Chuánxìn shìyòng fāng 傳信適用方
Reliable-Transmission Practical-Use Prescriptions by 吳彥夔 (Wú Yánkuí, hào Zhuō’ān, fl. 1180, 南宋)
About the work
A Southern-Sòng clinical formulary in 2 juan, anonymous in the SKQS-base print, identified by the SKQS editors as Wú Yánkuí’s Chuánxìn shìyòng fāng of 1180 (Chúnxī gēngzǐ) on the basis of Chén Zhènsūn’s Shūlù jiětí. The work’s distinctive editorial choice is that each prescription is annotated with its source-transmitter (傳自某人 “transmitted from such-and-such”) — a Sòng-period social-network witness for prescription circulation. The work includes a notable theoretical-clinical Wènnán 問難 (“Question-and-Difficulty”) on the Bāwèi yuán 八味圓 (Eight-Ingredient Pill, the Jīnguì yàoluè prescription for kidney-yáng deficiency), praised by the SKQS editors as deeply penetrating the prescription-formulation principle. Appended at the end are 38 prescriptions for unusual conditions by Xià Zǐyì 夏子益, otherwise rare in transmission and apparently the source for the corresponding entries in Lǐ Shízhēn’s Běncǎo gāngmù (1593).
Tiyao
Chuánxìn shìyòng fāng, 2 juan. The old base copy carries no compiler’s name. The Sòng shǐ yìwén zhì records this book without naming the author either, and separately lists Liú Yǔxī 劉禹錫’s Chuánxìn fāng 傳信方 in 2 juan. Examining: each prescription in this book is annotated below with its source-transmission (“transmitted from X”); some entries cite the Héjì jú fāng — necessarily, then, this is not Liú Yǔxī’s book [Liú is 8th–9th c.; the Héjì jú fāng is 12th c.]. Mǎ Duānlín’s Wénxiàn tōngkǎo records a Chuándào shìyòng fāng 傳道適用方 in 2 juan, with Chén Zhènsūn’s note: “By Zhuō’ān 拙菴 Wú Yánkuí, dated Chúnxī gēngzǐ” — exactly the same juan-count. So this is in fact Yánkuí’s book; the Tōngkǎo’s repeated transmissions have miswritten xìn (信) as dào (道).
This base copy is photographed from a Sòng print, with no preface or postface preceding or following. The prescriptions recorded are all tested-experiential and most reliable. Among them, the Bāwèi yuán 八味圓 wènnán (question-and-discussion) entry is particularly deep in its grasp of prescription-formulation logic. The other prescriptions, though selectively used by later writers, retain much that has not been broadly canvassed. Appended at the end are Xià Zǐyì 夏子益’s 38 prescriptions for unusual conditions — the book is rarely seen in independent circulation. Some of the prescriptions in Lǐ Shízhēn’s Běncǎo gāngmù may have been excerpted from this source.
(Respectfully verified, 9th month of Qiánlóng 46 [1781]. Chief Compilers Jì Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì; Chief Collator Lù Fèichí.)
Abstract
Composition window: 1180/1180, the date of Wú Yánkuí’s preface as recorded by Chén Zhènsūn. The Wénxiàn tōngkǎo’s “Chuándào” version is a transmissional error.
The work’s significance: (a) the source-attribution editorial convention — Wú’s note-of-source for each prescription is unusual in SòngYuán formularies and is a useful witness to the social network through which prescriptions circulated in Southern-Sòng physician communities; (b) the Bāwèi yuán discussion, singled out by the SKQS editors, treats the fundamental kidney-yáng-deficiency prescription with theoretical depth; (c) the Xià Zǐyì appendix preserves rare prescriptions for unusual conditions, indirectly transmitted to Lǐ Shízhēn’s Běncǎo gāngmù.
The work is one of the more workmanlike Southern-Sòng formularies — neither imperial-commission nor canonical, but a private compilation by a working physician with editorial care. It is preserved in the SKQS as a representative sample of late-Sòng clinical practice.
Translations and research
- No substantial Western secondary literature on this specific work.
- Mǎ Jìxīng 馬繼興, Zhōng-yī wénxiàn xué 中醫文獻學, Shànghǎi: Shànghǎi Kēxué Jìshù Chūbǎnshè, 1990 (entry on the Chuán-xìn shì-yòng fāng).
Other points of interest
The source-transmission notes — “transmitted from X” — preserved in this work make it an unusual witness to Sòng-period medical-knowledge circulation. The named transmitters include both literate-class physicians and lay practitioners, demonstrating the porous boundary between professional and lay medicine in Southern-Sòng communities.