Yùjī wēiyì 玉機微義
The Subtle Meaning of the Jade Loom by 徐用誠 (Xú Yòngchéng, zì Yànchún, of Huìjī, late 元 / early 明) — original 17-category compilation; 劉純 (Liú Chún, zì Zōnghòu, of Xiánníng, early 明) — supplementation with 33 additional categories
About the work
A two-stratum early-Míng comprehensive clinical treatise in 50 juan / 50 disease-categories. The base layer is Xú Yòngchéng’s Yī xué zhézhōng 醫學折衷 — 17 categories: Zhòngfēng (wind-stroke), Wěi (atrophy), Shāngfēng (cold-injury), Tán yǐn (phlegm-fluid), Zhì xià (dysentery), Xièxiè (diarrhea), Nüè (malaria), Tóu tòng (headache), Tóu xuàn (head-vertigo), Ké nì (cough-counterflow), Pǐ mǎn (blockage-fullness), Tù suān (sour-vomiting), Chì (lockjaw), Lìfēng (Hansen’s-disease wind), Xián (epilepsy), Pòshāngfēng (tetanus / wound-wind), Sǔnshāng (injury). The second layer is Liú Chún’s expansion, adding 33 categories: cough, heat, fire, summer-heat, damp, dryness, cold, ulcers, qì, blood, internal damage, deficiency, accumulation, xiāokě, water-qì, leg-qì, hernias, anti-stomach, distension, throat-paralysis, urinary, eye, tooth, lumbar, abdominal, heart, rashes, jaundice, cholera, collapse-paralysis, women, children. Each category preserves selected discussion from earlier authorities with editorial àn (案 case-comments) by Xú or Liú. The mùlù (table of contents) marks Liú’s continuation-additions with the character “xù” 續 (continuation) for distinction.
Tiyao
Yùjī wēiyì, 50 juan, by Xú Yòngchéng of the Míng, with continuation-supplementation by Liú Chún. Yòngchéng, zì Yànchún, was a man of Huìjī. Chún, zì Zōnghòu, was a man of Xiánníng. The original Yòngchéng work was titled Yī xué zhézhōng — divided into Wind-stroke, Atrophy, Cold-injury, Phlegm-fluid, Dysentery, Diarrhea, Malaria, Headache, Head-vertigo, Cough-counterflow, Blockage-fullness, Sour-vomiting, Lockjaw, Hansen-Wind, Epilepsy, Wound-wind, and Injury — 17 categories. Chún found the categorical-list incomplete and added: Cough, Heat, Fire, Summer-heat, Damp, Dryness, Cold, Ulcers, Qì, Blood, Internal-damage, Deficiency, Accumulation, Xiāokě, Water-qì, Leg-qì, Hernias, Anti-stomach, Distension, Throat-paralysis, Urinary, Eye, Tooth, Lumbar, Abdominal, Heart, Rashes, Jaundice, Cholera, Collapse-Paralysis, Women, Children — 33 categories — finally giving the present title.
In the mùlù, each entry has the character “xù” 續 noted to distinguish [Liú’s additions]. Or [in some places] in Yòngchéng’s original 17 categories, where there is appended-discussion, the character “xù” is also noted. So the two collaborated successively to complete the present book — this is verifiable. The Míng shǐ yìwén zhì records only Liú Chún’s name — clearly an oversight.
The book gathers from various authorities’ old discussions and old prescriptions, with each entry having an appended àn (case-comment) and many corrections — not a mere paste-and-cut copy.
In Jiājìng gēngyín (1530), the Yánpíng’s Huáng Zhuó 黃焯 printed the work at Yǒngzhōu, with Yáng Shìqí’s preface placed first. From this we know that the two were both early-Míng figures.
Shìqí’s preface says that the two were both private-disciples of Zhū Zhènhēng — examining the book, this is confirmed. He also says: “The northern Zhāng Yuánsù transmitted to Lǐ Gǎo, with the third transmission to Wáng Hǎogǔ; the southern Zhū Zhènhēng received the private-discipleship.” — but this seriously confuses the school-and-source-line. The ZhāngLǐWáng learning takes spleen-management as principal; the Zhū learning takes yīn-supplementation as principal. The Zhū learning is closer to the Héjiān (Liú Wánsù) line and somewhat further from the JiégǔDōngyuánHǎicáng line. The transmitted writings exist and can be checked. Wáng Wěi’s Qīngyán cónglù says: “Lǐ’s disciples are mostly in the Central Plain. Only Liú [Wánsù]‘s line was transmitted via Mt. Jīngshān to the Buddhist priest, who transmitted to Sòng’s [Luō] Zhītì in Jiāngnán; the southern physicians all venerate this lineage.” The school-transmission is most clear; for Shìqí to merge them is a serious error.
(Respectfully verified, 10th month of Qiánlóng 46 [1781]. Chief Compilers Jì Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì; Chief Collator Lù Fèichí.)
Abstract
Composition window: 1380–1410, the early-Míng period during which both Xú Yòngchéng (Hóngwǔ) and Liú Chún (HóngwǔYǒnglè) were active. The work cannot be precisely dated; the Yáng Shìqí preface (Yáng was active 1365–1444) suggests early-fifteenth-century circulation.
The work’s significance:
(a) The early-Míng Dānxī school synthesis: Xú Yòngchéng and Liú Chún’s combined work is the principal early-Míng systematic exposition of the Dānxī school doctrines, integrated with classical-textual reasoning. Through this work, Zhū Zhènhēng’s school achieved its standard early-Míng pedagogical form.
(b) The two-stratum editorial structure: the xù-marked continuation-additions by Liú Chún preserve the multi-author character of the work, in deliberate contrast to the more common Chinese practice of silently merging successive editorial contributions. The methodology is one of the more philologically sophisticated early-Míng medical-editorial choices.
(c) The 50-category clinical comprehensive structure: building on the Sòng Héjì jú fāng’s 14-category structure and the Yuán Sānyīn doctrine, the 50-category structure of the Yùjī wēiyì is one of the more comprehensive early-Míng systematic disease-classifications, anticipating the standard categorical-organizations of late-Míng medical encyclopedias.
(d) The school-attribution corrected by SKQS editors: Yáng Shìqí’s confused merger of the ZhāngYuánsù line and the Dānxī line is corrected by the SKQS editors with appropriate philological precision. The school-history correction is one of the better mid-Qīng medical-historiographical analyses.
The catalog meta gives the dynasty as 明, correct.
Translations and research
- No substantial Western translation of this specific work.
- See KR3e0050 for the Zhāng Yuánsù → Lǐ Gǎo → Wáng Hǎogǔ transmission references.
- See KR3e0060 for the Zhū Zhènhēng / Dān-xī school references.
- Mǎ Jìxīng 馬繼興, Zhōng-yī wénxiàn xué 中醫文獻學, Shànghǎi: Shànghǎi Kēxué Jìshù Chūbǎnshè, 1990 (entry on the Yù-jī wēi-yì).
Other points of interest
The two-stratum editorial structure of the Yùjī wēiyì — Xú Yòngchéng’s 17-category base and Liú Chún’s 33-category expansion, with the xù continuation-marker preserving the boundary — is one of the more methodologically interesting early-Míng editorial designs. The structure preserves the character of a teacher-disciple-relay-style text, in contrast to the more common silent-merger editorial method.
The early-Míng Dānxī school institutionalization through this work and through Dài Yuánlǐ’s imperial-physician position (cf. KR3e0062) made Zhū Zhènhēng’s doctrines the dominant late-imperial Chinese medical orientation through the mid-Míng. The 16th-century revival of the Lǐ Gǎo Spleen-and-Stomach school under Xuē Jǐ and the 17th-century counter-reformation under Zhāng Jièbīn (Jǐngyuè) were responses to this Dānxī dominance.