Wei Yilin (; –1347) was a Chinese physician and surgeon who lived during the

Mongol The Mongols ( mn, Монголчууд, , , ; ; russian: Монголы) are an East Asian ethnic group native to Mongolia, Inner Mongolia in China and the Buryatia Republic of the Russian Federation. The Mongols are the principal member ...

-led

Yuan dynasty The Yuan dynasty (), officially the Great Yuan (; xng, , , literally "Great Yuan State"), was a Mongol-led imperial dynasty of China and a successor state to the Mongol Empire after its division. It was established by Kublai, the fift ...

of China. He compiled the medical treatise ''Shiyi Dexiaofang'' and invented a suspension method for reducing dislocated joints and fractures.

History

Wei Yilin was born in a family of physicians. His great grandfather was a prominent physician, and his father, uncle, grandfather, and great-uncle were all trained in medicine. Wei became a scholar and joined the Imperial Academy of Medicine. He worked as an instructor for a medical school in Nanfeng,

Jiangxi Jiangxi (; ; formerly romanized as Kiangsi or Chianghsi) is a landlocked province in the east of the People's Republic of China. Its major cities include Nanchang and Jiujiang. Spanning from the banks of the Yangtze river in the north int ...

. Wei is best known as an

orthopedic Orthopedic surgery or orthopedics ( alternatively spelt orthopaedics), is the branch of surgery concerned with conditions involving the musculoskeletal system. Orthopedic surgeons use both surgical and nonsurgical means to treat musculoskeletal ...

physician for compiling the medical treatise ''Shiyi Dexiaofang'' (), or Efficacious Remedies of the Physicians. The book describes treatments for joint dislocations and

bone fractures A bone fracture (abbreviated FRX or Fx, Fx, or #) is a medical condition in which there is a partial or complete break in the continuity of any bone in the body. In more severe cases, the bone may be broken into several fragments, known as a '' ...

. Wei used

anesthetic An anesthetic (American English) or anaesthetic (British English; see spelling differences) is a drug used to induce anesthesia ⁠— ⁠in other words, to result in a temporary loss of sensation or awareness. They may be divided into two ...

s for his surgical procedures. He pioneered a new technique for reducing dislocated joints using a suspension method. The historian George Lane compares it to a similar technique adopted by Western physicians in 1927. Wei Yilin's preface for the ''Shiyi Dexiaofang'' was written in 1337. In 1339, the treatise was printed by the Office of the Inspector of Public Health in Jiangxi and sent to the National Medical College. The book was attached with a preface by the Imperial College of Medicine and a list naming twenty four medical authorities from the college. The likely purpose of the list was to give credence to the text. The National Medical College approved the book for publication. The treatise was well-received, and Jianning Circuit began printing the book to meet popular demand. The Jianning edition of the compilation included a preface by Chen Zhi (), who was the supervisor of the circuit's Office of the Inspector of Public Health. One copy of the ''Shiyi Dexiaofang'' is owned by the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library ...

in the United States.

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Bibliography

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Wei, Yilin Yuan dynasty writers 14th-century Chinese physicians 1277 births 1347 deaths Chinese orthopedic surgeons Chinese non-fiction writers