Abstract
This case, like a number of others, lacks any initial data about the patient except his surname and the fact he is sick with Cold Damage disorder. Xu does tell us that a certain doctor treated the patient with no success. Xu explains that inducing sweating is at times inappropriate. He warns physicians to use this treatment prudently. Once Xu explains the pathology of the case, he concludes that the patient will die, and that treatment is useless. A lengthy quotation from the Basic Questions follows. Xu does not comment on it, but simply states that the patient died a half day later. It seems that given the grave prognosis, Xu decided to quote from the most important medical canon to support it, and did not want to elaborate on it further and let it speak for itself.
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Notes
- 1.
Or in a village.
- 2.
Xu is alluding to a manifestation type in which the major symptom is that the whole body feels hot.
- 3.
This is a heat disorder originating in yang pathogen entering the yin aspect. Following a sweating treatment, heat sensations erupt again with the additional symptoms recorded above. The cause of this disorder is external yang qi pathogen that merges with pathogenic internal yin qi. The result overcomes the body’s own vitalities, killing the patient. See Zhongyi da cidian, 2nd ed., p. 746.
- 4.
In other words, the disease is incurable, so the physician declines to treat it.
- 5.
- 6.
Essence (jing 精) is fine qi that is able to transform from the qi of one thing to that of another (as semen from the father produces a new fetus, and jing from the seed produces the mature plant). See Sivin 1987, pp. 242–243 and Zhongyi da cidian, 2nd ed., p. 1907.
- 7.
Orthopatic Qi (Jing qi 精氣) is synonym with zhengqi 正氣, which is the qi defending the body from within. See Zhongyi da cidian, 2nd ed., p. 1907 and Sivin 1987, pp. 49 and 237–238.
- 8.
Scholars and commentators disagree about the meaning of bi 俾. According to Liu and Li 2006 (Xu Shuwei yixue quanshu), p. 70, note 7, 俾 should be 裨.
Bibliography
Other Sources:
Guo, Aichun 郭靄春, editor. 1992. Huangdi neijing suwen jiaozhu 黃帝內經素問校注 [Yellow Emperor’s Inner Canon: Basic Question – critically annotated]. Beijing: Renmin weisheng, 1992 (2 vols).
Sivin, Nathan 1987. Traditional Medicine in Contemporary China. Science, Medicine, & Technology in East Asia 2. Ann Arbor: Center for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan.
Unschuld, Paul U. and Hermann Tessenow (with the assistance of Zheng Jingsheng). 2011. Huang Di Nei Jing Su Wen: An Annotated Translation of Huang Di’s Inner Classic: Basic Questions. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
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Goldschmidt, A. (2019). Case Number 56. 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_57
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