Jīnguì gōuxuán 金匱鈎玄
Hooking the Profound from the Golden Coffer by 朱震亨 (Zhū Zhènhēng, zì Yànxiū, hào Dānxī, 1281–1358, 元) — original; 戴原禮 (Dài Yuánlǐ, personal name Sīgōng, 1324–1405, 明) — collator and supplementer
About the work
A specialist clinical-syndromic compendium by 朱震亨 Zhū Zhènhēng, in 3 juan, supplemented and edited by his principal disciple 戴原禮 Dài Yuánlǐ. The title — “Hooking the Profound from the Golden Coffer” — alludes to the Jīnguì yàoluè (Hàn clinical canon) and to “hooking out the profound” (鈎玄, gōu xuán) clinically meaningful material from Dānxī’s lifetime experience. Dài Yuánlǐ’s editorial voice appears as “Dài says” (戴云). Six appended discussions, not numbered in the body — on fire-as-the-junior-fire-and-the-five-emotions; on qì belonging to yáng and movement-igniting-fire; on blood belonging to yīn and being hard-to-make and easy-to-deplete; on differential dysentery diagnosis; on Triple-Burner diseases and the dryness-heat-overcoming-yīn; on diarrhea and damp-pathology — are also Dài’s contributions.
The work expands Zhū Zhènhēng’s yīnchángbùzú (yīn always deficient) doctrine through the Yù (depression / qì-stagnation) framework — anticipating the Míng-period Six Stagnations (六鬱 liù yù) doctrine of qì, blood, fire, food, damp, and phlegm. The use of huángbǎi and zhīmǔ in Dānxī’s prescriptive style is here documented; subsequent Míng physicians supplied the standard Liùwèi yuán (Six-Ingredient Pill / Liùwèi dìhuáng wán) and the Xiāoyáo sǎn (Bupleurum-and-Angelica Powder), which the SKQS editors note as more refined than Dānxī’s original prescriptions but built directly on his doctrinal foundation.
Tiyao
Jīnguì gōuxuán, 3 juan, by Zhū Zhènhēng of the Yuán, with collation-and-supplementation by Dài Yuánlǐ of the Míng. The “Dài says” (戴云) entries within the text are Dài Yuánlǐ’s. Six appended discussions, not numbered in the body:
- Huǒqǐ jūnxiàng wǔzhì jùyǒu lùn 火豈君相五志俱有論 (fire — how could only the sovereign-and-junior fire and the five emotions all have it?);
- Qì shǔ yáng dòngzuò huǒ lùn 氣屬陽動作火論 (qì belongs to yáng; movement makes fire);
- Xuè shǔ yīn nán chéng yì kuī lùn 血屬陰難成易虧論 (blood belongs to yīn; hard to make, easy to deplete);
- Zhì xià biàn lùn 滯下辨論 (differential discussion of dysentery);
- Sānjiāo zhī jí zàorè shèng yīn lùn 三焦之疾燥熱勝陰論 (Triple-Burner conditions: dryness-heat overcomes yīn);
- Xiè zéjīng shī zhì yǒu duō fāng lùn 泄澤經濕治有多方論 (diarrhea, damp-channel — therapy has many methods).
None of these discussions are explicitly attributed; but examining the Zhì xià biàn lùn’s citation of Zhènhēng’s words, these too are Yuánlǐ’s additions.
Zhènhēng takes yīn-supplementation as the principal strategy, opening the way to direct supplementation of true-water (真水); his use of yù (depression) to treat disease also subtly elucidates the Nèijīng’s meaning, opening the various authorities’ inexhaustible reflection. Although his use of huángbǎi and zhīmǔ is not as refined as the later use of the Liùwèi yuán (Six-Ingredient Pill) directly reaching the root, and his composed Yuèjú wán 越鞠丸 not as well-balanced as the later use of Xiāoyáo sǎn, the path-clearing-with-thorny-and-tattered shoes is nonetheless first traced by Zhènhēng.
The book’s wording is concise-and-clear, well meriting the “hooking the profound” title. Yuánlǐ’s supplementations are also largely precise. The Míng shǐ Fāngjì zhuàn records this book in Yuánlǐ’s biography, with juan-count matching the present recension; it praises him for “appending his own meaning” (附以己意) and says that “people consider him no embarrassment to his teacher” (人謂不愧其師) — whence its standing as a fine work of medical practice.
Yuánlǐ in Hóngwǔ was Imperial Physician; his original personal name was Sīgōng 思恭, and he went by his zì. He was a man of Pǔjiāng. Zhū Guózhēn’s Yǒngchuáng xiǎopǐn says: “Dài Yuánlǐ — the imperial dynasty’s sage physician. Tàizǔ called him ‘man of benevolence and righteousness’. On Tàisūn’s accession he was appointed Bureau Director.” — Yuánlǐ and Yuánlǐ (元禮 and 原禮) — Guózhēn obtained these by hearsay, hence the same sound but different characters.
(Respectfully verified, 9th month of Qiánlóng 46 [1781]. Chief Compilers Jì Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì; Chief Collator Lù Fèichí.)
Abstract
Composition window: 1340 (Zhū’s mature period) to 1405 (Dài’s death), bracketing the original composition by Zhū and the supplementation by Dài. The work’s exact composition date is uncertain.
The work’s significance:
(a) The YuánMíng transmission of the Dānxī school: through Dài Yuánlǐ’s supplementation, the Jīnguì gōuxuán preserves Zhū Zhènhēng’s clinical doctrine in early-Míng imperial-medical-bureau form. The work is therefore one of the principal channels through which Yuán-period medical innovation entered late-imperial Chinese practice.
(b) The “Six Stagnations” (六鬱) doctrine: Zhū’s yù 鬱 (depression / stagnation) framework — qì, blood, fire, food, damp, phlegm — receives its principal Yuán-period statement in this work. The doctrine is one of the most influential Chinese clinical-pathological frameworks, treating chronic and complex syndromes through the lens of accumulated stagnation.
(c) The Dài “Dài says” gloss tradition: Dài Yuánlǐ’s commentarial method — preserving his teacher’s text and adding his own commentary in clearly marked entries — is a model of the Confucian-medical commentarial tradition.
(d) The early-Míng imperial reception: Dài’s role as Hóngwǔ Imperial Physician and his subsequent promotion under Jiànwén made the Dānxī school the institutional standard of early-Míng imperial medicine. Through Dài, the Yuán-period medical revolution achieved its early-Míng institutional consolidation.
(e) The “Yuánlǐ / Yuánlǐ” orthographic variation: a useful witness to the homophonic-but-orthographically-different transmission of names in late-imperial Chinese sources, flagged by the SKQS editors per their editorial principle.
The catalog meta dynasty 元 reflects Zhū’s primary authorship; the work’s effective publication date is early Míng (post-1368).
Translations and research
- No substantial Western translation of this specific work.
- See KR3e0060 and KR3e0061 for the principal references on Zhū Zhènhēng.
- Mǎ Jìxīng 馬繼興, Zhōng-yī wénxiàn xué 中醫文獻學, Shànghǎi: Shànghǎi Kēxué Jìshù Chūbǎnshè, 1990 (entry on the Jīn-guì gōu-xuán).
- Despeux, Catherine. La Moelle du phénix rouge (1988) treats the Dān-xī school’s reception.
Other points of interest
The “Six Stagnations” 六鬱 doctrine articulated in this work — qì, blood, fire, food, damp, phlegm — is one of the most influential Chinese clinical-pathological frameworks. Zhū’s recognition that complex chronic syndromes often arise from multiple co-occurring stagnations was a major Yuán-period diagnostic-and-therapeutic innovation, and remains foundational to modern TCM clinical reasoning.
The Dài Yuánlǐ early-Míng imperial-physician institutional embedding is one of the more important sociological transitions in Chinese medical history: the Dānxī school went from controversial Yuán-period innovation to early-Míng imperial-medical orthodoxy in a single generation. Dài’s position as bureau-director under Jiànwén established Zhū Zhènhēng’s doctrines as the institutional standard for the next two centuries of imperial medical practice.