Continued Classified Cases of Famous Physicians

魏之琇Qunyan Publishing House · ChinaJun 2024

Rating 4.2
Word count
945K words
Chapters
38

Tags

Medicine Clinical ExperienceCase CollectionDisease ClassificationSyndrome DifferentiationFolk RemediesQing Physician

Summary

36 fascicles (originally 60), by Wei Zhixiu, completed in the thirty-fifth year of the Qianlong reign of the Qing (1770). Wei was himself a clinical physician rich in learning and experience. Seeing that the Ming dynasty Classified Cases of Famous Physicians still had many omissions in its selected materials, and that medical cases newly seen after the Ming were also numerous, he "broadly gathered recent medical books, histories, local gazetteers, collected works, and miscellaneous writings, and arranged them by category."

Editor's review

The Continuation of Classified Cases of Famous Physicians is a large compilation of medical cases compiled by the Qing physician Wei Zhixiu as a supplement to Jiang Guan's Ming dynasty Classified Cases of Famous Physicians, completed in the thirty-fifth year of Qianlong. Wei, himself rich in learning and experience, felt that the earlier work's materials still had omissions and that medical cases newly seen after the Ming were numerous, so he extensively gathered recent medical books, histories, local gazetteers, collected works, and miscellaneous writings, arranging them by category. The original work had sixty fascicles; this edition is in thirty-six fascicles. Its value lies in preserving a large number of clinical cases and physicians' experience from after the Ming, with broad sources and clear categories; it supplements the Classified Cases of Famous Physicians and provides rich first-hand material for studying clinical reasoning, formula use, and medical history texts in Chinese medicine. Clinical practitioners can use it to study predecessors' choices in pattern differentiation and treatment; historians of medicine and textual scholars can see how Qing physicians organized cases and what sources they drew on. Read alongside the original text and commentaries, noting the period, physician, and pattern-treatment context; it should not be used as a quick-reference formula book.

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Reading tips

  1. First read the prefaces and editorial notes to understand the sources and categorical arrangement, then proceed to specific cases.
  2. Read by category; for each case, first formulate your own pattern-differentiation approach, then compare with the original treatment to assess gains and losses.
  3. Keep a notebook recording formulas, symptoms, and key points from commentaries for later clinical reference and review.
  4. For cases drawn from histories or collected works, consider the historical context to understand the physician's choices.

About the publisher

Qunyan Publishing House China · Founded in 1989

Founded in 1989, Qunyan Publishing House has long been committed to publishing academic and educational books for mid- and high-level readers, and has built up a certain presence in Eastern philosophy, classical literature, and classic works. Representative titles available in the database include Records of the Grand Historian, Dream of the Red Chamber, Selections of Refined Literature, Complete Song Ci, Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio, Record of Daily Knowledge, Taiping Huimin Hejiju Fang, and The Collected Works of Wang Yangming, covering common categories such as ancient poetry, medicine, and examinations. Its author resources include Sima Qian, Cao Xueqin, Xiao Tong, Li Shan, Pu Songling, and Gu Yanwu. The press also offers distinctive series such as the Biographical Series of the China Democratic League and the Historical Documents Series of the China Democratic League, and publishes research on historical documents, biographies, memoirs, and textbooks and academic works by League members. Public information is limited, and its overall publishing scale and complete catalogue require further verification.

Contents

  1. 版权信息
  2. 序
  3. 卷一
  4. 卷二
  5. 卷三
  6. 卷四
  7. 卷五
  8. 卷六
  9. 卷七
  10. 卷八
  11. 卷九
  12. 卷十
  13. 卷十一
  14. 卷十二
  15. 卷十三
  16. 卷十四
  17. 卷十五
  18. 卷十六
  19. 卷十七
  20. 卷十八
  21. 卷十九
  22. 卷二十
  23. 卷二十一
  24. 卷二十二
  25. 卷二十三
  26. 卷二十四
  27. 卷二十五·产后
  28. 卷二十六·痘证
  29. 卷二十七
  30. 卷二十八·小儿科
  31. 卷二十九·小儿科
  32. 卷三十
  33. 卷三十一·外科
  34. 卷三十二（外科）
  35. 续名医类案卷三十三（外科）
  36. 卷三十四（外科）
  37. 卷三十五（外科）
  38. 卷三十六

FAQ

How does this book relate to the Classified Cases of Famous Physicians? The Continuation of Classified Cases of Famous Physicians is a sequel compiled by Wei Zhixiu to fill gaps in the Classified Cases of Famous Physicians. It includes materials not covered by the earlier work before the Ming and adds many cases newly seen after the Ming, expanding sources to histories, local gazetteers, collected works, and miscellaneous writings, arranged by category; it can be seen as a supplement and expansion of the earlier book.
The original had sixty fascicles; why is this edition thirty-six? Sources indicate the original had sixty fascicles and this edition is in thirty-six. The change in fascicle count involves editions and editorial methods; specific deletions and merges should be checked against the main text and publication notes. Readers need not judge completeness by fascicle count but should focus on the categories and cases actually included.
Can I read this without a Chinese medicine foundation? Not very suitable. The book uses many pattern-differentiation terms, formula names, and physicians' commentaries; without basic theory one may misread or take passages out of context. If genuinely interested, first acquire basic knowledge of Chinese medicine diagnosis and formulas, or read alongside textbooks and professional annotated editions.
How can I use its documentary value while reading? Note each case's source, the physician's period, and the pattern-treatment reasoning, comparing how different physicians handled similar conditions. For research, also note portions drawn from histories, collected works, and miscellaneous writings to examine the transmission of cases and the characteristics of Qing medical textual organization.

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About the author

魏之琇 Author

Wei Zhixiu was a physician of the Qing dynasty, known for compiling medical case records and writing medical talks. Few of his works survive, and this site holds two of them, the Continuation of Classified Medical Cases (Xu Mingyi Leian) and Liu Zhou Medical Talks (Liuzhou Yihua), both classified under medicine. The available sources give no clear record of his birth and death dates, native place, or career, so public information is limited and a full biography cannot be reconstructed. What can be established is the orientation of his writings: the Continuation carries on the tradition of earlier compilations of medical cases, gathering diagnostic and treatment examples from physicians of successive periods and arranging them by category, with emphasis on preserving clinical experience and making it easy for later students to consult; Liu Zhou Medical Talks discusses medical theory and clinical observations in the form of brief essays, concise in style and practical and evaluative in the manner common to the medical-talk genre. One work stresses the collection of materials, the other the exposition of personal insights, together reflecting the author's attention to clinical experience. Wei Zhixiu's name has become known to later readers of Chinese medicine through such case-record and medical-talk literature, and his influence lies chiefly in the organization and transmission of medical texts.