Qing Era Chinese Medicine Books on Warm Disease, Fever, and Clinical Diagnosis: Ye Pi Wenre Jingwei, Five Thread Bound Volumes

Qing Era Chinese Medicine Books

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Chinese warm disease medicine in five thread bound volumes, early twentieth century, transmitting the Qing physician Wang Shixiong’s Wenre Jingwei through a Republican era edition issued by the Shanghai World Book Company and newly edited by the Shenzhou Medical Society. The work belongs to the wenbing tradition that developed a specialized account of externally contracted warm diseases, including febrile and epidemic disorders, their progression through the body, diagnostic signs, and appropriate therapeutic responses. Wang Shixiong, also known as Wang Mengying, compiled the original Wenre Jingwei in 1852, organizing earlier medical classics and the writings of Qing specialists including Ye Tianshi, Xue Shengbai, Chen Pingbo, and Yu Shiyu. Its title describes that method explicitly: classical medical authorities provide the “warp” (jing), while later specialists supply the “weft” (wei). This five volume edition documents the continued circulation of that Qing synthesis through the commercial and institutional medical publishing culture of Republican Shanghai.

Shenzhou Medical Society, ed. Ye Pi Wenre Jingwei [叶批温热经纬, “Ye Annotated Warp and Weft of Warm and Hot Diseases”]. Shanghai: Shanghai World Book Company [上海世界书局], early twentieth century. Five volumes, complete, approximately 4.5 x 8 inches, Chinese text, traditional thread bound format. The covers identify the work vertically as “叶批温热经纬,” with “神州医学社新编” identifying the Shenzhou Medical Society as editor and “上海世界书局发行” identifying the Shanghai World Book Company as distributor; individual volumes are numbered 一 through 五. The photographed text includes discussions of wenbing pathology and passages addressing heat disorders, sweating, pulse signs, pathogenic qi, internal and external manifestations, and the differentiation of disorders according to their clinical presentation. One section explicitly identifies “仲景疫病篇,” placing Zhang Zhongjing’s medical authority within the work’s layered presentation of warm disease theory, while other passages preserve the later clinical tradition associated with Ye Tianshi. Dense commentary is set around or above portions of the principal text, materially displaying the accumulated structure of Chinese medical learning: an inherited medical passage followed by interpretation, qualification, and practical instruction.

Wenre Jingwei emerged after several generations of Qing physicians had developed wenbing into a body of theory addressing illnesses whose patterns could not be accommodated neatly within conventional readings of cold damage medicine. Wang Shixiong’s compilation organized that inheritance by bringing foundational medical texts into direct relation with the clinical writings of more recent physicians, particularly Ye Tianshi and other authorities associated with warm disease and epidemic medicine. The Republican edition shown here carried that nineteenth century synthesis into a period of intense reorganization in Chinese medicine, when Shanghai publishers and medical societies reproduced classical and Qing medical works for practitioners and students confronting both established Chinese nosology and the growing institutional presence of Western medicine. The five small volumes retain the physical conventions of traditional Chinese book production, including vertical text, double leaves, and exposed thread binding, while their Shanghai commercial imprint belongs to a modern publishing network that circulated medical knowledge well beyond the manuscript and locally cut editions through which such texts had previously traveled. Qing texts were deliberately given the appearance of older books. Complete with no present sign of wear, early twentieth century copies produced a method of faux aging techniques using tea and plant dyes shown here. Overall very good condition. Overall good condition. Five volume transmission of Qing warm disease medicine, preserving the textual sequence by which classical medical authority, nineteenth century clinical commentary, and practical diagnosis were carried into twentieth century Chinese medical study.

Item #23878

Price: $550.00