The Yuzuan yizong jinjian ( Chinese: 御纂醫宗金鑑; pinyin: Yùzuǎn yīzōng jīnjiàn) [a] is a Chinese medical compendium published in 1742 AD, during the Qing dynasty. Described as "one of the best treatises on general medicine of modern times", it was a project sanctioned by the Qianlong Emperor and published by the Imperial Printing Office.
The text is divided into ninety juan or volumes: seventy-four volumes pertain to internal medicine, while the remaining sixteen concern general surgery. [4] More than a quarter of the text reproduces, with added commentary, two parts of an earlier work written by Zhang Zhongjing, the Shanghan zabing lun (Treatise on Cold Damage and Miscellaneous Disorders); [5] Zhang's work is presented by the authors of the Yuzuan yizong jinjian as foundational to Chinese medical orthodoxy. [6]
It also contains what is "probably the largest ensemble of illustrations in a single Chinese medical text", with some 484 such depictions of the human body, ranging from images of children's hands to a "one-page array of 24 anuses". [7] Depictions of smallpox—a disease that was especially deadly to the ruling Manchurians—are particularly prominent and detailed. [8]
An initiative of the Qianlong Emperor that was announced on 17 December 1739, [9] the Yuzuan yizong jinjian was published in 1742 by the Imperial Printing Office, [2] which designated it as a national textbook. [10] The text had some eighty contributors, including thirty-nine members of the Imperial Academy of Medicine, [2] most of whom came from the Jiangnan region, [3] specifically the southern provinces of Anhui, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang. [11] Imperial Physicians [b] Wu Qian (吳謙) and Liu Yuduo (劉裕鐸) served as editors-in-chief, [12] under the supervision of Manchu official Ortai. [4]
The Yuzuan yizong jinjian has been noted for "its breadth, editorial accuracy, medical coverage, and use of mnemonic rhymes". [13] Moreover, it has "attained the status of a canonical medical classic which, even today, remains obligatory reading for scholars and practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine." [14] K. Chimin Wong and Liande Wu, writing in the History of Chinese Medicine (1973), describe the text as "one of the best treatises on general medicine of modern times." [15]
The Yuzuan yizong jinjian ( Chinese: 御纂醫宗金鑑; pinyin: Yùzuǎn yīzōng jīnjiàn) [a] is a Chinese medical compendium published in 1742 AD, during the Qing dynasty. Described as "one of the best treatises on general medicine of modern times", it was a project sanctioned by the Qianlong Emperor and published by the Imperial Printing Office.
The text is divided into ninety juan or volumes: seventy-four volumes pertain to internal medicine, while the remaining sixteen concern general surgery. [4] More than a quarter of the text reproduces, with added commentary, two parts of an earlier work written by Zhang Zhongjing, the Shanghan zabing lun (Treatise on Cold Damage and Miscellaneous Disorders); [5] Zhang's work is presented by the authors of the Yuzuan yizong jinjian as foundational to Chinese medical orthodoxy. [6]
It also contains what is "probably the largest ensemble of illustrations in a single Chinese medical text", with some 484 such depictions of the human body, ranging from images of children's hands to a "one-page array of 24 anuses". [7] Depictions of smallpox—a disease that was especially deadly to the ruling Manchurians—are particularly prominent and detailed. [8]
An initiative of the Qianlong Emperor that was announced on 17 December 1739, [9] the Yuzuan yizong jinjian was published in 1742 by the Imperial Printing Office, [2] which designated it as a national textbook. [10] The text had some eighty contributors, including thirty-nine members of the Imperial Academy of Medicine, [2] most of whom came from the Jiangnan region, [3] specifically the southern provinces of Anhui, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang. [11] Imperial Physicians [b] Wu Qian (吳謙) and Liu Yuduo (劉裕鐸) served as editors-in-chief, [12] under the supervision of Manchu official Ortai. [4]
The Yuzuan yizong jinjian has been noted for "its breadth, editorial accuracy, medical coverage, and use of mnemonic rhymes". [13] Moreover, it has "attained the status of a canonical medical classic which, even today, remains obligatory reading for scholars and practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine." [14] K. Chimin Wong and Liande Wu, writing in the History of Chinese Medicine (1973), describe the text as "one of the best treatises on general medicine of modern times." [15]