望诊遵经
1.敘
而施之。適足以殺人。爾學醫有年矣。抑亦知其要否。予起而對曰。昔軒轅氏定本草。作內經。盧扁雷桐。莫不遵其規矩。漢晉唐宋。鮮能出其範圍。今讀其遺文。會其旨趣。其法門有二。一曰診。一曰治。望聞問切者。診法也。針灸藥石者。治法也。將欲治之。必先診之。非診無以知其病。非診無以知其治也。顧欲知其診之所當然。究其診之所以然。則凡天地古今之理。南北高下之宜。歲時氣候之殊。晝夜陰晴之變。以至賦稟強弱之不齊。老少居養之各異。莫不著見於四診焉。豈但明乎血氣經絡皮肉筋骨。與夫病之五臟六腑。症之七情六淫也哉。蓋著乎外者。本乎內。見於彼者。由於此。因端可以竟委。溯流可以窮源。是故寒熱補瀉之法。因診而定。標本先後之理。因診而分。七方十劑八法九針。莫不因診而決用舍焉。昔賢所謂明理者。明此理也。辨證者。辨此證也。理不明。則證莫能辨。證不辨。則治莫能分。故治病必須知診。診病必須遵經。予先君曰。入門矣。未入於室也。經文深奧。診法精微。既已識其大綱。尤當考其細目。慎之哉。窮理盡性之事也。格物致知之功也。身家之所寄託。生死之所相關也。詩云。如切如磋。如琢如磨。勉旃勉旃。餘退而志之。恆以自警焉。今著遵經。有感於是。因書篇首。以告後人。\x光緒元年三月上浣新安汪宏廣氏書於西安航埠\x
And then apply it. This is just enough to kill a person. You have studied medicine for years now. Do you also know its essentials? I rose and replied: In former times Xuanyuan established the Materia Medica and composed the Neijing. Lu, Bian, Lei, and Tong all followed its rules and standards; throughout Han, Jin, Tang, and Song, few could go beyond its scope. Now reading the texts they left behind and grasping their purport, their methods are of two kinds: the first is diagnosis, the second is treatment. Inspection, listening, inquiry, and palpation are diagnostic methods; acupuncture, moxibustion, medicinals, and stone needling are treatment methods. If one wishes to treat, one must first diagnose; without diagnosis there is no way to know the disease, and without diagnosis there is no way to know its treatment. Yet if one wishes to know what diagnosis should be and to investigate why diagnosis is so, then all the principles of heaven and earth, ancient and modern, the suitability of north and south, high and low, the differences of seasonal climate, the changes of day and night, clear and cloudy, and even the unevenness of endowed constitution, strong or weak, and the differing dwelling and nurture of old and young—none of these fails to manifest in the four diagnoses. How much more than merely understanding the blood, qi, meridians and collaterals, skin, flesh, sinews, and bones, and the disease's five zang and six fu, and the symptoms of the seven emotions and six excesses! For what manifests outwardly is rooted inwardly; what appears there arises from this. By the tip one may reach the end; by following the stream one may reach the source. Therefore the methods of cold, heat, supplementation, and drainage are determined by diagnosis; the principles of root and branch, first and last, are distinguished by diagnosis; the seven prescriptions, ten preparations, eight methods, and nine needles—none fails to decide use or rejection by diagnosis. What the former worthies called clarifying principle is clarifying this principle; what they called differentiating patterns is differentiating these patterns. If principle is not clarified, patterns cannot be differentiated; if patterns are not differentiated, treatment cannot be distinguished. Thus to treat disease one must know diagnosis; to diagnose disease one must follow the classics. My late father said: You have entered the gate, but not yet entered the chamber. The classic texts are profound, and diagnostic methods are subtle. Since you have already recognized the general outline, you should especially examine the details. Be cautious! This is the task of exhausting principle and fulfilling nature; the work of investigating things and extending knowledge; that on which body and family depend, and to which life and death are bound. The Odes say: As if cut, as if filed; as if carved, as if polished. Strive on, strive on. I withdrew and recorded it, constantly using it to warn myself. Now, in composing Zunjing, moved by this, I write it at the beginning of the book to inform later people. Written by Wang Hong, style Guang, of Xin'an, in the first third of the third month of the first year of Guangxu, at the Hangbu of Xi'an.