Understanding Yin Fox Hernia in Synopsis of the Golden Chamber Based on Excavated Qin and Han Medical Manuscripts
In the early Western Han Dynasty,fox disease and hernia disease were two distinct conditions.Fox disease was characterized by symptoms that appeared and disappeared intermittently,often accompanied by lower abdominal pain,while hernia disease was marked by pain in the heart and abdomen.Although both conditions shared abdominal pain symptoms,fox disease gradually merged into the cat-egory of hernia.By the late Western Han Dynasty or early Eastern Han Dynasty,during the compilation of Huangdi's Internal Classic,fox disease and hernia were already showing signs of merging.The unilateral hernia mentioned in the excavated Pulse Classic was referred to as fox hernia in Huangdi's Internal Classic,providing evidence of this fusion.During this period,the concept of hernia expanded.In Cang Gong's era,women also suffered from hernia,but later,it became limited to men.In Synopsis of the Golden Chamber,there is the term yin fox hernia,where yin fox refers to a condition located below the navel,with symptoms that appear and disappear occasionally,often accompanied by lower abdominal pain,while hernia presents with abdominal pain.Thus,Zhang Zhongjing combined the two condi-tions into yin fox hernia.However,it still retains elements of the earlier fox disease,indicating that fox disease and hernia had not yet fully merged.Additionally,in Synopsis of the Golden Chamber,the term fox delusion names for its symptoms that appear and disappear unpredictably.This suggests that the concept of yin fox hernia in Synopsis of the Golden Chamber reflects more characteristics of early Qin and Han medical practices compared to Huangdi's Internal Classic,and it can be inferred that its content may preserve more early medical knowledge.
yin fox herniafox diseasehernia diseaseSynopsis of the Golden ChamberZhang Zhongjing
万方数据
维普
