Jíyàn bèijū fāng 集驗背疽方
Tested-Effective Prescriptions for Back-and-Shoulder Furuncles by 李迅 (Lǐ Xùn, zì Sìlì, fl. late 南宋, of Quánzhōu)
About the work
A specialist Southern-Sòng surgical-medical treatise on bèijū 背疽 (back-and-shoulder furuncles, frequently fatal pyogenic infections) in 1 juan, with 53 entries each carrying both theoretical discussion (lùn shuō 論說) and prescription. The work was lost in independent transmission and recovered by the SKQS editors from the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn; two key prescriptions (the Màifàn shí gāo 麥飯石膏 and the Shényì gāo 神異膏 — the most efficacious in the work) were missing from the Yǒnglè recovery and were supplemented by the editors from cross-reference in the SūShěn liáng fāng (KR3e0020) and Wèi Yìlín 危亦林’s Déxiào fāng 得效方. The work is one of the few surviving Sòng-period specialist bèijū treatises and an important witness for the surgical-medical practice of the Southern-Sòng period.
Tiyao
Jíyàn bèijū fāng, 1 juan, by Lǐ Xùn of the Sòng. Xùn’s zì was Sìlì, of Quánzhōu; he held the office of Dàlǐ píngshì and was a physician of note. The book is recorded in Chén Zhènsūn’s Shūlù jiětí as having “53 entries with thorough and apt argumentation.” Mǎ Duānlín’s Jīngjí kǎo also lists it but gives the personal name as Yì 逸 — disagreeing with the Shūlù jiětí. Examining the present text’s preface by Guō Yìngxiáng, which says “Sìlì, named Xùn”, the Tōngkǎo is in error.
Bèijū as a category of disease is grave; ordinary practitioners reach for one or two folk-prescriptions or recklessly apply knife-and-needle without instruction in the disease’s source, its presentations, or the proper sequence of medication, the careful indications and prohibitions — so eight or nine of every ten patients die. The present compilation by Lǐ Xùn places before each prescription a discussion: the falseness-and-fullness of the diagnostic signs, the measure-and-degree of the treatment — all are weighed and analyzed to the hair’s-edge, leaving the reader as if seeing the matter in his own palm.
Among the prescriptions, the Wǔxiāng liánqiào tāng 五香連翹湯, Nèibǔ shíxuān sǎn 內補十宣散, Jiāliào shíquán tāng 加料十全湯, Jiājiǎn bāwèi wán 加減八味丸, and Lìxiào sǎn 立效散 are all pure and faultless — truly excellent prescriptions. As for the Rěndōng wán 忍冬丸 and the Zhì rǔyōng fābèi shénfāng 治乳癰發背神方, both use only the single herb honeysuckle (jīnyínhuā 金銀花) — easy in medicine and great in efficacy, especially useful for the rural poor in remote regions where finding a physician is difficult or for impoverished families who cannot afford medicine. Truly an excellent volume of the surgical specialty.
We have respectfully recovered and verified from the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn and arranged into 1 juan. The Màifàn shí gāo and Shényì gāo prescriptions — the most marvellous in the entire work — were missing from the Yǒnglè recovery; we have supplemented them from the SūShěn liáng fāng and Wèi Yìlín’s Déxiào fāng. The Chìshuǐ yuánzhū 赤水元珠 also has the Shényì gāo prescription, slightly different from the Déxiào fāng version; we have included both for reference.
(Respectfully verified, 9th month of Qiánlóng 46 [1781]. Chief Compilers Jì Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì; Chief Collator Lù Fèichí.)
Abstract
Composition window: 1150–1250, the broad late-Southern-Sòng period during which Lǐ Xùn was active. The work cannot be precisely dated.
The work’s significance:
(a) The principal Southern-Sòng specialist bèijū treatise: at 53 discussion-and-prescription entries, the work is the most thorough surviving Sòng-period text on a specific class of pyogenic infection (back-and-shoulder furuncles), specialty material that did not normally make it into the general formularies and pathology-treatises.
(b) The discussion-before-prescription pedagogy: Lǐ Xùn’s editorial choice — preface every prescription with a theoretical discussion of the disease-presentation and the therapeutic logic — is consistent with the late-Sòng turn (Wáng Kuàng KR3e0030, Chén Yán KR3e0041) toward integrated aetiological-prescriptive reasoning.
(c) The two single-herb honeysuckle prescriptions: the Rěndōng wán and Zhì rǔyōng fābèi shénfāng, both using only honeysuckle (jīnyínhuā) — single-herb antibiotic-like formulations that the SKQS editors particularly commend for rural-poor accessibility. These are early evidence for systematic single-herb pharmacotherapy of suppurative infections.
(d) The SKQS supplementary recovery of the missing Màifàn shí gāo and Shényì gāo: a textbook example of the SKQS editors’ cross-witness reconstruction methodology — when a Yǒnglè dàdiǎn recovery was incomplete, they cross-referenced surviving citations in other works (here the SūShěn liáng fāng and Déxiào fāng) to fill the gaps.
The Mǎ Duānlín “Yì” / Lǐ Xùn surname-name confusion is a useful philological caution: the SKQS editors’ restoration of the correct personal name on the basis of the work’s own preface witness is methodologically sound.
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 Jí-yàn bèi-jū fāng and the Yǒnglè recovery).
- Liào Yùqún 廖育群, Yīxué yǔ chuántǒng wénhuà 醫學與傳統文化, Tianjin: Bǎihuā Wényì, 2002 (chapter on Chinese surgical history).
Other points of interest
The single-herb honeysuckle prescriptions are an interesting case in the history of Chinese antibiotic-like therapy. Modern phytochemistry has established that honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica) contains compounds with broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity, including against the Staphylococcus species responsible for many bèijū-class infections. Lǐ Xùn’s empirical observation of single-herb honeysuckle’s clinical efficacy in suppurative back-furuncles has clear pharmacological foundation.
The SKQS editors’ careful recovery from the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn — including the cross-witness supplementation for the missing prescriptions — is one of the better-documented cases of mid-Qīng Yǒnglè-recovery method.