshéng is — by Wáng’s design and as praised by the Sìkù editors — deliberately balanced and non-partisan. Where the late-Míng warming-tonifying school (Xuē Jǐ → Zhào Xiànkě → Zhāng Jièbīn) and the cold-cooling Dānxī line had hardened into polar doctrinal camps, Wáng works through every major clinical category neutrally: presenting Sùwèn / Língshū / Zhāng Zhòngjǐng foundations, then the major SòngJīnYuán schools (Liú Wánsù, Zhāng Cóngzhèng, Lǐ Gǎo, Zhū Dānxī, the four-great-masters), then Míng accretion, with prescription choice and reasoning explicitly contextual rather than schematic. The Sìkù editors describe the result as “the medical school’s standard reference” (醫家之圭臬). The mature six-volume structure became the dominant clinical reference of the late Míng and the early Qīng, displaced from official-curriculum status only by the imperial Yīzōng jīnjiàn of 1749 (KR3e0090).

Translations and research

No substantial Western translation of the complete work.

• Volker Scheid. 2007. Currents of Tradition in Chinese Medicine, 1626–2006. Seattle: Eastland Press — treats Wáng Kěntáng’s balanced stance against the late-Míng doctrinal axes.
• Hsiung, Ping-chen. 2005. A Tender Voyage. Stanford University Press — uses Wáng’s Yòu-kē zhǔn-shéng extensively.
• Furth, Charlotte. 1999. A Flourishing Yin. Berkeley: University of California Press — uses Wáng’s Nǚ-kē zhǔn-shéng.
• Wú Wéi-jiā 吳唯佳 et al. (eds.). 1999. Wáng Kěntáng yī-xué quán-shū 王肯堂醫學全書. Beijing: Zhōng-yī Gǔjí. — the standard modern critical edition of Wáng’s collected medical works.

Links

• Canonical Sìkù entry: KR3e0078 Zhèngzhì zhǔnshéng.
• Wikipedia (Wang Kentang): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wang_Kentang