The Complete Medical Works of Liu Chun

This volume belongs to the series The Complete Works of Famous Physicians of the Ming and Qing Dynasties and collects the four extant medical works of the Ming physician Liu Chun, together with a thematic essay by the editor on his scholarly thought. Liu Chun, courtesy name Zonghou, was born around the end of the Yuan dynasty and died during the Yongle era of the Ming; a native of Wuling, Jiangsu, he grounded his learning in the Inner Canon while drawing on the Jin-Yuan masters, emphasizing the return from breadth to essentials and practical applicability. The four works included are: The Elementary Study of Medical Classics, in six juan, which arranges materia medica, pulse formulas, meridians, pathogenesis, and treatment methods in mnemonic verse—an introductory work for easy recitation; The Subtle Meaning of the Jade Mechanism, in fifty juan, which synthesizes the Inner Canon with the Jin-Yuan physicians and systematically sets forth the principles, methods, formulas, and drugs of each clinical specialty, forming the main body of the collection; Treatment Cases for Miscellaneous Diseases, in one juan, which summarizes the patterns of pattern-differentiation and treatment for miscellaneous diseases in a concise format, a family treasure passed down to descendants; and Treatment Cases for Cold Damage, in one juan, which lists treatment cases for cold-damage patterns. The volume concludes with the collator's research essay on Liu Chun's medical thought, helping readers grasp his scholarly lineage. This edition has been collated and annotated, with the main text in simplified horizontal typesetting; the second edition was published in February 2015, totaling 539 pages and about 794,000 characters, suitable for clinical practitioners of Chinese medicine, researchers in Chinese medical literature, and faculty and students of Chinese medicine colleges.