Annotated Exposition of the Ancient Text of the Classic of Difficult Issues

Ding Jin / 周仲瑛 / 于文明 / 王振国 / Guo RuihuaHunan Science & Technology Press2014

Chapters

1

Series

This is a commentary on the Classic of Difficult Issues (Nanjing) written by the Qing-dynasty physician Ding Jin (courtesy name Lüzhong), a native of Yunjian (present-day Songjiang, Shanghai). Ding Jin recounts that in the autumn of the Gengxu year, while traveling in Wuchang, he saw an "ancient text of the Classic of Difficult Issues" in the possession of a certain Mr. Zhu, who was assisting in government affairs; it was said to be one of the "three medical models" of the Jin-dynasty physician Wang Shuhe. Comparing this text with the editions circulating in the marketplace at the time, he found more than thirty instances of misplaced bamboo slips—for example, what was originally the third difficult issue was mistakenly listed as the eighteenth, and the twelfth as the seventy-fifth. He therefore reorganized the text according to the ancient version and annotated it item by item with reference to the Inner Canon and the teachings of Hua Shou and other commentators, completing the work, which was first published in the third year of the Qianlong reign (1738). The commonly circulated edition is in four volumes, though two-volume and one-volume editions also exist with essentially the same content. The annotations focus on expounding the meaning of the Classic of Difficult Issues in pulse studies, diseases, and treatment methods, occasionally offering prescriptions based on clinical experience. His discussions of "the life gate is the uterus" and "the left kidney is the life gate, the right kidney is the life gate" constitute a distinctive school of thought and are important material for studying the textual transmission of the Classic of Difficult Issues and the life gate doctrine. This book is one of the Medical Classics volume of the Comprehensive Collection of Rare Ancient Chinese Medical Texts, using photo-reprints of rare original editions to preserve the original appearance, with introductions, collation, annotation, and commentary by experts in Chinese medical literature, for researchers and clinical readers to study comparatively.

ISBN

9787535782885

Tags

Summary

Editor's review

Who it's for

A good fit for

• 中医院校师生及中医文献、医史研究者
• 已读过《难经》通行本、想进一步了解注本谱系的读者
• 对命门学说、脉学源流感兴趣的中医临床工作者
• 喜欢收藏中医古籍影印本、重视版本原貌的藏书爱好者

Not a good fit for

• 完全没有文言文与中医基础知识的入门读者
• 只想快速查阅现代白话解读、追求通俗易懂的读者
• 需要最新临床指南或现代诊疗方案的人

Reading tips

1. 先通读卷首导读与凡例，弄清丁锦据“古本”改订篇次的思路，再进入正文。
2. 对照《难经》通行本（如滑寿《难经本义》）逐条比对，留意“证误目次”所列的三十余处差异。
3. 遇到影印字迹模糊处，可配合《难经传本集成》等整理本互校，避免误读。
4. 读完后可延伸阅读《难经经释》《难经悬解》，比较不同注家对同一难的解读差异。

About the publisher

Hunan Science & Technology Press has long focused on science popularization and medical publishing, balancing academic depth with accessibility for general readers. Among the 462 titles in the database are Richard Feynman's classic lectures on QED, the nature of physical laws, and relativity in the "Approaching Feynman" series, as well as general-audience works such as George Gamow's One, Two, Three... Infinity and Sean Carroll's The Big Picture. Its paleontology and dinosaur list includes Gregory S. Paul's Princeton field guides and authors such as Xing Lida. Hermann Weyl's Symmetry further reflects the press's attention to classic works bridging science and the humanities. Overall, the publisher shows a clear author profile and an emphasis on illustrated, well-rounded science publishing across both translated and original titles.

Contents

1. Comprehensive Collection of Rare Ancient Chinese Medical Texts: Medical Classics Volume

FAQ

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Ding Jin's biographical details remain unknown, and publicly available information is limited; existing records only confirm that Ding Jin is the author of An Explication of the Ancient Edition of the Classic of Difficult Issues. The Classic of Difficult Issues (Nanjing) is one of the foundational texts of traditional Chinese medicine, discussing pulse diagnosis, the channels, the viscera, and acupuncture in a question-and-answer format. It has attracted many commentators over the centuries, and Ding Jin's explication is one of them. Judging from the title, the work draws on an ancient edition and focuses on clarifying the text and developing its meaning, serving students and practitioners of medicine as a study and annotation of a classical medical source. Works of this kind generally emphasize textual basis, careful explanation of individual passages, and coherent medical reasoning; the style tends to be rigorous and practical, aiming to help readers understand the original meaning and clinical application of the Classic. In the current book classification, Ding Jin's work is placed under medicine and health and may be consulted in research on Chinese medical literature and clinical practice. Because reliable records of Ding Jin's native place, period, and academic career are lacking, no inferences are made here; only the surviving work is briefly described.

Zhou Zhongying is a representative physician in the field of internal medicine in traditional Chinese medicine. Public information about him is limited, and his dates of birth and death, native place, and educational background are not recorded in the available sources. Judging from the five works collected here, his writing centers on clinical diagnosis and treatment in TCM internal medicine. These include systematic works such as Collected Lectures on TCM Internal Medicine, which sets out the principles and methods of the discipline, and introductory clinical guides such as Clinical Techniques in TCM. He emphasizes "differentiating the mechanism to determine treatment," approaching disease through its pathogenesis and its evolution; this line of thought is concentrated in the compiled clinical experience on lung diseases. Zhou Zhongying's Differentiation and Treatment: A Verbatim Record of Epidemic Hemorrhagic Fever documents actual cases and treatment processes, reflecting a style that values verbatim records and the summation of experience. Other works on the transmission of his academic experience show that his scholarly legacy has been organized by later students.

Only limited public information is available about Yu Wenming. At present, he is known to have one work in the collection, Mingdao: Eighty Years of National Medical Master Professor Sun Guangrong. Judging from the title and its common classification under medicine, the book is a medical biography that traces Professor Sun Guangrong's eighty years of life and medical practice, combining biographical documentary writing with the transmission of traditional Chinese medicine scholarship. Using "coming through" as its narrative thread, the author focuses on the subject's life course and spiritual character, and the style is plain and factual rather than vague or abstract. For readers who wish to learn about Professor Sun Guangrong's life and the background of a leading contemporary Chinese medicine practitioner, the book offers a concentrated point of entry. Because the collection contains no record of Yu Wenming's nationality, dates of birth and death, education, or professional career, his identity and the full scope of his writing await further public material; no speculation is made here, and the above summary is confined to the book's subject and approach.

Wang Zhenguo: publicly available information is limited, and basic details such as his biography, nationality, and dates of birth and death cannot be confirmed. Judging from the four works held in the collection, his writing covers several dimensions of medicine. Treatise on Cold Damage Diseases (Shanghan Zongbing Lun) and Miraculous Applications of Contemporary Formulas (Shifang Miaoyong) lean toward the exposition of traditional medical theory and the use of prescriptions, while Lao Lao Heng Yan concerns elderly health care and daily living, and A History of Chinese and Foreign Medicine extends the view to the historical development of medicine. The works span a considerable range of subjects, including clinical and formula literature as well as health cultivation and medical history, showing the author's sustained attention to Chinese medical tradition and its origins. His writing generally centers on practical medical theory and experience and is oriented toward actual application, making it a useful reference for scholars of Chinese medicine and general readers alike.

Guo Ruihua: public information about this author is limited, and all that is currently known is that two works are extant under the name—Ben Jing Shu Zheng (Commentary and Verification on the Classic of Materia Medica) and Gu Ben Nan Jing Chan Zhu (Explanatory Notes on an Old Edition of the Classic of Difficult Issues). Judging from the titles and the common categories, the writing centers on classics of traditional Chinese medicine. The former takes the Shennong Bencao Jing tradition as its basis, offering commentary and textual verification on the properties, flavors, and indications of drugs; the latter provides explanation and annotation for an old edition of the Nan Jing. Both belong to the field of medicine and health, showing sustained engagement with the collation and interpretation of traditional medical texts. The prose addresses professional readers and enthusiasts of Chinese medicine, emphasizing textual analysis and the clarification of meaning rather than popular health writing. Because biographical information is lacking, the author's native place, identity, and scholarly lineage cannot be verified; nevertheless, the approach of the works suggests familiarity with the classics of materia medica and pulse studies, and a scholarly disposition toward exegesis and evidential grounding, with attention to textual sources and the context of the original classics. The available material is insufficient to sketch a complete picture; readers interested may begin with these two annotated works and appreciate the order and measure of their textual exposition.