(Yuzuan) Yizong jinjian (御纂)醫宗金鑑

(Yuzuan) Yizong jinjian (御纂)醫宗金鑑 "Golden mirror of medical principles" is a series of medical texts compiled by Wu Qian 吳謙 and Liu Yuduo 劉裕鐸 (1686-1757), acting on imperial order, and finished in 1739. It includes 15 texts with a total length of 90 juan.

Wu Qian, courtesy name Liuji 六吉, hailed from Shexian 歙縣, Anhui, and was xxx 太醫院判. The series includes important texts of Chinese medicine of all aspects, from theory to diagnosis (zhenduan 診斷), methods and recipes (fanji 方劑) of all medical fields, acupuncture and moxibustion (zhenjiu 針灸) as well as yoga-style exercises (yunqi 運氣). Two commentaries, Dingzheng Shanglanlun zhu 訂正傷寒論注, and Dingzheng Jingui yaolüe zhu 訂正金匱要略注, were written by Wu Qian himself.

Figure 1. Images from the Yizong jinjian 醫宗金鑑

Waike xinfa yaojue 外科心法要訣, ch. 4, illustrations of the diseases "lower back cellulitis" (xia dashou下搭手) and "lotus-seed onset" (lianzi fa 蓮子發). Source: Staatsbibliothek Berlin, Slg. Unschuld 8482.

The collection includes the most important aspects of contemporary Chinese medicine, and provided the latest state of the art, with illustrations, descriptions and propositions formulated in lyrical shape. It was therefore wide spread, and is also included in the imperial series Siku quanshu 四庫全書. The oldest print, produced by the Wuyingdian Hall 武英殿, dates from 1742. In 1876, the Jiangxi Shuju 江西書局 produced another print. A modern edition was first published in 1954 by the Jinzhang Shuju 錦章書局, and another one in 1953 by the Renmin Weisheng Press 人民衛生出版社.