Huoshou cizhou 活獸慈舟

Huoshou cizhou 活獸慈舟 "The boat of clemency to strengthen domestic animals" is a comprehensive veterinary book of the high Qing period 清 (1644-1911). It was written by Li Nanhui 李南暉 (b. 1709), courtesy name Zhonghui 仲晦, style Qingfeng 青峯 or Xihai Yunqiao 西海雲樵, from Tongwei 通渭, Gansu, during the 1760s and 1770s, during the author's term of office as district magistrate of Weiyuan 威遠, Sichuan, In 1873, Xia Cishu 夏慈恕 revised and printed the text in a four-volume woodblock edition. Li also wrote the medical books Qingnang xinfa 青囊心法, and Huoming cizhou 活命慈舟, as well as some philosophical works, Du Yi guanxiang xingxing lu 讀易觀象惺惺錄, Zhouyi yuanshi 周易原始, Taiji tushuo 太極圖説, and Shenxilu 慎思錄.

The veterinary book is most extensive on buffaloes, followed by cattle, and some brief chapters on horses, pigs, sheep, dogs, and cats. For each type of domestic animal, the text first discusses its appearance, the key points of animal husbandry and management, and then expounds specific aspects of the five meridians of the heart, liver, spleen, lungs, and kidneys. The book discusses more than 240 kinds of illnesses, and most of the prescriptions are arranged in pairs for the treatment of a single illness, resulting in total number of of more than 700 prescriptions (single prescriptions, danfang 單方). Some of the prescriptions are for ready-to-use herbs (xiancai xianyong 現采現用). The use of medicinal herbs to stimulate meridians is very important in these prescriptions. As for acupuncture therapy, there are only three sections in the general introduction of the book, namely, the method of preparing medicinal strips of moxibustion (shaoyao fa 燒藥法), the method of discussing needles (lunzhen fa 論針法), and the method of making medicinal needles (zao yaozhen fa 造藥針法).

A modern, annotated edition was published in 1980 by the Sichuan Renmin Press 四川人民出版社.