Yīzōng jīnjiàn · Zhènggǔ xīnfǎ yàozhǐ 醫宗金鑑·正骨心法要旨
Heart-Method Essentials for Bone-Setting by 吳謙 (奉敕撰) and 劉裕鐸 (奉敕撰), under imperial commission
About the work
The Zhènggǔ xīnfǎ yàozhǐ 正骨心法要旨 is the bone-setting / orthopaedic chapter of the Yīzōng jīnjiàn compendium (KR3e0090 / KR3eu016) — 5 juàn (also transmitted as 4) and the seventh and last structural division of the compendium. The Sìkù tíyào (cited in KR3e0090) explicitly notes that the imperial editors added this chapter because “in antiquity this art existed, but apart from Xuē Jǐ’s Zhèngtǐ lèiyào there has been no specialist book — we therefore supplement the lacuna.”
Abstract
The chapter codifies the bone-setting practice of the Qīng imperial Tàiyīyuàn and the imperially-employed Mongol zhènggǔ 正骨 specialists of the Shàngsìyuàn 上駟院 (the imperial stables service, which traditionally trained bone-setters because of the high incidence of equestrian injuries among Manchu bannermen). It is the first imperial-Chinese illustrated bone-setting manual to incorporate explicit Mongol-tradition manipulation techniques — Qián-lóng-era Mongol bone-setters served under imperial patronage as specialists at the Shàngsìyuàn — and the chapter records both Chinese literate-physician (Xuē-school) and Mongol manipulative-craft traditions. Topics covered include the bāfǎ 八法 (eight manipulation techniques: mō 摸 palpation, jiē 接 connection, duān 端 holding, tí 提 lifting, àn 按 pressing, mó 摩 rubbing, tuī 推 pushing, ná 拿 grasping), the bādà jiàn 八大件 (eight standard splinting/supporting devices), and lesion-by-lesion practice for skull fractures, dislocations of every major joint, vertebral injuries, etc., with extensive illustrations of splints, devices, and manipulation techniques.
The chapter is one of the most important Qīng medical-policy innovations: by promoting bone-setting from a marginal artisan craft to an official imperial-academy specialty, the Yīzōng jīnjiàn established the institutional foundation of modern Chinese zhōngyī gǔshāngkē 中醫骨傷科. The verse-mnemonic format and detailed illustrations made the chapter the standard Qīng-and-Republican bone-setting reference until well into the 20th century. Composition window 1742–1749.
The chapter’s principal upstream source is 薛己 Xuē Jǐ’s Zhèngtǐ lèi yào (KR3eu006), the only specialist literate-physician bone-setting monograph that preceded it.
Translations and research
- 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 orthopaedics; major treatment of the Zhèng-gǔ xīn-fǎ.
- Hinrichs, T. J., and Linda L. Barnes (eds.). 2013. Chinese Medicine and Healing. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
- Zhèng Jīn-shēng 鄭金生 (ed.). 1996. Yī-zōng jīn-jiàn jiào-zhù 醫宗金鑑校註. Beijing: Rénmín Wèishēng.
Other points of interest
The Mongol-tradition contribution to Qīng imperial orthopaedics — visible in this chapter’s bāfǎ 八法 manipulation taxonomy — is one of the more interesting cases of Inner-Asian medical-craft influence on the literate-Chinese imperial-medical institution; the Shàngsìyuàn 上駟院 bone-setting service was an explicitly Manchu-Mongol institutional carrier.