Fu Renyu 傅仁宇

6 volumes, 8vo (254 x 160mm.), with a yellow title-page 眼科大全 Yan ke da quan [Great compendium of ophthalmology], fishtail decoration in margins, 22 woodcut illustrations (13 full-page in volume 6), in modern blue paper wrappers sewn in the eastern style, within blue buckram case, a few paper flaws or repairs slightly affecting text

Paul U. Unschuld, Medicine in China: a history of ideas (University of California Press, 1985), p.147

Condition is described in the main body of the cataloguing, where appropriate
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NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

FIRST AND ONLY EDITION of this influential Chinese ophthalmological work, which records different eye diseases, including 108 syndromes and 308 prescriptions. It describes for the first time (and in great detail) the cataract operation in a Buddhist context. The treatise emphasizes the importance of the "golden needle", jinzhen, surgical treatments of cataracts as well as further ophthalmological techniques such as the use of "hooks", gou, "cutting", ge, "needling", zhen, and "branding", lao. The section on the cataract operation has been translated into French by Alain Tribut and into English by Paul Unschuld.