Yīzōng jīnjiàn · Wàikē xīnfǎ yàojué 醫宗金鑑·外科心法要訣
Heart-Method Essentials for External Medicine by 吳謙 (奉敕撰) and 劉裕鐸 (奉敕撰), under imperial commission
About the work
The Wàikē xīnfǎ yàojué 外科心法要訣 (16 juàn) is the external-medicine (surgical, dermatological, ulcerative-disease) chapter of the Yīzōng jīnjiàn compendium (KR3e0090 / KR3eu016). It systematises the Míng-era Wàikē zhèngzōng 外科正宗 of Chén Shígōng 陳實功 (1617) and the Wàikē dàchéng 外科大成 of Qí Kūn 祁坤 (1665) into the imperial mnemonic-verse-and-commentary format, covering yōngjū 癰疽 (deep-seated abscesses and carbuncles) by anatomical region, liúzhù 流注 (migratory abscesses), liútán 流痰 (cold-abscesses, including tuberculous bone disease), yáng 瘍 (ulcers), xuǎn 癬 (tinea-like dermatoses), yīnchuāng 陰瘡 (genital ulcers), gānchuāng 疳瘡 (syphilitic ulcers), màifēng 麻風 (leprosy), and pediatric yánmí (eye-and-throat surface diseases).
Abstract
The chapter is one of the most comprehensive Qīng-period external-medicine treatises and was the standard Qīng imperial-academy textbook of the specialty. The imperial editors integrate the late-Míng dual surgical tradition — Chén Shígōng’s pragmatic Wàikē zhèngzōng and the doctrinal-integrative line of 薛己 Xuē Jǐ’s external-medicine works (cf. KR3eu007) and Wáng Kěntáng’s Yángyī zhǔnshéng — into a single coherent reference, with detailed anatomical illustrations of lesion-types by body region and the surgical instruments required.
Composition window 1742–1749. For the parent compendium see KR3e0090 / KR3eu016.
Translations and research
- Leung, Angela Ki Che. 2009. Leprosy in China: A History. New York: Columbia University Press — treats the Wài-kē xīn-fǎ yào-jué’s leprosy chapter.
- Mǎ Bóyīng 馬伯英. 2010. Zhōngguó yī-xué wén-huà shǐ 中國醫學文化史, 2 vols. Shànghǎi: Shànghǎi Rénmín.
- Hinrichs, T. J., and Linda L. Barnes (eds.). 2013. Chinese Medicine and Healing. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.