Jìshēng fāng 濟生方
Prescriptions for Saving Lives by 嚴用和 (Yán Yònghé, zì Zǐlǐ, fl. 1253–1267, 南宋)
About the work
A late-Southern-Sòng comprehensive medical treatise that combines Chén Yán’s Sānyīn aetiological framework (KR3e0041) with Yán Yònghé’s 50+ years of personal-experience prescriptions. The work was originally in 10 juan with 80 discussions (lùn) and 400 prescriptions, completed and printed by Yán himself in his late career. Lost in independent transmission, recovered from the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn by the SKQS editors as 8 juan with 56 discussions and 240+ prescriptions — about 70% of the original content. The work is one of the doctrinal pivots of late-Sòng / early-Yuán medicine: Yán’s prescriptions, attached to Chén Yán’s theoretical framework, became the backbone of late-imperial Chinese clinical practice. The famous Guīpí tāng 歸脾湯 (Restoring-the-Spleen Decoction, for spleen-deficiency-with-blood-loss-and-heart-palpitations) — still in widespread modern TCM use under the name “Jìshēng Guīpí tāng” — derives from this work. Wú Chéng’s preface to the Yìjiǎn guīyī fāng and his preface to the Gǔjīn tōngbiàn rénshòu fāng are the principal contemporary witnesses to the work’s high reception.
Tiyao
Jìshēng fāng, 8 juan, by Yán Yònghé of the Sòng. Yònghé’s career-record is unclear. Examining Wú Chéng’s Yìjiǎn guīyī fāng xù: “Yán Zǐlǐ stole Mr Chén [Yán]‘s Sānyīn fāng discussions, and appended his own tested-experience prescriptions.” By the zì-name correspondence, Zǐlǐ is presumably Yònghé’s zì; he must be after Chén Yán [post-1174]. Wú Chéng’s Gǔjīn tōngbiàn rénshòu fāng xù further says: “The medical masters of the world are not all equal; only those whose teachings have a transmission-line and have been tested in clinical experience prove most effective. I most prefer Mr Yán’s Jìshēng fāng — the medicines are not loose, not numerous; used, they immediately have effect. For Yán was a disciple of [Master] Liú; the prescriptions are those he had tested in his own practice.” So Wú Chéng strongly admired this book.
The book divides categories and arranges entries with great completeness, with discussion (lùn) before each prescription-set. Yán’s own preface says: “By leisure-day discussions, [I composed] 80 lùn and 400 prescriptions, 10 juan in all, titled Jìshēng fāng. I have been using it for 15 years to good effect, and now have it printed for circulation.” So the work was once published in print. After it was lost, the medical writers transmitted only fragments by mutual citation; the Guīpí tāng even today is named “Jìshēng” — a remnant of his method.
We have now from the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn gathered the citations and reorganized them: 56 discussions, over 240 prescriptions, in 8 juan. Although not reaching the original count, the lacuna is only three- or four-tenths.
The book’s argumentation is balanced and detailed, often deeply reaching the essential. On supplementing-and-tonifying: “Use only balanced supplementation — soft without overpowering, focused without being mixed. When stronger combinations are required, the firm and the soft must aid each other; the assistant-and-courier ingredients must be properly fitted.” Again: “The use of medicine lies in steady-and-careful application.” On cough: “People today, treating cough, are fond of using spleen-injuring medicines; before the cure shows, the grain-qì has already been damaged.” On blood-vomiting and nasal-bleeding: “The cold-cool prescriptions are not to be administered in excess.” The various prescriptions are listed for comparison-and-application. Yán’s medication is fundamentally cautious-and-mindful; though those who learn him without judgment can also waste away with the drug, his own careful approach is well-balanced against [the more vigorous] Zhāng Cóngzhèng and Liú Wánsù schools — the various authorities can be read in mutual adjustment.
(Respectfully verified, 9th month of Qiánlóng 46 [1781]. Chief Compilers Jì Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì; Chief Collator Lù Fèichí.)
Abstract
Composition window: 1253–1267 (Bǎoyòu / Xiánchún reigns), based on Yán’s preface saying he had been using the work for 15 years before printing — combined with the documented influence on Wú Chéng (1249–1333) of Yán’s published recension. Yán’s preface itself is undated.
The work’s significance:
(a) The synthesis of Chén Yán’s theoretical framework with personal-experience pharmacotherapy: Chén Yán’s Sānyīn jíyī bìngzhèng fānglùn had argued that disease must be understood as having three categories of cause; Yán Yònghé built on that framework and provided the pharmacological matrix to treat each category. The combined doctrine — Three-Causes aetiology + Yán’s careful, balanced prescription-style — is the principal late-Sòng / early-Yuán medical contribution to the canon, and the immediate ancestor of Wú Chéng’s preferred clinical reasoning and of the YuánMíngQīng professional medical mainstream.
(b) The cautious-balanced school of pharmacotherapy: Yán’s prescription-style is deliberately balanced and mild, in contrast to the more aggressive Liú Wánsù (cold-and-cooling) and Zhāng Cóngzhèng (purgative) schools. The SKQS editors note this as a useful counterweight in the SòngJīnYuán medical-school landscape. Yán’s school is the immediate ancestor of Lǐ Gǎo’s Píwèi lùn 脾胃論 spleen-and-stomach focus.
(c) The Guīpí tāng prescription: Yán Yònghé’s most enduring single prescription, still widely prescribed in modern TCM under the name “Jìshēng Guīpí tāng”. The prescription’s preservation of the Jìshēng school-name is a small but meaningful witness to Yán’s lasting influence.
(d) The Yǒnglè dàdiǎn recovery: a substantial Yǒnglè recovery, retaining about 70% of the original work — one of the better-preserved Sòng-period works recovered by the SKQS editors.
The catalog meta gives Yán’s fl. as 13th century; corrected here to fl. 1253–1267 on the basis of the documented Wú-Chéng-witness reception window.
Translations and research
- No substantial Western secondary translation of this work.
- Goldschmidt, Asaf. The Evolution of Chinese Medicine: Song Dynasty, 960–1200, London: Routledge, 2009 (broader Sòng prescription-school context).
- Mǎ Jìxīng 馬繼興, Zhōng-yī wénxiàn xué 中醫文獻學, Shànghǎi: Shànghǎi Kēxué Jìshù Chūbǎnshè, 1990 (entry on the Jì-shēng 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 the late-Sòng / early-Yuán medical synthesis).
Other points of interest
The Wú Chéng “Yán Zǐlǐ stole Chén [Yán]‘s discussions” remark (剽 piāo “to steal” or “to plagiarize”) is striking but should not be read literally: in SòngYuán medical-bibliographic discourse, piāo often means “to take and adapt”, not “to plagiarize without acknowledgment”. The accusation is mitigated in Wú’s later preface, where he praises Yán’s work as combining tradition with personal experience.
The Jìshēng school’s cautious-balanced pharmacotherapeutic style — characterized by the SKQS editors as “medicine for steady-and-careful application” (用藥在乎穩重) — is one of the principal Chinese medical positions on the proper relation between aggressive and conservative therapy. Yán’s school stands between the more aggressive Liú Wánsù / Zhāng Cóngzhèng schools and the more philosophical Lǐ Gǎo school, and is one of the principal Chinese contributions to the global history of medical-therapeutic pluralism.