Abstract
In this case Xu Shuwei is treating an official’s sister who seems to have a mental or psychological condition. First she raved and acted as if she had seen a ghost, becoming totally uncommunicative. Xu attributes this to problem with the xue [blood] and asks the patient’s mother about her daughter’s menstrual cycle. The mother claims that the daughter had just begun to menstruate. Although Chinese physicians more often than not used major symptoms and pulse diagnosis as the primary tools for differential diagnosis, listening to the patient or her family members was also part of the process. The fact that Xu inquires about xue [blood] in a female patient reminds us that the gendered perception of the body had long since become prevalent. Xu uses the Treatise’s reasoning to explain how the pathology causes this mental condition. He claims that it occurs only at night.
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- 1.
- 2.
The last two characters of Wang’s name are identical to the last two characters in the name of Zhang Zhongjing, the author of the Treatise. This is probably not a coincidence but it is not clear what Xu Shuwei intended by this.
- 3.
See note 3, Case Number 4, above.
- 4.
There is a discrepancy between different editions of the book concerning a character in this case history. In some we find “昏寒” (in the Xuxiu siku quanshu 续修四库全书 vol. 0984 and in the Linlang mishi congshu 琳瑯秘室叢書 vol. 11) while in another we find “昏塞” (Zhongguo yixue dacheng 中国医学大成 vol. 4). Since the latter is a common technical term and the former does not appear in Song medical treatises, I translate the term “confused.”
- 5.
- 6.
The meaning of ‘Blood Chamber’ is unclear. Annotators have taken this term to mean one or more of the following: the womb, the lower abdomen in a female, the thoroughfare circulation tracts, or the liver. For further discussion see Mitchell, Ye, and Wiseman 1999, p. 378 and Zhongyi da cidian, 2nd ed., p. 659. Since Xu is discussing a woman’s disorder, assume that he refers to the womb or the lower abdomen. For further discussion see Furth 1999, pp. 70–84; Wilms 2005, pp. 83–88; and Wu 2010, pp. 92–97.
- 7.
See Porkert 1974, 107–108, and Sivin 1987, 124–133. The triple jiao, often incorrectly translated as “triple burner,” “triple warmer,” or “triple heater,” is one of the six fu visceral systems of functions in the body. No one has yet proposed a defensible translation of jiao, nor can I, so I do not translate the word. See also Case Number 15.
- 8.
This powder is also discussed in Xu’s Puji benshi fang, 8: 148. There he quotes the source of this powder, the Formulary of the Nine Pipes to Defend Life (九龠衛生方, compiled between 1119 and 1125). This formulary was compiled by a member of the imperial clan, Zhao Shiyu 趙士紆, also know as Zhao Shiyan 趙士衍 (see, Zhizhai shulu jieti, juan 13). The only other record of this formula appears in the formulary titled. Wei Family’s Formulas (魏氏家藏方, printed 1227).
- 9.
The text mentions two time segments not hours, but this is the ancient Chinese notation in which each shi (‘Chinese’ hour) is equal to 2 h of modern time.
- 10.
See Scheid et al 2009, pp. 104–109.
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Goldschmidt, A. (2019). Case Number 16. In: Medical Practice in Twelfth-century China – A Translation of Xu Shuwei’s Ninety Discussions [Cases] on Cold Damage Disorders. Archimedes, vol 54. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-06103-6_17
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