Jǐngyuè quánshū 景岳全書
The Complete Works of Jǐng-yuè by 張介賓 (Zhāng Jièbīn, zì Huìqīng, hào Jǐngyuè, 1563–1640, of Shānyīn, 明)
About the work
Zhāng Jièbīn’s mature comprehensive medical encyclopedia, in 64 juan, the locus classicus of his warming-tonifying (溫補) school doctrine. Structure:
- Chuán zhōng lù 傳忠錄 (3 juan) — general doctrinal essays on yīnyáng, liù qì, and predecessors’ strengths-and-weaknesses;
- Mài shén zhāng 脈神章 (3 juan) — pulse-doctrine essentials;
- Shānghán diǎn 傷寒典 + Zázhèng mó 雜證謨 + Fùrén guī 婦人規 + Xiǎo’ér zé 小兒則 + Dòuzhěn quán 痘疹詮 + Wàikē qián 外科鈐 (41 juan total) — the six clinical specialty sections;
- Běncǎo zhèng 本草正 (2 juan) — pharmacopoeia-essentials, with rénshēn, fùzǐ, shúdì, and dàhuáng identified as the Four Cardinals (四維 sìwéi) of the medicine kingdom: rénshēn and shúdì as the “good prime ministers”, dàhuáng and fùzǐ as the “good generals”;
- Xīn fāng 新方 (2 juan) — Zhāng’s original prescriptions, organized by 8 strategic classifications (八陣 bā zhèn): Bǔ (tonify), Hé (harmonize), Hán (cool), Rè (warm), Gù (consolidate), Yīn (cause), Gōng (attack), Sàn (disperse);
- Gǔ fāng 古方 (9 juan) — ancient prescriptions, also organized by 8 strategic classifications;
- Fùrén Xiǎo’ér Dòuzhěn Wàikē fāng (4 juan) — additional women’s-and-children’s-and-pox-and-surgical prescriptions.
The SKQS tíyào offers a balanced critique: praising Zhāng’s correction of Liú Wánsù / Zhū Zhènhēng end-stream excesses but warning against rigid application of the warming-tonifying doctrine to all cases. The tíyào concludes with a notable extended quotation from the Yuán Xǔ Héng’s Lǔzhāi jí on the parallel late-Sòng Zhāng [Yuánsù] vs. Liú [Wánsù] dispute — drawing the lesson that “one must use both schools’ strengths without either’s weaknesses”.
Tiyao
Jǐngyuè quánshū, 64 juan, by Zhāng Jièbīn of the Míng. The book opens with the Chuán zhōng lù (3 juan) — generally discussing yīnyáng, the six qì, and the predecessors’ merits-and-faults. Next the Mài shén zhāng (3 juan) — recording diagnostic essentials. Next the Shānghán diǎn, Zázhèng mó, Fùrén guī, Xiǎo’ér zé, Dòuzhěn quán, Wàikē qián — 41 juan in total. Further the Běncǎo zhèng (2 juan): selecting 300 medicine-substances; with rénshēn, fùzǐ, shúdì, dàhuáng identified as the medicines’ Four Cardinals; further pushing rénshēn and dìhuáng as the “good prime ministers”, dàhuáng and fùzǐ as the “good generals”. Next the Xīn fāng (2 juan); the Gǔ fāng (9 juan) — both divided into 8 strategic classifications: Bǔ (tonify), Hé (harmonize), Hán (cool), Rè (warm), Gù (consolidate), Yīn (cause), Gōng (attack), Sàn (disperse). Further separately edited Women’s, Children’s, Pox, External-Medicine prescriptions (4 juan) — concluding the work.
The naming-conventions all follow the late-Míng cute-and-frivolous fashion. To call the cold-damage section Diǎn (canon), the miscellaneous-symptom section Mó (memorial) is both usurping classical names and inappropriate-to-the-meaning — particularly out of place. As for his persistent argument: that since the JīnYuán, Héjiān Liú Shǒuzhēn established the doctrine that “all diseases belong to fire”; and Dānxī Zhū Zhènhēng established the doctrine of “yáng-having-surplus and yīn-having-deficiency” plus “yīn-deficiency fire-stirring”; later writers cling to fixed prescriptions without examining deficiency-and-fullness, and freely apply cold-cool attack-purgative — repeatedly causing harm. He therefore vigorously corrects [these] biases. He says that the human person’s life-qì takes yáng as principal — the difficult-to-keep-and-easily-lost is yáng; the lost-and-hard-to-recover is also yáng. He therefore takes warming-tonification as the principal teaching — quite sufficient to correct rough-and-careless errors; on the medical art, his merit is not nothing.
But those who follow his doctrine, not examining the symptom-pattern’s biāoběn (manifestation-root) or investigating the qì-blood’s flourishing-or-decline, simply tonify and warm everything — calling it “the kingly Way” — they do not realize that the misapplication of rénshēn and guì also kills people. Then over-correcting becomes its opposite — the failures equal those of cold-cool attack-purgative.
In general, disease-circumstances vary infinitely, not bound to one path; medicine-application follows what disease requires, also hard to bind to one rule. To insist on first establishing one principle to govern all treatments — none has not erred toward bias.
The Yuán Xǔ Héng’s Lǔzhāi jí has the Lùn Liáng Kuānfǔ bìngzhèng shū 論梁寛甫病証書, which says: “In recent generations, of the various physicians, some take Yìzhōu Zhāngshì (Zhāng Yuánsù) as principal; some take Héjiān Liúshì (Liú Wánsù) as principal. Zhāng’s medication adheres to the four-seasons yīnyáng and increases-or-decreases accordingly — exactly the Nèijīng’s four-qì-regulating-the-spirit’s meaning. The physician who does not know this acts blindly. Liú’s medication aims at pushing-out-the-old and bringing-in-the-new, not allowing the slightest depression — exactly the creation’s new-new-not-injured meaning. The physician who does not know this has no art. But those who follow Zhāng without exhausting Zhāng’s marvel — the dizzy-causing prescriptions [strong-acting] in the end they dare not apply, and the cases of failing-the-moment, missing-the-time and being-unrescued are many. Those who follow Liú without exhausting Liú’s depth — the immediate-effective treatments hidden-injure the proper qì, and those leaving harm for later days are many. To use the strengths of both schools without either’s weakness — then perhaps treatment can succeed.”
His words are most clear and apt. To support yáng and suppress yīn is the Way of Heaven. But yīn at its extreme reaches the dragon-battle [hexagram]; yáng at its extreme also reaches the kànglóng (overflowing dragon)…
(Respectfully verified, [no specific month/day]. Chief Compilers Jì Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì; Chief Collator Lù Fèichí.)
Abstract
Composition window: 1624–1640, the late-period composition between the Lèijīng (1624) and Zhāng’s death (1640). The work was completed in his very late years and printed posthumously by his descendants.
The work’s significance:
(a) The doctrinal manifesto of the warming-tonifying school: the Jǐngyuè quánshū is the most influential late-Míng systematic warming-tonifying-school treatise. Through it, Zhāng’s school doctrines became the principal Qīng-period counterweight to the Dānxī yīn-deficiency school.
(b) The “Four Cardinals” pharmacology (sìwéi): the elevation of rénshēn, shúdì, fùzǐ, and dàhuáng to “Four Cardinal” status is one of the more memorable late-Míng pharmacological-philosophical positions, organizing the entire materia medica around these four principal medicines (rénshēn / shúdì tonifying, fùzǐ warming, dàhuáng purging).
(c) The “8 strategic classifications” (bā zhèn) prescription-organization: BǔHéHánRèGùYīnGōngSàn — Zhāng’s classification of all prescriptions into 8 strategic functions is one of the more philosophically articulate Chinese prescription-classification schemes, drawing on classical military-strategic metaphors.
(d) The Xǔ Héng quotation and SKQS editor’s balanced reading: the tíyào’s extended quotation from Xǔ Héng’s late-Sòng letter on the parallel Zhāng Yuánsù / Liú Wánsù dispute provides historical perspective on the recurrent Chinese medical-doctrinal cycles. The SKQS editors’ invocation of this precedent is one of their more elegant medical-historiographical moves.
(e) The late-Míng “cute-and-frivolous” naming convention: the tíyào’s critique of Zhāng’s chapter titles (Diǎn, Mó, Guī, Zé, Quán, Qián) as both usurping classical names and inappropriate-to-meaning is a useful piece of late-Míng cultural-critical observation.
The catalog meta dynasty 明 is correct.
Translations and research
- No substantial Western translation of the complete work. Selected sections (the Fù-rén guī on women’s medicine, the Chuán zhōng lù on doctrinal foundations) are widely studied.
- See KR3e0085 for principal references on Zhāng Jièbīn (Mǎ Bóyīng 2010, Mǎ Jìxīng 1990).
- Furth, Charlotte. A Flourishing Yin: Gender in China’s Medical History, 960–1665, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999. Treats the Fù-rén guī.
- Despeux, Catherine. La Moelle du phénix rouge: santé et longue vie dans la Chine du XVIe siècle, Paris: Trédaniel, 1988. Treats the late-Míng / early-Qīng warming-tonifying school.
Other points of interest
The “Four Cardinals” 四維 metaphor — ranking medicines by their political analogues — is one of the more colorful late-imperial Chinese pharmacological-philosophical organizations. The political metaphors locate medical practice within the broader Confucian civic-moral framework, where physician’s choices are framed as political-strategic decisions.
The “Yáng-precious yīn-cheap” doctrine articulated in the Chuán zhōng lù is the most polemical position of Zhāng Jièbīn’s school. The doctrine maintains that yáng is the principal vital force of the body, that yīn-deficiency conditions are usually secondary to underlying yáng-deficiency, and that warming-tonifying therapy should accordingly take precedence over cooling-clearing therapy. The doctrine remains a recognized but minority position in modern TCM clinical reasoning.