A Collection of Medical Cases by Yipiao is a compilation of clinical case records by the Qing dynasty physician Xue Xue. Xue Xue (1681–1770), courtesy name Shengbo, style names Yipiao, Saoyesharen, and Huaiyundaoren, was a native of Wuxian in Jiangsu (present-day Suzhou). A contemporary of Ye Tianshi and equally renowned in the Wu region, he was one of the representative figures of the Qing dynasty warm-disease school and the author of On Damp-Heat and The Original Meaning of the Medical Classics. The present book, named after his style name Yipiao, collects his clinical case records, covering consumptive exhaustion, cough and wheezing, phlegm-fluid retention, diarrhea, dysentery, malaria, summerheat-dampness, warm diseases, distention and fullness, epigastric, hypochondriac, and abdominal pain, seminal emission and strangury with turbid urine, atrophy and impediment, abscess and sores, and various gynecological disorders of menstruation and childbirth, with internal miscellaneous diseases and externally contracted seasonal illnesses predominating. The case commentaries are concise in wording yet penetrating in argument, typically analyzing the pathogenesis first, then determining the treatment method, and finally listing the formulas and drugs. In pattern identification, close attention is paid to differences in constitutional strength, seasonal climate, and regional soil and water; in drug use, he favored clear, nimble, light, and dispersing agents as well as nourishing, enriching, moistening, and descending ones, and was especially skilled at handling complex patterns in which damp-heat and yin deficiency intertwine. Traces of academic debate with Ye Tianshi are also visible in the book, making it an important document for studying Xue Shengbo's clinical experience and Qing dynasty warm-disease studies. The original work circulated under such titles as The Medical Cases of Xue Yipiao and The Medical Cases of the Yipiao Elder of Saoye Manor; a late Qing manuscript copy by Guo Wenjun survives in the Suzhou Library, and a four-volume Saoye Manor Medical Cases, whose content overlaps with it, is included in The Collected Rare Medical Books. The book has entered the public domain, and what is available on the market consists mostly of electronic editions, photographic reprints of old editions, and compilations, with considerable variation among editions.
读医案，最怕两件事：一是案语空洞，只报喜不报忧；二是方药堆砌，看不出思路。《一瓢医案》的好处恰在相反。薛雪下笔极简，往往寥寥数语便点出病机关键，如论虚劳“先天既弱而水亏，壮火复炽而金燥”，一句话把病位、病性、病势交代清楚，随后才出方。这种“先议病、后议药”的写法，正是学习辨证论治最直接的范本。 薛雪与叶天士同里齐名，二人由友生隙、以斋名相讥的旧事，是吴中医林著名谈资。读这本书，能隐约看到那种既相争又相通的气息：同样重视湿热，同样用药轻灵，却在取舍之间各有分寸。对于想弄懂温病学派内部差异的读者，这是一手的材料。 需要提醒的是，本书没有权威的现代整理排印本流行，市面上多为电子书或古籍汇编译本，标点、校勘与完整性参差不齐。建议以《珍本医书集成》本《扫叶庄医案》或图书馆藏抄本系统作对照阅读，方能见其全貌。
Xue Xue is an author included in this catalog, though publicly available information about the person remains limited: basic details such as biography, place of origin, and dates of birth and death have not been clearly recorded. The catalog currently holds one work by this author, titled Wenre Lun · Shire Lun (A Treatise on Warm Heat and A Treatise on Damp Heat), commonly classified under medicine. Judging from the title and classification, the book likely concerns warm-disease and damp-heat patterns in traditional Chinese medicine, a genre that typically addresses causes and mechanisms, key points of pattern identification, and treatment methods and formulas, with writing that tends toward clarity and clinical practicality. Because so little verifiable material about the author is available, further comment on academic lineage or personal experience is difficult; nevertheless, the work itself offers readers a textual basis for understanding approaches to diagnosing and treating the relevant patterns, and remains the main clue for knowing Xue Xue today.
