Qiu Qingyuan (Qiu Jisheng)

Qiu Qingyuan, courtesy name Jisheng, was a native of Shaoxing, Zhejiang, and lived from 1873 to 1947. A modern Chinese physician and a collector and publisher of medical books, he devoted himself to gathering and organizing medical texts and amassed a collection of more than three thousand titles, on which he based his editorial and publishing work. In 1924 he compiled and published the Sansan Medical Books, and in 1936 he completed the Collected Rare Medical Books, making important contributions to the preservation and circulation of scarce medical works. He also founded the Hangzhou Sansan Medical Society and the Sansan Hospital, combining textual scholarship with medical practice, and was known as one of the "Three Outstanding Figures of Zhejiang." Eighteen of his works are held in the collection, including Fifteen Secret Medical Case Records, Three Secret Texts on Cold Damage, Five Secret Texts on Comprehensive Clinical Practice, Six Secret Texts on Internal Medicine, Three Secret Texts on Materia Medica, Three Secret Texts on Gynecology, and Two Secret Texts on Pediatrics. Most are compilations of rare medical texts covering medical cases, cold damage, various clinical specialties, and materia medica, with an emphasis on practical clinical use and textual preservation; they have had a positive influence on the transmission of modern Chinese medical scholarship.