Yīzōng jīnjiàn · Yǎnkē xīnfǎ yàojué 醫宗金鑑·眼科心法要訣
Heart-Method Essentials for Ophthalmology by 吳謙 (奉敕撰) and 劉裕鐸 (奉敕撰), under imperial commission
About the work
The Yǎnkē xīnfǎ yàojué 眼科心法要訣 (2 juàn) is the ophthalmology chapter of the Yīzōng jīnjiàn compendium (KR3e0090 / KR3eu016). The chapter draws on the dual lineage of premodern Chinese ophthalmology: the older Sòng Lóngmù lùn 龍木論 / Yínhǎi jīngwēi 銀海精微 tradition organising eye-diseases by the wǔlún bākuò 五輪八廓 (five-wheels / eight-quadrants) symptomatic schema; and the literate-physician aetiology-first tradition founded by 倪維德 Ní Wéidé’s Yuánjī qǐwēi (KR3eu005) and developed in Wáng Kěntáng’s Yángyī zhǔnshéng (cf. KR3eu011). The imperial editors integrate both, with the aetiology-first frame as the principal organising principle and the wǔlún bākuò terminology preserved for diagnostic convenience.
Abstract
The chapter covers the standard premodern Chinese disease-categories of ophthalmology — yúnyì 雲翳 (corneal opacity), qīngmáng 青盲 (glaucoma / optic atrophy), gānyǎn 乾眼 (dry eye), liúlèi 流淚 (lacrimation), the various inflammatory presentations, and pre-modern surgical techniques such as cataract couching (jīnzhēn bōzhàng 金針撥障). The verse-mnemonic format and the inclusion of acupuncture-and-moxibustion points appropriate to each disease made this the principal pedagogical text of Qīng imperial-academy ophthalmology.
Composition window 1742–1749. For the parent compendium see KR3e0090 / KR3eu016; cf. variant entry KR3eu035. The aetiology-first frame derives from KR3eu005 Yuánjī qǐwēi.
Translations and research
- Kovacs, Jürgen, and Paul U. Unschuld. 1998. Essential Subtleties on the Silver Sea: The Yin-hai jing-wei. Berkeley: University of California Press — the principal English-language frame for premodern Chinese ophthalmology.
- Deshpande, Vijaya. 2012. “Glimpses of Ayurveda in Medieval Chinese Medicine.” Indian Journal of History of Science 47 (1): 87–108 — for Indian / Buddhist influence on Chinese ophthalmology, including couching.
- Zhèng Jīn-shēng 鄭金生 (ed.). 1996. Yī-zōng jīn-jiàn jiào-zhù 醫宗金鑑校註. Beijing: Rénmín Wèishēng.