吴本立

Wu Benli is an author about whom public information is limited. His place of birth, dates of birth and death, and medical training are not clearly recorded and cannot presently be confirmed. The only work handed down under his name that is available today is Nüke Qieyao (Essentials of Gynecology), a specialized treatise in traditional Chinese gynecology classified under medicine. Judging from its title and subject matter, the book deals with the diagnosis and treatment of gynecological disorders and appears to be a practical clinical compilation, setting out patterns, formulas, and key points of treatment for physicians to consult and apply. Its style is likely concise and practical rather than discursive. Owing to limited sources, the date of composition, textual history, and scholarly lineage of the work remain to be further examined. On the basis of the extant work alone, Wu Benli is known to later generations mainly through Nüke Qieyao, which still has reference value for understanding clinical experience and formula organization in traditional Chinese gynecology.