Zhào Xiànkě 趙獻可 (zì Yǎngkuí 養葵, c. 1573 – c. 1644, late 明), physician of Yínxiàn 鄞縣 (Níngbō 寧波, Zhèjiāng). Principal late-Míng theorist of the Mìngmén 命門 (life-gate) doctrine and of the kidney-water (shènshuǐ 腎水) / kidney-fire (shènhuǒ 腎火) tonification therapeutic framework. Author of the Yī guàn 醫貫 (KR3ed015, c. 1617), the systematic doctrinal articulation of the Mìngmén school that influenced an entire branch of late-Míng and Qīng clinical practice (including Sūn Yīkuí 孫一奎 and Zhāng Jièbīn 張介賓 in some respects). Zhào’s Yīguàn attracted significant Qīng critical response, most famously Xú Dàchūn’s 徐大椿 Yīguàn biàn 醫貫貶 (a polemical refutation arguing Zhào reduced all medicine to Mìngmén doctrine).
Zhào also wrote a gynecological work, the Hándān yígǎo 邯鄲遺稿 (KR3ei025), which circulated in manuscript through the Qīng and was eventually printed in 1796. The work was admired by Wú Shēng 吳升 (its 1796 prefacer) as more systematic and accessible than the Yīguàn, prompting the speculation that the Yīguàn was Zhào’s earlier and less mature work, possibly co-authored with disciples.
The lifedate 1573–1644 follows the conventional bracket in modern Chinese-medicine reference works; no firm documentary dates have been established. CBDB has no entry.