Liu Wansu (劉完素) | 24 Histories

Overview

The translated histories identify Liu Wansu as a hermit, physician, scholar, and writer. This record brings together 10 passages from 1 chapter across 1 history, with names, dates, relationships, offices, and events preserved as source-backed claims.

Names

Type	English	Chinese	Pinyin
Personal	Liu Wansu	劉完素	Liu Wansu
Nickname	Hermit Who Penetrates the Origin	通元處士
Alternate	Liu Shouzhen	劉守真	Liu Shouzhen
Courtesy	Shouzhen	守真	Shouzhen

Identity

Historicity: Historical
Identification: Named
Sex: Male

Sex: male
Explicit · jinshi:131:s0057

Roles

Hermit
Physician
Scholar
Writer

Life and dates

Attested activity

Source Date: Text: 金世 · Western Interval: Start: AD 1115 · End: AD 1234
Explicit · jinshi:131:s0055, jinshi:131:s0057

Career and standing

Label: physician / 醫
Explicit · jinshi:131:s0058

Places and affiliations

Polity: Jin / 金 · Relation: served
Explicit · jinshi:131:s0006, jinshi:131:s0055
Place: Hejian / 河間
Explicit · jinshi:131:s0057

Learning and skills

Skill: medicine / 醫術 · Level: master
Explicit · jinshi:131:s0058

Works and attributed material

Work: Clarifying the Essentials of the Subtle / 精要宣明論 · Relation: author
Explicit · jinshi:131:s0059
Work: Essentials of Circulating Qi / 運氣要旨論 · Relation: author
Explicit · jinshi:131:s0059
Work: Patterns of Disease from the Mysterious Mechanism of the Plain Questions / 素問玄機原病式 · Relation: author
Explicit · jinshi:131:s0059

Events and relationships

Relation: student-of · Person Id: Master Chen (陳先生)
Explicit · jinshi:131:s0058

Assessments and attributes

Assessment: favored cooling medicines to reduce heart fire and strengthen kidney water · Provenance: Mode: historian-judgment
Explicit · jinshi:131:s0060

References in the histories

Open any source group to read the Chinese and English passage in context.

History of Jin, Chapter 131Volume 131 Biographies 69: Huan Zhe, Liang Chong, Song Gui, Pan Shouheng, Fang Ji, Liu Wansu, Zhang Congzheng, Li Qingsi, Ji Tianxi, Zhang Yuansu, Ma Guizhong, Wu Zhen Son: Kang, Li Mao, Hu Dexin · 10 passages

Open chapter

金世，如武禎、武亢之信而不誣，劉完素、張元素之治療通變，學其術者皆師尊之，不可不記雲。 Under the Jin, men such as Wu Zhen and Wu Kang proved trustworthy and true, while Liu Wansu and Zhang Yuansu were masters of adaptive treatment. All who learned from them revered them as teachers — and they must be recorded.

劉完素 Liu Wansu

劉完素，字守真，河間人。 Liu Wansu, styled Shouzhen, was from Hejian.

嘗遇異人陳先生，以酒飲守真，大醉，及寤洞達醫術，若有授之者。 He once met a remarkable man, Master Chen, who plied him with wine until he was deeply drunk. When he woke, he understood medicine completely, as though it had been handed to him.

自號「通元處士」雲。 He took for himself the sobriquet "Hermit Who Penetrates the Origin."

精於醫，貫穿《難》、《素》之學，其法宗劉守真，用藥多寒涼，然起疾救死多取效。 A master physician, he had fully mastered the Difficult Classic and Plain Questions. His method followed Liu Shouzhen, and his prescriptions were mostly cooling, yet he often saved the gravely ill.

河間劉完素病傷寒八日，頭痛脈緊，嘔逆不食，不和所為。 Liu Wansu of Hejian had been ill with cold damage for eight days — headache, a tight pulse, vomiting, and no appetite — and did not know what to do.

元素往候，完素面壁不顧，元素曰：「何見待之卑如此哉。」 Yuansu went to call on him. Wansu turned to the wall and ignored him. Yuansu said, "Why do you treat me with such contempt?"

既為診脈，謂之曰脈病云云，曰：「然。」 After taking his pulse he described the condition in detail. Wansu said, "Yes."

完素大服，如其言遂愈，元素自此顯名。 Wansu was deeply impressed. He followed the prescription and recovered, and from that day Yuansu's name spread.