Early 18th-century Chinese woodcut illustrating an infection of the upper and lower eyelid, fromYizong jinjian: Waike xinfa(The Golden Mirror Of Medicine: Essential Knowledge and Secrets of External Medicine).A medical anthology in 90 juan (volumes/fascicles),Yizong jinjianwas executed as an imperial commission by Wu Qian (Qing period, 1644-1911) et al., and printed in Beijing at Wuyingdian (the Hall of Martial Prowess - the imperial printing house) in 1742 (7th year of the Qianlong reign period of the Qing dynasty).Waike xinfais one of 15 monographs included in the anthology. It is a systematic treatise on Chinese external medicine in 16 volumes. It covers the system of channel (meridians), ulcers and abscesses (yongju), and the treatment of external conditions of various parts of the body.It contains 266 illustrations.
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Early 18th-century Chinese woodcut illustrating blepharitis (yanbaoyan), fromYizong jinjian: Waike xinfa(The Golden Mirror Of Medicine: Essential Knowledge and Secrets of External Medicine).A medical anthology in 90 juan (volumes/fascicles),Yizong jinjianwas executed as an imperial commission by Wu Qian (Qing period, 1644-1911) et al., and printed in Beijing at Wuyingdian (the Hall of Martial Prowess - the imperial printing house) in 1742 (7th year of the Qianlong reign period of the Qing dynasty).Waike xinfais one of 15 monographs included in the anthology. It is a systematic treatise on Chinese external medicine in 16 volumes. It covers the system of channel (meridians), ulcers and abscesses (yongju), and the treatment of external conditions of various parts of the body.It contains 266 illustrations.
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Early 18th-century Chinese woodcut illustrating 'pepper sore' (jiao chuang) of the eyelid, fromYizong jinjian: Waike xinfa(The Golden Mirror Of Medicine: Essential Knowledge and Secrets of External Medicine).A medical anthology in 90 juan (volumes/fascicles),Yizong jinjianwas executed as an imperial commission by Wu Qian (Qing period, 1644-1911) et al., and printed in Beijing at Wuyingdian (the Hall of Martial Prowess - the imperial printing house) in 1742 (7th year of the Qianlong reign period of the Qing dynasty).Waike xinfais one of 15 monographs included in the anthology. It is a systematic treatise on Chinese external medicine in 16 volumes. It covers the system of channel (meridians), ulcers and abscesses (yongju), and the treatment of external conditions of various parts of the body.It contains 266 illustrations.
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Early 18th-century Chinese woodcut illustrating millet-like sores/rash (suchuang) on the eyelid, fromYizong jinjian:Waike xinfa(The Golden Mirror Of Medicine: Essential Knowledge and Secrets of External Medicine).A medical anthology in 90 juan (volumes/fascicles),Yizong jinjianwas executed as an imperial commission by Wu Qian (Qing period, 1644-1911) et al., and printed in Beijing at Wuyingdian (the Hall of Martial Prowess - the imperial printing house) in 1742 (7th year of the Qianlong reign period of the Qing dynasty).Waike xinfais one of 15 monographs included in the anthology. It is a systematic treatise on Chinese external medicine in 16 volumes. It covers the system of channel (meridians), ulcers and abscesses (yongju), and the treatment of external conditions of all parts of the body.It contains 266 illustrations.
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Early 18th-century Chinese woodcut illustrating a condition (pifan zheng, reversed skin disease) in which the eyelid turns inside-out. FromYizong jinjian: Waike xinfa(The Golden Mirror Of Medicine: Essential Knowledge and Secrets of External Medicine).A medical anthology in 90 juan (volumes/fascicles),Yizong jinjianwas executed as an imperial commission by Wu Qian (Qing period, 1644-1911) et al., and printed in Beijing at Wuyingdian (the Hall of Martial Prowess - the imperial printing house) in 1742 (7th year of the Qianlong reign period of the Qing dynasty).Waike xinfais one of 15 monographs included in the anthology. It is a systematic treatise on Chinese external medicine in 16 volumes. It covers the system of channel (meridians), ulcers and abscesses (yongju), and the treatment of external conditions of various parts of the body.It contains 266 illustrations.
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Early 18th-century Chinese woodcut illustrating 'Weeping eye' sore (loujing chuang), fromYizong jinjian: Waike xinfa(The Golden Mirror Of Medicine: Essential Knowledge and Secrets of External Medicine).A medical anthology in 90 juan (volumes/fascicles),Yizong jinjianwas executed as an imperial commission by Wu Qian (Qing period, 1644-1911) et al., and printed in Beijing at Wuyingdian (the Hall of Martial Prowess - the imperial printing house) in 1742 (7th year of the Qianlong reign period of the Qing dynasty).Waike xinfais one of 15 monographs included in the anthology. It is a systematic treatise on Chinese external medicine in 16 volumes. It covers the system of channel (meridians), ulcers and abscesses (yongju), and the treatment of external conditions of various parts of the body.It contains 266 illustrations.
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woodcut illustrating the 17th century Chinese medical textYangyi daquan(Great Compendium of The Medicine of Sores) Gu Shicheng, from an edition published in 1901 (27th year of the Guangxu reign period of the Qing dynasty). This is a schematic drawing of the eye, showing the 'five spheres' (wu lun), i.e. diagnostic sectors, marked with the words heart (xin), kidney (shen), liver (gan), spleen (pi) and lung (fei). In early Chinese medicine, a close connection was believed to exist between pathological changes in these five sectors and the physiology and pathology of the corresponding viscera. The five spheres comprise the flesh sphere (rou lun), the blood sphere (xue lun), the Qi sphere (qi lun), the wind sphere (feng lun) and the water sphere (shui lun). The flesh sphere consists of the upper and lower eyelids, and corresponds to the spleen. Since the spleen, which governs the muscles, stands in an external-internal relationship to the stomach, pathologies of this sector are related to both the spleen and the stomach. On the same principle, pathologies of the blood sphere, which consists of the inner and outer canthus (the corners of the eyes), are related to the heart and small intestine. The Qi sphere is the white of the eye, and its pathologies are related to the lung and large intestine. The wind sphere is the cornea, and its pathologies are related to the liver and gall bladder. Water sphere refers to the pupil, and its pathologies are related to the kidney and bladder.

Wellcome Images
Keywords: Medicine, Chinese Traditional; Wu lun; eye diagnosis; Diagnosis; Orbiculi

woodcut illustrating the 17th century Chinese medical textYangyi daquan(Great Compendium of The Medicine of Sores) Gu Shicheng, from an edition published in 1901 (27th year of the Guangxu reign period of the Qing dynasty). It shows the Eight Regions (ba kuo) of the eye, according to Chinese medicine. The external parts of the eye were divided into eight diagnostic sectors, each of which was supposed to relate pathologically to a particular internal organ. They take their names from eight natural phenomena, or the Eight Trigrams, i.e. sky or heaven (qian), earth (kun), wind (xun), thunder (zhen), marshes and lakes (dui), mountains (gen), fire (li) and water (kan).

Wellcome Images
Keywords: Medicine, Chinese Traditional; Ba kuo (eight regions); Diagnosis; eye diagnosis

woodcut from the Chinese Ming (1368-1644) medical textMichuan yanke quanshu(Secretly Transmitted Compendium of Ophthalmology), in a Japanese edition published in Osaka in 1824 (7th year of the Bunsei era). It illustrates the condition known as infectiouschiyan('red-eye' - conjunctivitis, etc.). This is attributed to an epidemic of toxic Qi. The text notes that, if one person catches the disease, the entire household frequently becomes infected. In this condition, the eye becomes swollen and painful, narrowed and hard to open. It is treated externally by washing five times with a warm decoction of Golden Thread (huanglian) child's urine, to get rid of the poisons of malign Qi. One should then use eyedrops composed of figwort flower (hu huanglian), Chinese goldthread, (huanglian), alum (mingfan) and realgar (xionghuang), ground into a fine powderand mixed with ginger juice. For internal drug treatment, one can choose from liver-purging powder (xiegan san), eight-ingredient rectification powder (bazheng san), etc.

Wellcome Images
Keywords: Medicine, Chinese Traditional; eye Diseases; Disease typology; eye Infections; Pathologic Processes; Ophthalmology; eye