Complete Compendium of Sore Medicine

The Complete Compendium of Sore Medicine is a monumental work that no history of Chinese external medicine can bypass. Completed in the twenty-fifth year of the Qianlong reign, it was the life's work of Gu Shicheng, a commoner physician who spent thirty years gathering the writings and proven formulas of masters from the Inner Canon and the Classic of Difficult Issues through the great surgeons of successive dynasties down to his own contemporaries, adding his own clinical insights and secret family formulas passed down through two generations. It stands as the great synthesis of Chinese medical knowledge of external diseases before the Qing. Three qualities are especially commendable. First, its scope: though titled a work of sore medicine, it ranges across internal medicine, gynecology, pediatrics, dermatology, andrology, and even emergency medicine, encompassing every condition with observable external signs. Second, its empirical rigor: it organizes patterns by body region, provides illustrations and explanations, matches formulas to patterns, and cites its sources, making it easy for readers to trace ideas to their origins. Third, its preservation of practical experience: it records anesthesia, surgical steps, suturing and hemostasis, and postoperative care, making it an important source for understanding the level of surgery in ancient Chinese medicine. This edition is part of the Ming and Qing Masters of Chinese Medicine series from China Press of Traditional Chinese Medicine, collated and annotated by Ye Chuan and Xia Zhiqiu, set in simplified horizontal type with annotations, and far easier to study than the old traditional-character lithographic editions. For clinicians in Chinese external medicine and dermatology as well as scholars of Chinese medical literature, this is a classic worth keeping at one's desk for constant reference.