Bìngjī qìyí bǎomìng jí 病機氣宜保命集
The Disease-Mechanism, Qi-Adjustment, Life-Preserving Collection by 張元素 (Zhāng Yuánsù, zì Jiégǔ, ca. 1131–1234, of Yìzhōu, 金)
About the work
Zhāng Yuánsù’s foundational theoretical-and-clinical work, in 3 juan / 32 categorical gates, expounding the doctrine of the Yìshuǐ school (易水派). The work integrates: aetiology of disease (yuán dào 原道), pulse doctrine (yuán mài 原脈), life-cultivation (shèshēng 攝生), yīnyáng theory, prescription-formulation logic (with jūnchénzuǒshǐ 君臣佐使), and the principles of tiānjiǎn (additions-and-subtractions) in dose-adjustment. The work circulated little in the Jīn period; in the late Jīn, Yáng Wēi 楊威 obtained a manuscript and printed it but mistakenly attributed it to 劉完素 Liú Wánsù of Héjiān; the early Míng Níng wáng (Ning-prince) Zhū Quán 朱權 reprinted with the same misattribution and even forged a Liú Wánsù preface. Lǐ Shízhēn in his Běncǎo gāngmù first corrected the attribution to Zhāng Yuánsù; the SKQS editors follow Lǐ. The forged Liú Wánsù preface has been excised from the SKQS recension. The original Yáng Wēi preface (preserving the Tiānxīng end-of-Jīn period attribution problem) is preserved at the head of the SKQS print.
Tiyao
Bǎomìng jí, 3 juan, by Zhāng Yuánsù of the Jīn. Yuánsù, zì Jiégǔ, was a man of Yìzhōu. At age 8 he sat for the Tóngzǐ jǔ; at 27 for the jìnshì; he was disqualified for taboo-violating a temple-character, and so abandoned [the examinations] and studied medicine, mastering the art. He set down what he had personally understood and composed this work.
The book is divided into 32 gates: first the Yuán dào (origin-of-the-Way) and Yuán mài (origin-of-pulse), Shèshēng (life-cultivation), and Yīnyáng discussions; next the prescription-and-medicine logic (chǔfāng yòngyào) and the dose-adjustment rules (cìdì jiājiǎn 次第加減) and jūnchénzuǒshǐ method. On medical-theory’s profound essentials, the elucidation is most penetrating.
The book was rarely transmitted in its time. At the end of the Jīn, Yáng Wēi 楊威 first obtained a copy and had it printed, but attributed it to Liú Wánsù of Héjiān. In the early Míng, Níngwáng Quán 寧王權 reprinted, perpetuating the error and adding a forged Liú Wánsù preface to support the misattribution. Only Lǐ Shízhēn’s Běncǎo gāngmù corrected it back to Zhāng Yuánsù in the Xù lì (序例) chapter — making the case clearly.
Examining Lǐ Lián’s Yīshǐ: “Liú Wánsù once fell ill with cold-damage; on the 8th day, head-pain, tight pulse, vomiting and food-aversion; Yuánsù visited and prescribed [a certain medicine]. Wánsù followed the prescription and was cured. From this Yuánsù’s reputation spread.” So Yuánsù’s clinical attainment was deep; sufficient to stand on its own and need no Wánsù attribution. We have therefore corrected the misattribution. The forged preface is also excised.
(Respectfully verified, 5th month of Qiánlóng 46 [1781]. Chief Compilers Jì Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì; Chief Collator Lù Fèichí.)
Abstract
Composition window: 1180–1230, the late-Jīn period during which Zhāng Yuánsù was active. The exact composition date is not recoverable from the work itself; the late-Jīn Tiānxīng period (1232–1234) Yáng Wēi printing-attempt provides an upper bound.
The work’s significance:
(a) The doctrinal foundation of the Yìshuǐ school: Zhāng Yuánsù’s Bǎomìng jí, alongside his Yī xué qǐyuán, is the doctrinal foundation of the third major JīnYuán medical school (the Yìshuǐ school, complementary to Liú Wánsù’s Héjiān fire-and-heat school and Zhāng Cóngzhèng’s Gōngxià purge-and-eliminate school). The Yìshuǐ school’s emphasis on prescription-formulation logic (the jūnchénzuǒshǐ hierarchy and the cìdì jiājiǎn dose-adjustment rules) was the doctrinal foundation that Zhāng Yuánsù transmitted to his disciple Lǐ Gǎo, founder of the spleen-and-stomach (píwèi) school.
(b) The 32-gate structural plan: a comprehensive systematic treatment of medical knowledge, from cosmological-aetiological foundations through clinical practice. The structural plan became the model for later YuánMíng comprehensive medical treatises.
(c) The Liú-Wánsù-attribution error and the SKQS correction: a textbook case of mid-Qīng philological correction of a long-standing pseudonymous attribution. Lǐ Shízhēn first identified the error; the SKQS editors codified the correction and excised the forged preface. This is the kind of philological cleanup the Sìkù compilers were proud of.
(d) The Yuánsù-as-disagnostician anecdote: the Yīshǐ’s record of Yuánsù’s successful diagnosis of Liú Wánsù’s own illness — when other physicians had failed — is one of the more famous Chinese medical-history anecdotes, establishing Yuánsù as a diagnostician of distinct school-affiliation but mutual professional respect with Liú.
The catalog meta gives the title as 保命集 (Bǎomìng jí), an abbreviation; the SKQS frontmatter gives the full title 病機氣宜保命集 (Bìngjī qìyí bǎomìng jí), used in this entry.
Translations and research
- No substantial Western secondary translation of this specific work.
- Mǎ Bóyīng 馬伯英, Zhōngguó yī-xué wén-huà shǐ 中國醫學文化史, 2 vols., Shànghǎi: Shànghǎi Rénmín, 2010 (extensive treatment of Zhāng Yuánsù and the Jīn-Yuán four masters).
- Hsu, Elisabeth. The Transmission of Chinese Medicine, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999 (broader Jīn-Yuán transmission context).
- Cheng, Lihua 程麗華, Zhāng Yuánsù xué-shù sī-xiǎng yán-jiū 張元素學術思想研究, Beijing: Rénmín Wèishēng, 2010. Standard mainland Chinese-language study.
- Mǎ Jìxīng 馬繼興, Zhōng-yī wénxiàn xué 中醫文獻學, Shànghǎi: Shànghǎi Kēxué Jìshù Chūbǎnshè, 1990 (entry on the Bǎo-mìng jí).
Other points of interest
The Zhāng Yuánsù → Lǐ Gǎo → Wáng Hǎogǔ → Luó Tiānyì transmission line is one of the more historically significant Chinese medical-school lineages: from Yìshuǐ school doctrine (Zhāng Yuánsù), to spleen-and-stomach school (Lǐ Gǎo), to Yīn zhèng school (Wáng Hǎogǔ), to comprehensive medical synthesis (Luó Tiānyì). Each generation built on the previous, producing one of the most influential continuous lineages in Chinese medical history.
The Lǐ Shízhēn-and-SKQS-editor authentication-and-attribution-correction sequence — Lǐ first identifying the error in 1593, and the SKQS editors codifying the correction in 1781 — is a useful illustration of how mid-Qīng medical-bibliographic philology built on Míng-period scholarship.