Chóngxiū Zhènghé jīngshǐ zhènglèi bèiyòng běncǎo 重修政和經史證類備用本草
The Re-edited Zhèng-hé Materia Medica, Verified by Categorical Citations from the Classics and Histories, Ready for Use by 唐慎微 (Táng Shènwēi, zì Shěnyuán, fl. 1086–1108, of Shǔzhōu, 北宋) — base author; 寇宗奭 (Kòu Zōngshì, fl. 1116, 北宋) — Yǎnyì author; 張存惠 (Zhāng Cúnhuì, zì Wèiqīng, fl. 1204, 金) — re-edition
About the work
The Jīn-period editorial recension of Táng Shènwēi’s Zhènglèi běncǎo — companion to KR3e0028 (the SKQS-canonical Tàihé Huìmíngxuān recension; same work, different recension-state) — preserved here in the SBCK photographic facsimile of the Jīn Tàihé 4 jiǎzǐ (1204) Píngyáng print by Zhāng Cúnhuì at the Huìmíngxuān 晦明軒 press. Zhāng’s distinctive editorial intervention was the systematic interpolation of Kòu Zōngshì’s Běncǎo yǎnyì into the body of the Zhènglèi — each běncǎo entry now followed immediately by its corresponding Yǎnyì commentary — and the consolidation of Táng Shènwēi’s 31-juan into 30 juan by combining the original juan-31 (which had contained certain miscellaneous items) into juan-30. The work circulates under the long title Chóngxiū Zhènghé jīngshǐ zhènglèi bèiyòng běncǎo (commonly Chóngxiū Zhènghé běncǎo), which became the standard title for the JīnYuán recension.
Abstract
Composition window: 1204/1204 — the date of Zhāng Cúnhuì’s Tàihé 4 jiǎzǐ Píngyáng print, which fixes the received recension of the Chóngxiū Zhènghé běncǎo. The base text (Táng Shènwēi’s Zhènglèi) and the Yǎnyì (Kòu Zōngshì) are earlier strata; the integration is Zhāng Cúnhuì’s. The Jīn Tàihé reprint became the principal post-Sòng recension and was the basis for the Yuán Dàdé 1302 reprint and the Míng Chénghuà 1468 reprint (the latter being the SKQS base for KR3e0028).
The work’s relation to KR3e0028: this is the SBCK photographic facsimile of the Jīn 1204 Tàihé / Huìmíngxuān recension; KR3e0028 is the SKQS print, derived from the Míng Chénghuà 1468 reprint of the same Jīn Tàihé Huìmíngxuān edition. Both are descendants of the same Jīn-recension line; the SBCK is two textual generations closer to the Jīn print, the SKQS is two textual generations closer to the canon-print. For purposes of philological work on the Zhènglèi’s text-reception, the SBCK is preferable.
The Kòu Zōngshì Yǎnyì general preface preserved at the head of the SBCK base text — the Xīn tiān běncǎo yǎnyì xù — is among Kòu’s most significant theoretical statements on Sòng-period materia medica. It develops a yǎngshēng doctrinal framework (神-氣-疾, shénqìjí) that identifies the three foundations of life-cultivation as care for the spirit, conservation of the qì, and prevention of disease. The preface is one of the principal documents of Northern-Sòng yǎngshēng theory.
For the full SKQS tíyào on the work see KR3e0028; that entry covers the editorial history (Dàguān vs. Zhènghé recensions; Jīn Tàihé and Yuán Dàdé reprints), Táng Shènwēi’s biography (with Yǔwén Xūzhōng 1143 and Zhào Yǔshí Bīntuì lù witnesses), the textual rivalry between the two Sòng imperial recensions, and Zhāng Cúnhuì’s role in the Jīn redaction. The SBCK (this entry) and SKQS (KR3e0028) of this work should be read together for completeness.
Translations and research
- See KR3e0028 for the principal references (Needham 1986, Unschuld 1986, Goldschmidt 2009, Shàng Zhì-jūn 1985, Mǎ Jìxīng 1990, Métailié 2015).
- For the Jīn Píng-yáng printing context specifically:
- Tsien Tsuen-Hsuin, Science and Civilisation in China, vol. 5 (Chemistry and Chemical Technology), part 1 (Paper and Printing), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985 (treats the Jīn imperial-printing center).
- Zhāng Xiùmín 張秀民, Zhōngguó yìnshuā shǐ 中國印刷史, Shànghǎi: Shànghǎi Rénmín, 1989 (chapter on Jīn-Yuán Píng-yáng printing).
Other points of interest
The Jīn Píngyáng Huìmíngxuán 晦明軒 press is one of the more historically significant non-Sòng-court printing centers of the 12th–13th centuries, preserving the Sòng technical and medical canon under Jīn rule (cf. KR3e0017, KR3e0018 for other Píngyáng prints). Zhāng Cúnhuì’s Chóngxiū Zhènghé běncǎo is the press’s most ambitious single-work project.
The systematic Yǎnyì interpolation by Zhāng — placing each Kòu Zōngshì commentary immediately after its corresponding Zhènglèi entry — is one of the more consequential editorial interventions in Chinese pharmacopoeial history. It transformed the Zhènglèi běncǎo from a sequential pharmacopoeia into a critical-edition-style text where each medicinal substance carries multiple stratum-marked discussions: Táng Shènwēi’s compilation in red-script-and-black-mortise format, Kòu Zōngshì’s contemporary commentary in Sòng-edition format, and (in some manuscripts) further marginal notes by later readers. The format anticipated the modern critical-edition apparatus by roughly seven centuries.