Baoduji 抱犢集

Baoduji 抱犢集 "Collection of care for calves" is a book on bovine medicine from the late imperial period of which the author and the exact time of compilation are unknown.

The text is divided into four parts, namely an introductory chapter laying the basics of clinical diagnosis of cattle diseases, with strong personal and local characteristics of the province of Jiangxi. The second chapter informs about acupuncture methods for all parts of the body of cattle. It lists 35 acupuncture points and provides a detailed description of their exact location and modes of applying acupuncture needles in order to realize the correct treatment. The text also points to contraindications. For the application of the "fire needle" (huozhen 火針), for instance, the body of the needle should be burning red and be inserted through a piece of sulphur, so that the body of the needle is covered by a layer of burning sulphur before inserting it through the skin. Part three is a discussion of the formulation of tonic, diarrhoeal, warm and cool medicinal properties. It lists 148 types of Chinese medicine, 96 seasonal medicines and experience-effective prescriptions (jingyan xiaofang 經驗效方). The final part discusses the identification and treatment of cattle disease symptoms.

The identification of diseases is based on symptomatology (zhenghouxue 癥候學), by focusing on the most common bovine diseases in Jiangxi, such as cold and influenza, rheumatism and lameness, diarrhoea (xiexie 泄瀉), dropsy (guzhang zheng 臌脹癥), jaundice (huangzheng 黃癥), exanthema (? tuozheng 脫癥), and eye diseases. It lists 43 treatment prescriptions.

The book was originally circulating only in manuscript form. In 1956, the Nongye Chubanshe 農業出版社 published the book based on a privately owned manuscript. An edition with annotations by Yang Hongdao 楊宏道 and Zou Jiezheng 鄒介正 was published in 1982 by the same Press.