Library

This book was printed in Hangzhou, and Mr. Xu Yazhi was entrusted with the collation. In the spring of Gengshen year, just as the printing blocks were completed, Hangzhou fell. When reinforcements arrived, the rebels fled. Fearing their return, the people of Hangzhou migrated to avoid them. Mr. Cheng Hu Rongfu brought the printing blocks to me. However, residing in a remote village, I lacked carpenters skilled in woodblock carving, so the blocks remained uncorrected and unproofread for a long time. In the autumn of Xinyou year, the situation in Haichang became increasingly dire. I took the blocks to reside in Puyuan, changing my pseudonym to Mengyin. By late winter, Hangzhou fell again, and Haichang also collapsed; I could not return home. This summer, I brought them further to Shanghai.

Mr. Jin Zhai from Yuanhe had read my books for many years and was also seeking refuge here due to the war. At that time, cholera was rampant. City physicians were helpless. Mr. Jin extensively searched for copies of *Huoluan Lun* (Treatise on Cholera) available in the market and loudly urged people, saying, "The guide is here; do not go astray!" Consequently, many lives were saved. He had previously compiled a book titled *Zhuanjin Zhengzhi* (Treatment of Muscle Cramps) in Suzhou during the Yisi year, incorporating much folk wisdom, but his printing blocks had been destroyed, a fact unknown to me at the time.

Mr. Jin resided with Zhou Heting, a *cai* (scholar) from Renhe, through whom he learned of my presence in Shanghai. On the 19th day of the sixth month, he came to establish a friendship. His gentle and amiable demeanor made me feel as if sitting in the spring breeze. Although he was two years older than me, he earnestly insisted on offering gifts to become my student. How could I dare accept such honor? His humility and modesty revealed a level of sincere eagerness to learn that surpassed my own.

Later, when I prepared for a journey to Yingzhou, I entrusted him with the task of repairing and proofreading the blocks. Upon my return to Shen (Shanghai), he had already completed the work. I was delighted to have found a kindred spirit during our times of displacement. I intended to present the manuscripts to him for correction and planned to revise *Huoluan Lun* to supplement the deficiencies of the previous edition. Alas! On the night of August 28th, he suddenly contracted cholera. The next morning, Mr. Hua Liyun from Wu County urgently invited me to visit him. By then, both his pulse and physical condition had collapsed; his voice was hoarse, and he was sweating profusely. Emergency administration of Ginseng Radix et Rhizoma (Renshen) and Poria (Fuling) could not save him. Oh! Tears streamed down my face like rain.

I recall that Yazhi passed away suddenly after the city gates were closed in the spring in Shanghai; Rongfu’s whereabouts were unknown after the fall of the city in the winter of You year; those who presented inscriptions, such as Haicha, Juzhai, and Erjiao, had all passed away; Jingmin came to Shanghai alone seeking refuge and died weeping for his mother on the 17th of June, at the young age of thirty-one, which is particularly heartbreaking; and the two talented ladies, Peng and Zhang, had also departed. None of them lived to see the completion of this book. My previous ten medical books were still in Hangzhou, and their blocks likely turned to ashes of kalpa (destruction). Such dreams and realities evoke deep emotion. Moreover, with most of my confidants gone, where can I turn to discuss doubts and resolve difficulties? Thus, I write to record my grief.

Written by Mengyin again in the eighth month of the first year of Tongzhi, at Suixi Ju in Shanghai.