Lǐ Bǐng 李炳 (1729–1805, 清), zì Zhènshēng 振聲, hào Xīyuán 西垣. Native of Yízhēng 儀徵 (Jiāngsū). Late-Qián-lóng / Jiā-qìng-era physician active in Húběi, Zhèjiāng, Jiāngsū, and Ānhuī, settled in old age at the Shàobó / Guāzhōu 邵伯／瓜州 ferry crossing on the Yángzhōu canal.
Lǐ began studying medicine in childhood but found the canonical apparatus opaque; he devoted ten years to the Yìjīng 易經, after which he reported a sudden penetration of seasonal qi-transformation theory and a clearer reading of the Língshū and Sùwèn. He was reclusive in habit — few personal associates — but had a substantial reputation among physicians and patients who came to consult him.
He was the friend and clinical interlocutor of the Yángzhōu polymath Jiāo Xún 焦循 (1763–1820), who wrote both a biographical account (Lǐ wēng yī jì 李翁醫記) and Lǐ’s tomb inscription. Jiāo records that Lǐ’s death in autumn of Jiāqìng 10 (1805) was mourned even by farmers along the Grand Canal — patients whose lives he had saved.
Major works:
- Biànyì suǒyán 辨疫瑣言 (KR3eg035) — a critical commentary on Wú Yǒuxìng’s Wēnyì lùn.
- Jīnguì yàoluè zhù 金匱要略註, 22 juǎn — composed because he found existing Jīnguì commentaries inadequate.
- Xīyuán yīàn 西垣醫案 — clinical case-records.
Lǐ’s principal doctrinal innovations:
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Critique of Wú Yǒuxìng’s Dáyuán yǐn 達原飲. Lǐ argues that Wú’s signature prescription contains bīngláng 檳榔, hòupò 厚朴, cǎoguǒ 草果 (powerfully qì-breaking drugs) plus huángqín 黃芩 and zhīmǔ 知母 (cooling drugs) — none of which is appropriate at the initial stage of pestilential invasion, when the pathogen has not yet been concentrated to heat. Wrongly administered, Dáyuán yǐn damages the zhèngqì (rightful qi) and lets the pathogen sink internally. “In our days, Dáyuán yǐn kills people one after another” (近日達原飲之殺人，比比皆是).
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Critique of Wú’s “no yīn-syndrome” rule. Wú had held that wēnyì has no yīn-syndrome variant; Lǐ, on the basis of decades of clinical experience, argues that “sānyīn (the three yīn) presentations are present every day”, and that “two or three doses of Sìnì tāng 四逆湯 or Lǐzhōng tāng 理中湯 will cure them”. This anticipates Minamoto Genkai’s rigid/soft-pathogen distinction (see KR3eg025).
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Distinctive position on liver topography: that “the liver’s root is on the right but its action is on the left” (肝之本在右，而行於左) — a position that drew criticism from contemporaries but that Jiāo Xún validated over ten years of clinical observation, finding that Lǐ’s sháoyào-centred treatment of right-flank pain was clinically successful.
Source: Jiāo Xún 焦循, Lǐ wēng yī jì 李翁醫記; A+醫學百科; baidu baike.