Jin Gui Yao Lue: Essential Prescriptions from the Golden Cabinet Kindle Edition

Jīn Guì Yào Lüè (Essential Prescriptions of the Golden Cabinet)—the companion to the Shāng Hán Lùn (On Cold Damage)—is one of the most influential clinical classics in Chinese medicine. Traditionally attributed to the Hàn dynasty physician Zhāng Jī (Zhāng Zhòngjǐng), its formulas and diagnostic reasoning have shaped practice for nearly 2,000 years.Unlike the Shāng Hán Lùn, which focuses on externally contracted disorders (especially wind-cold), the Jīn Guì Yào Lüè centers on miscellaneous diseases—internal and complex conditions not explained primarily by external contraction. It spans 25 chapters and covers a wide range of disorders and clinical patterns, including lung disease, water swelling, dissipation-thirst, impediment (bì), summerheat, mounting disorders, and gynecological conditions.This edition is designed for serious study and clinical reference. Each chapter includes an introduction to the material, followed by the original lines of the text in simplified Chinese characters, pīnyīn, and English translation, with notes that clarify obscure phrases, synopses of each passage, and detailed explanatory commentaries. The final sections include miscellaneous formulas and foodstuffs.Ideal for clinicians, students, and readers seeking a close, text-centered presentation of a core formulary classic—with the linguistic and editorial support needed to study it carefully.Textual history (from the Introduction by Sabine Wilms)The received text reflects a complex transmission history. During the 11th century, the Sòng imperial court ordered major medical classics to be collated, annotated, and reissued. The “miscellaneous diseases” portion of the earlier corpus had not survived intact, so editors reconstructed and organized the Jīn Guì Yào Lüè using quotations in other classics and related sources. The resulting Sòng revision—rearranged by disease categories into 25 chapters and supplemented with select prescriptions—has remained the standard edition underlying later printings, including the present work. Read more