Yījīng sùhuí jí 醫經溯洄集
Tracing-Backwards-and-Returning to the Medical Classics: A Collection by 王履 (Wáng Lǚ, zì Āndào, born 1332, fl. late 元 to early 明)
About the work
A late-Yuán philological-and-doctrinal collection of 21 essays on medical-classic problems, in 2 juan, by Wáng Lǚ — a disciple of Zhū Zhènhēng. The title — “Tracing-Backwards-and-Returning” (溯洄 sùhuí) — derives from the Shījīng image of going upstream against the current to find the source. Wáng’s philological project: to reach back behind the late-Sòng / JīnYuán medical-school doctrines and recover the original meaning of the foundational medical classics through careful textual reasoning. Notable essays include: Shénnóng cháng bǎicǎo lùn 神農嘗百草論; Sìqì suǒshāng lùn 四氣所傷論; Zhāng Zhòngjǐng Shānghán lìfǎ kǎo 張仲景傷寒立法考; Shānghán wēnbìng rèbìng shuō 傷寒溫病熱病說; Shānghán sānbǎi jiǔshíqī fǎ biàn 傷寒三百九十七法辨 (a textual-philological argument on the 397-method classification of the Shānghán lùn); Wàishāng nèishāng suǒshòu jīngzhǐ yìtóng lùn 外傷內傷所受經旨異同論 (on the classical-textual basis of Lǐ Gǎo’s internal-vs-external-damage distinction); plus essays on the Bāwèi yuán, the Zǐfǔzǐ Cángyòng wán 子府子藏用丸, the Wǔ yù lùn 五鬱論 (Five Stagnations), and others. The work is foundational to the late-Yuán / early-Míng critical-philological reading of the medical canon.
Tiyao
Yījīng sùhuí jí, 2 juan, by Wáng Lǚ of the Yuán. Lǚ, zì Āndào, was a man of Kūnshān. He studied medicine with Zhū Yànxiū of Jīnhuá and fully received his master’s art. He died in the early Míng, so the Míng shǐ lists him in the Fāngjì zhuàn; but he is in fact a Yuán figure.
He once observed that the Yángmíng chapter [of the Shānghán lùn] does not include eye-pain; the Shàoyīn chapter speaks of chest-and-back fullness but not pain; the Tàiyīn chapter has no throat-dryness; the Juéyīn chapter has no scrotum-contraction — these must be missing characters [textual lacunae]. He took the 397-method classification, deduplicated 238 entries, and supplemented to restore the 397-method count.
He further extensively elucidated the Nèishāng wàishāng 內傷外傷 (Internal vs. External Damage) classical-textual basis, alongside the discrimination of zhòngfēng 中風 and zhòngshǔ 中暑 — composing this work in 21 essays. Among them, the most penetrating elucidations are…
(Note: the rest of the SKQS tíyào continues but has been truncated in the source-file extraction. The complete tíyào treats more of the 21 essays’ contents and assesses Wáng Lǚ’s philological method favorably.)
Abstract
Composition window: 1360–1380, the late-Yuán to early-Míng transition. Wáng Lǚ was 28 in 1360, 48 in 1380; the work is mature-period composition.
The work’s significance:
(a) The late-Yuán philological-medical critique: Wáng Lǚ’s work represents one of the most rigorous late-Yuán philological-medical efforts to recover the original meanings of the foundational medical classics through close textual reasoning. The work’s title — sùhuí “tracing-backwards-and-returning to the source” — is a manifesto for classical-philological method.
(b) The 397-method Shānghán reconstruction: Wáng’s most controversial contribution. The Sòng校正醫書局-recension Shānghán lùn claims 397 methods; Wáng identifies textual gaps in the Yángmíng, Shàoyīn, Tàiyīn, and Juéyīn chapters, deduplicates the existing 397 to 238, and supplements with reconstructed material to rebuild the 397-count. Modern scholarship is divided on the correctness of the reconstruction, but the philological method is methodologically sound.
(c) The internal-vs-external damage classical foundations: Wáng provides a careful classical-textual argument for the Nèishāng wàishāng distinction articulated by 李杲 Lǐ Gǎo (KR3e0052). The argument grounds the distinction not in clinical observation alone but in the Sùwèn and Língshū sources, strengthening the doctrinal basis of the Spleen-and-Stomach school.
(d) The Zhū Zhènhēng disciple connection: Wáng was Zhū’s disciple, but his work shows a more philologically rigorous and less polemical approach than his teacher’s Júfāng fāhuī. The work is part of a broader late-Yuán Dān-xī-school refinement away from the most controversial anti-formulary positions.
(e) The cross-Yuán-Míng transition: Wáng’s career bridges Yuán and early Míng; he died in the Míng but his work is essentially Yuán in doctrinal orientation. The catalog meta correctly assigns the work to Yuán despite his later death.
The Sìshū compilation places the Yījīng sùhuí jí alongside the major JīnYuán Four-Master works (KR3e0047 Liú, KR3e0051 Zhāng Cóngzhèng, KR3e0052 Lǐ Gǎo, KR3e0060 Zhū Zhènhēng); it is the appropriate Yuán-period philological-disciple companion to that doctrinal-school sequence.
Translations and research
- No substantial Western 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 (treats Wáng Lǚ in the Dān-xī-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 Yī-jīng sù-huí jí).
- Liào Yùqún 廖育群, Yīxué yǔ chuántǒng wénhuà 醫學與傳統文化, Tianjin: Bǎihuā Wényì, 2002 (chapter on late-Yuán medical philology).
Other points of interest
The “tracing-backwards-and-returning to the source” 溯洄 sùhuí methodology — Wáng’s signature philological move of reading classical texts against later doctrinal accretions — is one of the more methodologically interesting late-Yuán medical-philological positions. The methodology anticipates the Qīng “evidential learning” (考據學 kǎojù xué) approach to classical texts.
Wáng’s career as both an artist-poet and a physician is one of the more remarkable Yuán-period multi-domain professional achievements, reflecting the Confucian-medical (rúyī) integration of high-cultural and clinical practice.