Wang Renzhi

This volume in the "Century of Traditional Chinese Medicine Clinicians" series is devoted to Wang Renzhi, a leading modern physician of the Xin'an school. Wang Renzhi (1916–1988), given name Guangren and courtesy name Renzhi, was a native of She County, Anhui, born into a family of Chinese medicine practitioners. He inherited his family's learning as a young man and absorbed the strengths of many schools; by his youth he was known in his home region for treating warm diseases and abdominal distension. In more than fifty years of practice he was celebrated for his superb skill and high medical ethics. The book was compiled and edited by Wang Hongyi and Wang Huaiying; drawing on firsthand case records and medical writings, it systematically sets out his academic achievements and clinical experience. The content is divided into four parts. The first, "Biography of the Physician," recounts Wang Renzhi's career in medicine and his revolutionary activities. The second, "Treatment by Disease," forms the main body: covering fourteen categories of disease—internal medicine conditions such as asthma, diarrhea, prostatitis, spleen-stomach disorders, hepatitis and cirrhosis, nephritis, low fever, flaccidity syndrome, stroke, and insomnia; gynecological conditions such as infertility, irregular menstruation, facial melasma, and mouth ulcers; and the orthopedic condition of bone hyperplasia—it presents case records with medical discussions and commentaries, and is especially strong on the diagnosis and treatment of hepatitis, nephritis, prostatitis, and bone hyperplasia. The third, "Notes from the Clinic," contains more than fifty short pieces on the modernization of Chinese medicine, treatment based on pattern differentiation, the use of single and proven remedies, the selection of case records, and the cultivation of the physician, and includes the full text of the 1946 essay "A Physician's Talk on Medicine." The fourth, "Chronology," traces his life and contributions to Chinese medicine year by year. The reasoning throughout is concise and the writing clear, making the book useful for clinical reference and academic research.