Chǎnbǎo zhūfāng 產寶諸方
Various Prescriptions for the Treasured Childbirth by 闕名 (anonymous, 宋)
About the work
A Sòng-period anonymous childbirth and post-natal medical formulary in 1 juan, with a Shíèr yuè chǎn tú 十二月產圖 (Twelve-Month Lying-In Diagram), recovered by the SKQS editors from the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn (over 70 prescriptions plus a partial preface and a Wáng Qīngyuè 王卿月 preface). The work was already lost by the late Míng. The catalog title 產寶諸寶 in the meta is a typographical slip — the correct title (per source 000 file and SKQS tíyào) is 產寶諸方 Chǎnbǎo zhūfāng. The work covers menstruation regulation, fetal protection, conditions during pregnancy, induction of labor, post-natal care, and miscellaneous conditions. Several of its prescriptions became standard in later medicine: the Rénshēn yǐnzǐ 人參飲子 is the prototype of Zhū Zhènhēng’s Dáshēng sǎn 達生散; the Zhǐqiào tāng 枳殼湯 is the source of the popular Shùtāi wán 束胎丸 / Báizhú huángqín substitution; and the Qīngjīn sǎn 青金散 (a single-herb jīngjiè 荊芥 preparation) is the source of the post-natal-blood-wind treatment that later medicine cited under the contrived word-game name “Jǔqīng gǔbài” 舉卿古拜 (a fǎnqiè phonetic puzzle for jīng 荊 + jiè 芥 = 荆芥).
Tiyao
Chǎnbǎo zhūfāng, 1 juan, no compiler’s name. The Sòng shǐ yìwén zhì does not record it; only Chén Zhènsūn’s Shūlù jiětí has it. Since the Míng, very few bibliographies have recorded it. Now examining the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn, we still recover over 70 prescriptions, plus a Shíèr yuè chǎn tú (Twelve-Month Lying-In Diagram) — corresponding to Chén Zhènsūn’s record. So this is the Sòng-period original. There is also a fragmentary Xù lùn (preface-discussion) and a Wáng Qīngyuè preface, both incomplete — also lost passages of the original.
The prescriptions are quite comprehensive on childbirth-protection (保產) methods. The original numbering has been disordered by the Yǒnglè compilers’ rearrangement and cannot be recovered. We have re-arranged: first Tiáo jīng yǎngxuè 調經養血 (regulating menstruation and nourishing blood); next Ān tāi 安胎 (calming the fetus); next Tāizhōng zhū bìng 胎中諸病 (various conditions during pregnancy); next Cuī shēng 催生 (inducing labor); next Chǎnhòu 產後 (post-natal care); next Zá bìng 雜病 (miscellaneous conditions) — into 1 juan.
The various prescriptions cited are largely those used by later writers. For example: the Rénshēn yǐnzǐ 人參飲子 prescription, although having different numbers of ingredients from the Dáshēng sǎn 達生散 created by Zhū Zhènhēng, is identical in core composition (使dàfùpí as principal, rénshēn as supportive); we know that Zhènhēng built upon this work and adjusted the prescription. Similarly, Zhāng Yuánsù 張元素’s Shùtāi wán 束胎丸 (using zhǐqiào 枳殼 and báizhú 白朮) was thought by later authors not suitable for the constitutionally-weak (藜藿之軀); the substitution of báizhú huángqín 黃芩 became the standard, transmitted to the present as a “good easy-childbirth medicine” — but few realize this is also based on the Zhǐqiào tāng recorded in this work.
Today’s treatment of post-natal blood-wind (產後血風) uses a so-called “Jǔqīng gǔbài” (舉卿古拜) — examining its content, it is single-herb jīngjiè (荊芥), exactly the Qīngjīn sǎn 青金散 of this book. Jīngjiè (Schizonepeta) governs wind-conditions; the Sùwèn says “the East dwells in wind” (東方主風), and the liver belongs to wood (Mu). Pacifying liver-wood is precisely how one assists lung-metal (Jin); hence the prescription is named Qīngjīn (Green-Metal). Later writers stole the prescription and concealed its origin by fǎnqiè phonetic-spelling of “jīngjiè” 荊芥 → jǔqīng gǔbài 舉卿古拜 to flaunt before the vulgar.
All such cases can illustrate the path of ancient-modern transmission. The prescriptions used here lean heavily toward qì-descending and blood-breaking ingredients, with hot-spicy and stirring medicines — the ancients’ robust constitutions could bear such attacks, but they cannot generally be applied to later constitutions. The application of this requires divine perception, which lies with the user.
(Respectfully verified, 9th month of Qiánlóng 46 [1781]. Chief Compilers Jì Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì; Chief Collator Lù Fèichí.)
Abstract
Composition window: 1100–1250, the broad mid-Sòng-to-Southern-Sòng period during which the work was likely composed. The exact date cannot be recovered from the Yǒnglè fragments.
The work’s significance:
(a) The “Jǔqīng gǔbài” 舉卿古拜 puzzle: one of the more delightful pieces of Chinese medical philology. The phrase appears to be exotic but is in fact the fǎnqiè phonetic spelling of jīngjiè 荊芥 (Schizonepeta) — concealing a single-herb prescription under a contrived name. The SKQS editors’ decoding is methodologically careful and historically interesting.
(b) The textual ancestry of major Yuán prescriptions: the SKQS editors’ identification of this work as the source of Zhū Zhènhēng’s Dáshēng sǎn and of the standard Báizhú huángqín shùtāi wán is a useful piece of late-imperial Chinese pharmacological pedigree-tracing.
(c) The 12-month lying-in diagram (Shíèr yuè chǎn tú): a Sòng-period seasonal-and-monthly women’s-medicine diagram, paralleling those in KR3e0040’s Chǎnyù bǎoqìng jí. The diagram is a useful witness for the integration of seasonal calendrical-medicine with childbirth practice in Sòng China.
(d) The Wáng Qīngyuè preface fragment: Wáng Qīngyuè (王卿月) is a Southern-Sòng official-physician otherwise unidentified; the surviving preface-fragment is the only witness for his association with this work.
The catalog meta’s title “產寶諸寶” is a typographical error for “產寶諸方”; the work’s title in the SKQS print and Kyoto Zinbun is unambiguously Chǎnbǎo zhūfāng. Per CLAUDE.md, the slip is preserved in the catalog and flagged here.
Translations and research
- No substantial Western secondary literature on this specific work.
- Furth, Charlotte. A Flourishing Yin: Gender in China’s Medical History, 960–1665, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999. The standard English-language work; treats childbirth-medicine in the Sòng-Yuán period.
- Mǎ Jìxīng 馬繼興, Zhōng-yī wénxiàn xué 中醫文獻學, Shànghǎi: Shànghǎi Kēxué Jìshù Chūbǎnshè, 1990 (entry on the Chǎn-bǎo zhū-fāng and the Yǒnglè recovery).
Other points of interest
The “Jǔqīng gǔbài” fǎnqiè puzzle is one of the more striking examples of how SòngYuánMíng commercial medical practice obscured the simple botanical origins of effective remedies behind elaborate-sounding names. The decoding by the SKQS editors — recognizing that jǔqīng gǔbài spells out jīngjiè — is the kind of philological-detective-work that the Sìkù editors enjoyed.
The single-herb jīngjiè (Schizonepeta tenuifolia) treatment for post-natal “blood-wind” remains a standard of modern TCM gynecology; the Qīngjīn sǎn / Jǔqīng gǔbài pedigree is one of the longer-running single-herb pharmacological lineages in the Chinese medical tradition.