The Literature Study On Pulse Classic Written By Wang Shuhe

The Pulse Classic written by Wang Shuhe is a great book which not only compiled but also summarized the medical classics before Wei dynasty. This book had an important effect on later literatures in TCM literature fields. And it was highly praised by Lin Yi, the scholar of Song dynasty.On the basis of ancient research, the author discussed this book systematically from five aspects -- the nature of the book, his life and books of Wang Shuhe, the different versions of the book, the relative reference books, and the correction and annotation of the book.Danbo Yuanyin, a Japanese scholar, considered Pulse Classic as a kind of diagnosis book. While in TCM history, it was regarded as a specialized book of pulse in the TCM history. Through complete and thorough research, the author verified that the book is an integration book, which helpsto identify its value and medical position in academic history TCM, whether in evaluating it correctly, or in inheriting and utilizing it.There are a lot of arguments about his life and hometown of Wang Shuhe, for Wang Shuhe wasn't recorded in the official history, and there were little historical materials in existing literatures. So through collecting and analyzing the data of literary history and medicine, the author draw the following conclusion,·Wang Shuhe, his name is Xi, his courtesy name is Xing;·Wang Shuhe was born in Gaoping country of Shandong province, which located at Guoli village in the southwest of Zou county;·Wang Shuhe had been living in the same age as Zhong Xuan and Wei Xun, and he was older than Huang Fumi;·Wang Shuhe was once an officer doctor of imperial family, and died at Xiangyang courty of Hubei province;·The previous researchers considered that Wang Shuhe's books included the following, e.g. Zhangzhongjingyaofang. Pulse classic, Wangshuhelunbing, Xinji (shu)bingzongyaolue, Maijue, and Haizimailun, etc. But through detailed study, the author discovered that only the former two books among the above were indeed written by himself, while the others were not.The versions of Pulse Classic were separated into two systems, one is He Daren system, and the other is Long Xingben system. The author compared, and further studied these two different systems also including supplementing some important relative research. As a result, the author found 696 differences between the two systems. Among these differences, 276 differences in He-system were superior to that of Long-system, 150 differences in Long-system were superior to that of He-system, and 270 differences couldn't be distinguished. Generally speaking, He-system is better than Long-system. The earliest version of He-system was engraved by Guangqin publishing house of Yuan dynasty. The style and sequence of this version wasn't the same as the original of He-system and there were some mistakes in the version of Guangqin publishing house because of duplication. And the version engraved by someone of Ming dynasty was the only similar edition to the original edition of Song dynasty.Pulse Classic cited a lot of ancient literatures such as Huangdineijing, Maifazan and Sishijing, the books of Zhang Zhongjing and Hua Tuo. The author studied the format, pattern and appellation of the literature. We did a lot of textual research on cited person and cited book on basis of record of literary and history and bibliography and comparison of text. And the paper firstly did textual research on cited person of Pulse Classic such as Wang, Ruan, Fu, Dai, Wu, Ge, Lv, Zhang who were cited in foreword of Pulse Classic. This research also had a significant effect on probing the origin and theory source of Pulse Classic. Additionally the paper did a lot of work on the cited book of Pulse Classic such as Suwen, Zhenjing, Nanjing, Shanghanlun, Jinguiyaolue. We compared the text of Pulse Classic with that of the above the four books. We analyzed the lost ancient medical book such as Maifazan,Sishijing, Zhangzhongjinglunmai, Bianqueyinyangmaifa, Bianquemaifa, Bianquehuatuochashengse yaojue, Bianqiezhenzhufannisimaiyaojue, Shoujiantu and so on. The research will have a significant effect in studying of ancient literature and origin of learning of traditional Chinese medicine.The version of Pulse Classic annotated by Lin Yi was the original version inherited in later ages. And from the prospective of philology, the author also discussed the annotation methods of Lin Yi in detail. In conclusion, the paper will be helpful not only in probing the original contents of Pulse Classic, but also in collating the ancient medical books for the modern society.After its publication, Pulse Classic was cited by lots of doctors of later ages, such as Chao Yuanfang of Sui dynasty, Sun Simiao and Wang Tao of Tang dynasty, and so on. The book was called as the medical masterpiece in china, and to some extent, it had influenced the world medicine.