Wǔwēi Hàndài Yījiǎn · Mùdú 武威漢代醫簡‧木牘
Wuwei Han Medical Slips — Wooden Tablets
Anonymous (excavated from Hantanpo site, Wuwei, Gansu, 1972)
About the work
The Mùdú 木牘 (“Wooden Tablets”) division of the Wuwei Han Medical Slips corpus comprises fourteen wooden writing-tablets (dú 牘) excavated from the Hantanpo site, Wuwei, Gansu in 1972. Unlike the narrower slips of the Category One and Two groups, the mùdú are wider tablets used for longer, more formally laid-out texts. Their content partially overlaps with and supplements the slip prescriptions, while also including content unique to this format: a list of the “seven diseases” (qī jí 七疾) and “seven injuries” (qī shāng 七傷) of men with attributed prescriptions, ointment formulas attributed to named courts or officials, astrological taboos for moxibustion and drug-taking, and a price list for medicinal ingredients.
Abstract
The mùdú tablets were excavated and published alongside the slips in 甘肅省博物館、武威縣文化館 (eds.), 《武威漢代醫簡》 (文物出版社, 1975); definitive study and English translation in Yang and Brown, Early China 40 (2017).
The tablets open by re-presenting the first prescription of Category One (the cough formula with Bupleurum, Platycodon, Sichuan pepper, cinnamon, aconite, and ginger — see KR2p0098) in a more formal, larger hand, suggesting that these tablets served partly as title or summary tablets for the collection. This prescription is followed by a more elaborate “decoction formula for chronic cough with counterflow qi” (jiǔ ké nì shàng qì tāng fāng 治久咳逆上氣湯方) using ten ingredients including aster (zǐwǎn 茈菀 = 紫菀), ophiopogon (méndōng 門冬), kuǎndōng 款東 (coltsfoot), tuówú 橐吾, gypsum, cinnamon, honey, jujubes, and pinellia (bànxià 半夏) — cooked and taken warm three times daily.
The tablets then include several formally structured prescriptions in a tabular format (visible in the source text as piped column data), including a recipe for bi-impediment (bì 痹) of the hands and feet (using qín jiū 秦瘳 and aconite), and an elaborate formula for chronic dysentery with blood in the stools attributed to an unspecified “禁方” (“secret formula”) using seven ingredients including coptis (huánglián 黃連), scullcap (huángqín 黃芩), and dragon bone (lóng gǔ 龍骨).
A notable section is the “公孫君方” (“Formula of Master Gongsun”) and the “白水侯所奏治男子有七疾方” (“Formula Presented by the Viscount of White-Water for Treating the Seven Diseases of Men”). This begins with a definition of the seven diseases (qī jí): (1) cold penis (陰寒), (2) penile atrophy (陰□), (3) exhausted weakness (苦衰), (4) loss of semen (精失), (5) sparse semen (精少), (6) scrotum itching and dampness (橐下養濕), and a seventh not preserved. The treatment prescription uses six ingredients including huó lóu gēn 活樓根 (Trichosanthes root), aconite (tiān xióng 天雄), and achyranthes root (niú xī 牛膝), attributed to “建威耿將軍方” (“General Geng of Jianwei’s Formula”) — General Geng (Gěng jiāngjūn 耿將軍) being identifiable as a Later Han military figure. A parallel “七傷” (“Seven Injuries”) list follows. These passages place the tablets firmly within the fángzhōng 房中 medical tradition.
The tablets also contain:
- An “Ointment for malignant sores” (yōng 雍 / 癰) attributed to the “Eastern Sea White-Water Viscount” (東海白水侯所奏方), using camellia oil, aconite, lovage, angelica, licorice, and Cyperus — with detailed preparation instructions.
- A “百病膏藥方” (Ointment for All Ailments) paralleling the recipe in Category Two.
- Astrological taboos for moxibustion (jiǔ zhēn 久㓨): specific stems-and-branches days on which moxibustion is prohibited, with penalties (“五辰辛不可始久㓨，飲藥必死”; “甲寅、乙卯不可久㓨，不出旬死”). Calendar dates (月六日, 十六日, 十八日, 廿二日) on which moxibustion is universally prohibited are also listed.
- A price list (jià mù 价目) for medicinal herbs, with quantities and prices: achyranthes (niú xī 牛膝) half a jīn at 50 [coins], magnetite (císhí 慈石) one and a half jīn at 130, coptis (huánglián 黃連) half a jīn at 100, and so forth. This price list is unique in the early Chinese medical corpus and provides rare economic data on the Later Han pharmaceutical trade in the northwest frontier zone.
Translations and research
- Yang, Yong, and Miranda Brown. “The Wuwei Medical Manuscripts: A Brief Introduction and Translation.” Early China 40 (2017): 241–301. — Standard English translation and study.
- 甘肅省博物館、武威縣文化館 (eds.). 《武威漢代醫簡》. 北京: 文物出版社, 1975.
- 張延昌. 《武威漢代醫簡注解》. 北京: 中醫古籍出版社, 2006.
- Hinrichs, T.J., and Linda L. Barnes (eds.). Chinese Medicine and Healing: An Illustrated History. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2013.
Other points of interest
The pharmaceutical price list embedded in the mùdú section is one of the most remarkable features of the Wuwei corpus. The thirteen or more items listed with standardized prices and quantities illuminate the commercial infrastructure of medicine in the Later Han northwest: they suggest that by the first–second century CE, medical materials were commodified goods with established market values, purchasable from suppliers (names or roles are indicated on several items, e.g. “子威取” — “purchased by Ziwei”). This market evidence from a frontier zone challenges assumptions that Han medicine was primarily transmitted through elite palace or court channels.
The attribution of the “Seven Diseases/Seven Injuries” formulae to General Geng (建威耿將軍) — almost certainly a member of the prominent Geng 耿 military family of the Later Han (perhaps Geng Bing 耿秉 or a relative) — represents one of the earliest personal attributions of medical formulas to a named historical figure outside of the legendary sage-king tradition, pointing to the role of military officials in patronizing and transmitting medical knowledge on the frontier.