Zhèngzhì zhǔnshéng · Yòukē 證治準繩·幼科
Plumb-Line for Pattern-and-Treatment — Paediatrics by 王肯堂 (撰)
About the work
The Yòukē zhǔnshéng 幼科準繩 (“Plumb-Line for Paediatrics”) is the paediatric treatise of 王肯堂 Wáng Kěntáng’s Zhèngzhì zhǔnshéng — 9 juàn (the largest single sub-work in the encyclopaedia), completed in Wànlì 35 / dīngwèi (1607). It systematises late-Míng paediatric practice with the same balanced evidence-by-school method that characterises the rest of the Zhǔnshéng: the foundational 錢乙 Qián Yǐ doctrine in Yán Xiàozhōng’s Xiǎo’ér yàozhèng zhí jué form, the Sòng Xiǎo’ér wèishēng zǒngwēilùn 小兒衛生總微論 / 董汲 Dǒng Jí line, the Yuán Yòuyòu xīnshū 幼幼新書, the Míng 薛己 Xuē Jǐ pediatric trilogy, and Wáng’s own clinical contributions are all incorporated by category.
Abstract
The structural plan follows the established SòngMíng paediatric taxonomy: a doctrinal opening on paediatric chúnyáng 純陽 physiology and the diagnostic-difficulty principle inherited from 錢乙; then the five-organ gān 疳 (chronic malnutrition) types, the eight kinds of childhood epilepsy (xián 癇), the acute and chronic jīngfēng 驚風 (convulsion) sequences, the smallpox / dòuzhěn 痘疹 specialist literature, and detailed prescriptions throughout. The work is the most comprehensive late-Míng paediatric synthesis after the Pǔjì fāng · Yīnghái mén (KR3eu001) and the Xuē corpus, and is one of the principal proximate sources for the corresponding Qīng Yīzōng jīnjiàn paediatric chapters (cf. KR3eu022 / KR3eu033 / KR3eu034).
Composition window: 1607. For the parent compound work see KR3eu011 / KR3e0078.
Translations and research
- Hsiung, Ping-chen 熊秉真. 2005. A Tender Voyage: Children and Childhood in Late Imperial China. Stanford University Press — extensive treatment of Wáng Kěntáng’s Yòu-kē zhǔn-shéng as the late-Míng paediatric synthesis.
- Hsiung, Ping-chen. 1995. Yōu-yōu chì-zǐ 幼幼赤子. Taipei: Lián-jīng.
- Wú Wéi-jiā et al. (eds.). 1999. Wáng Kěntáng yī-xué quán-shū 王肯堂醫學全書. Beijing: Zhōng-yī Gǔjí.