Tóngyuán yīshū · Xiǎo’érkē 彤園醫書·小兒科
Vermillion-Garden Medical Writings — Paediatrics by 鄭玉壇 (撰)
About the work
The Xiǎo’érkē 小兒科 (Paediatrics) section of the Tóngyuán yīshū 彤園醫書 (“Vermillion-Garden Medical Writings”) is the paediatric volume of the mid-Qīng comprehensive medical compendium issued by 鄭玉壇 Zhèng Yùtán (hào Tóngyuán zhǔrén 彤園主人, fl. late Qiánlóng / early Jiāqìng). The compendium is one of the standard mid-Qīng zhézhōng 折衷 (compromise-synthesis) reference works; its women’s-medicine section is KR3ei037 in the present knowledgebase. The paediatric section presents the post-Yīzōng-jīn-jiàn settled doctrine of Qīng paediatric practice: 錢乙 Qián Yǐ’s foundational five-organ paediatric pathology, the standard jīngfēng 驚風 and gān 疳 typologies, and the smallpox / dòuzhěn paediatric specialist content.
Abstract
Composition window 1796–1820 is inferred from Zhèng’s biographical placement in the late-Qián-lóng / early-Jiā-qìng period and the work’s stylistic and doctrinal alignment with the post-Yīzōng jīnjiàn mid-Qīng consensus. The Tóngyuán yīshū is one of the principal mid-Qīng private-publication medical compendia that consolidated and transmitted the official Yīzōng jīnjiàn synthesis to a broader literate-medical audience; its accessible format and zhézhōng doctrinal stance made it widely cited.
The work has not received substantial Western-language scholarship; modern reprint editions in Chinese collectanea (including the present hxwd reprint) are the principal channel through which it is now read.
Translations and research
No substantial Western-language scholarship located.
- Hsiung, Ping-chen. 2005. A Tender Voyage. Stanford University Press — frames the mid-Qīng paediatric compendium tradition.
Links
- Companion section (women’s medicine): KR3ei037.