| Abstract |
“Scraping the Bone to Treat Poisoning” is a famous story from “Romance of the Three Kingdoms”, with many aspects worth exploring, including characters, themes, editions, illustrations, and commentaries. This paper first examines its literary evolution from historical records and Pinghua to the Ming Dynasty’s “Romance of the Three Kingdoms”. It analyzes the timeline of events, medical writing, and thematic ideas to understand what the story was like before the Mao edition. Secondly, through edition comparison, this paper identifies the similarities and differences between the Mao edition and the Ming printed editions, thereby tracing the origins of the “Scraping the Bone to Treat Poisoning” story. In brief, the Mao edition inherits the four words “何用柱環”（why bother using the pillar and ring）from the Jiangnan edition, while revising the text and omitting Wang Fu; reflected in the illustrations, various engraved editions of the Mao edition from the Qing dynasty that include illustration of “Scraping the Bone to Treat Poisoning” also all lack the pillar and ring, and their treatment settings come in two styles: house and tents. As for Mao’s commentary, apart from praising Guan Gong’s heroic spirit, it also profile his character flaw and explores the Mandate of Heaven. And these comments point out the structural significance of this story in the novel concerning success and failure. |
