Lèijīng 類經
Categorically Re-Organized [Inner] Classic by 張介賓 (Zhāng Jièbīn, zì Huìqīng, hào Jǐngyuè, 1563–1640, of Shānyīn, 明)
About the work
The most influential post-Yuán categorical re-organization of the Sùwèn and Língshū, in 32 juan plus 11 juan of Lèijīng túyì 類經圖翼 (Wing of Diagrams) and 4 juan of Lèijīng fùyì 類經附翼 (Appended Wing) — totaling 47 juan, completed Tiānqǐ jiǎzǐ (1624). The work takes the Sùwèn and Língshū and reorganizes their content under 12 thematic categories: (1) Shèshēng 攝生 (life-cultivation); (2) Yīnyáng 陰陽; (3) Zàngxiàng 藏象 (visceral images); (4) Màisè 脈色 (pulse-and-color); (5) Jīngluò 經絡 (channels); (6) Biāoběn 標本 (manifestation-and-root); (7) Qìwèi 氣味 (energetic and flavor properties); (8) Lùnzhì 論治 (treatment-discussion); (9) Jíbìng 疾病 (disease); (10) Zhēncì 鍼刺 (needling); (11) Yùnqì 運氣 (cycles-and-qì); (12) Huìtōng 會通 (synthetic mastery) — totaling 390 entries. Each entry preserves the relevant Sùwèn / Língshū passages with Zhāng’s annotation. The structural plan is built on the precedent of 李杲 Lǐ Gǎo and his disciple Luó Tiānyì’s now-lost Nèijīng lèibiān 內經類編 (per Liú Yīn 劉因’s Jìngxiū jí’s Nèijīng lèibiān xù). Zhāng’s reorganization makes the Nèijīng readable as a coherent medical-doctrinal text rather than as a sequence of independent dialogues.
Tiyao
Lèijīng, 32 juan, edited by Zhāng Jièbīn of the Míng. Jièbīn, zì Huìqīng, hào Jǐngyuè, was a man of Shānyīn. The work takes the Sùwèn and Língshū and divides their content categorically by mutual association: (1) Shèshēng; (2) Yīnyáng; (3) Zàngxiàng; (4) Màisè; (5) Jīngluò; (6) Biāoběn; (7) Qìwèi; (8) Lùnzhì; (9) Jíbìng; (10) Zhēncì; (11) Yùnqì; (12) Huìtōng — 390 entries total. He further adds the Túyì in 11 juan and the Fùyì in 4 juan. Although [the work] cannot avoid breaking up the ancient text, the categorical organization is orderly and convenient for searching. The annotation also has substantial original elucidations.
Examining the Yuán Liú Yīn’s Jìngxiū jí, there is the Nèijīng lèibiān xù, which says: “Dōngyuán Lǐ Míngzhī obtained the learning of Zhāng [Yuánsù]; Luó Qiānfǔ [Tiānyì] of Zhèn was once his student. One day, meeting me, he said: ‘My late teacher once instructed me: “Although the ancients had prescriptions, the prescriptions had their sources. Investigate for me by classifying the disease-symptoms by channels, and you will know the sources from which the prescriptions came.” I respectfully accepted the instruction; thrice the manuscript was completed and thrice my late teacher destroyed it. Polished and worked over for three years, only then was it complete; named the Nèijīng lèibiān.’*” — so the categorical organization of the Nèijīng was originated in form by Lǐ Gǎo and completed by Luó Tiānyì.
Now Tiānyì’s text is no longer transmitted; Jièbīn’s compilation, although not classifying by disease as Lǐ Gǎo’s example did and slightly differing in plan, still does not fundamentally diverge — even taking it as supplementing the [LǐLuó] lost work would be acceptable.
(Respectfully verified, 5th month of Qiánlóng 46 [1781]. Chief Compilers Jì Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì; Chief Collator Lù Fèichí.)
Abstract
Composition window: 1624/1624, the date of Zhāng’s preface (Tiānqǐ jiǎzǐ).
The work’s significance:
(a) The most influential post-Yuán Nèijīng reorganization: Zhāng’s 12-category structure makes the Sùwèn and Língshū coherently readable as a single doctrinal text, and is the principal late-Míng / Qīng systematic re-organization. Through this work, the Nèijīng corpus achieved its modern accessible form.
(b) The Lǐ Gǎo / Luó Tiānyì Nèijīng lèibiān precedent: the SKQS editors’ careful documentation of the late-Yuán precedent — Lǐ Gǎo’s instruction to Luó Tiānyì, Luó’s three-draft-three-destruction labor, the resulting Nèijīng lèibiān — is a useful piece of medical-historiographical work, locating Zhāng’s project within a longer Chinese medical-pedagogical tradition.
(c) The categorical-pedagogical rationale: Zhāng’s organizational choice — categorical themes rather than original dialogue-sequence — represents a pedagogical decision that medical knowledge is best transmitted through systematic theme rather than through preserved historical-textual order. The choice has shaped late-imperial and modern Nèijīng pedagogy.
(d) The Túyì and Fùyì appendices: the 11-juan diagrammatic Wing and the 4-juan philosophical-medical Appended Wing (which contains key essays articulating the Mìngmén warming-tonifying doctrine) make the Lèijīng a complete late-Míng Nèijīng-pedagogical-and-doctrinal-package. The Fùyì in particular is the principal source for Zhāng’s school-doctrinal positions.
The catalog meta dynasty 明 is correct.
Translations and research
- No substantial Western translation of the complete work. Sections of the Lèijīng are studied in:
- Unschuld, Paul U. Huang Di Nei Jing Su Wen: An Annotated Translation of Huang Di’s Inner Classic — Basic Questions, 2 vols., Berkeley: University of California Press, 2011 (cites Zhāng Jièbīn’s annotations extensively).
- 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 Jièbīn).
- Mǎ Jìxīng 馬繼興, Zhōng-yī wénxiàn xué 中醫文獻學, Shànghǎi: Shànghǎi Kēxué Jìshù Chūbǎnshè, 1990 (entry on the Lèijīng).
Other points of interest
The Lèijīng túyì — 11 juan of diagrams — is one of the more visually rich Chinese medical works, with diagrams of the yùnqì cosmology, channel anatomy, zàngfǔ relations, Yìjīng bāguà and Hétú Luòshū correlations, and other medical-cosmological systems. The diagrams are foundational for the visual tradition of late-imperial Chinese medical pedagogy.
The Lèijīng fùyì — 4 juan of philosophical-medical essays — contains the principal articulations of Zhāng’s warming-tonifying doctrine and is the locus classicus of the “Yáng is precious, yīn is cheap” 陽貴陰賤 thesis that defined his school’s distance from the Dānxī tradition.