Wáng Yù 王堉 (1822–1862), zì Róngtáng 蓉塘, hào Rùnyuán 潤園, of Hántún 韓屯村, Jièxiū 介休 county, Shānxī, born into a local scholarly farming family. Originally trained for the imperial examinations, he began studying medicine in 1841–1842 (dàoguāng xīnchǒu / rényín) after his mother fell ill, dissatisfied with the prescribing physicians who attended her and disturbed by his own observation that fewer than half of their formulae conformed to canonical fāngshū method. He thereafter prescribed privately, with — by his own account — occasional success.
He achieved xiùcái in dàoguāng 28 (1848), was promoted bāgòng 拔貢 in dàoguāng 30 (1850), and served briefly as Nèigé Zhōngshū 內閣中書 (junior secretary in the Grand Secretariat), responsible for safekeeping court documents, and was attached to the Fānglüèguǎn 方略館 (Strategic Compilations Bureau). In xiánfēng 6 (1856) he went to Shǎnxī to await substantive appointment, did not obtain one, and returned home in 1857 on his mother’s death. He briefly resided in Dìngxiāng 定襄 in tóngzhì 1 (1862); thereafter his life is undocumented, and the conventional death date 1862 reflects this disappearance from the record.
His one preserved medical work is the KR3ep102 Zuìhuāchuāng yīàn 醉花窗醫案 (Medical Casebook from the Drunken-Flower Window), a literarily-elegant casebook recording his roughly two-decade part-time medical practice, with cases organised by viscera-system. The CBDB returns three undated 王堉 records but none can be securely matched to this person.