Sùwèn bìngjī qìyí bǎomìng jí 素問病機氣宜保命集
Collected Essentials on Disease Mechanisms and Climatic-Cycle Therapeutics from the Basic Questions by 劉完素 (Liú Wánsù, c. 1110 – c. 1200, 金) — author
About the work
The Bǎomìng jí in three juan is Liú Wánsù’s 劉完素 main practical-clinical treatise, applying the doctrinal framework of his Sùwèn xuánjī yuánbìng shì 素問玄機原病式 (on disease mechanism) and Sùwèn yàozhǐ lùn (KR3ea015, on climatic cycles) to therapeutic practice. Juan 1 contains theoretical essays (病機論, 氣宜論, 治法論…); juan 2–3 treat clinical syndromology by category — fevers, biànzhèng 變證, internal damage, cold-induced disease, women’s medicine, children’s medicine, and external disorders. The work was widely re-cut in the Yuán and Míng and is the principal vehicle through which Liú’s “cold-cooling” doctrine reached later physicians.
Prefaces
The author’s preface (KR3ea017_000.txt) presents Liú’s intellectual autobiography: at twenty-five he committed himself to studying the Nèijīng, working day and night without let-up; by sixty he met a “heavenly man” (天人) who poured him a bowl of fragrant wine — after which his face flushed as if drunk, his mind cleared, and his understanding of medical principle became unobstructed (an xīnxué 心學-style awakening narrative). The preface attacks contemporary physicians who “rely on inherited reputation” (賴祖名) and “stand on old prescriptions” (倚約舊方) without seeking to learn or to update. Liú positions himself as restorer of the Nèijīng tradition against an inertial SòngJúfāng medical establishment.
Abstract
The Bǎomìng jí’s authorship is occasionally disputed: some Yuán bibliographies attribute it to Liú Wánsù’s near-contemporary 張元素 Zhāng Yuánsù of Yìzhōu 易州 (the founder of the rival 易水 / 補土 school), and the colophons of some Yuán prints credit Liú’s disciple Mǎ Zōngsù 馬宗素 with editorial work. The mainstream view — supported by the Sìkù tíyào on the WYG copy and by the modern Liú Wánsù yīxué quánshū (Beijing: Renmin Weisheng, 2007) — accepts Liú as the primary author, with editorial intervention by Mǎ Zōngsù around 1186.
Doctrinally the Bǎomìng jí applies Liú’s “fire / yīn deficiency” framework to a comprehensive clinical curriculum, with extensive original prescriptions; many of these — Liángge sǎn 涼膈散, Tiānmá gōuténg yǐn 天麻鈎藤飲, Pángfēng tōngshèng sǎn 防風通聖散 (the latter the most famous of all Liú’s formulae) — remain in active modern Chinese-medical use. The work was the principal textbook of the Liú school under Liú’s disciples Liú Jǐngzōng 劉景宗, Mǎ Zōngsù, and Hú Lǐ 胡儷, and it transmitted to the Mongol-Yuán era LiúHéjiān 河間派 through Luó Zhīdì 羅知悌 (teacher of 朱震亨 Zhū Zhènhēng).
Translations and research
- Yú Yīngaó 余瀛鼇 (ed.), Liú Wánsù yīxué quánshū 劉完素醫學全書 (Renmin Weisheng, 2007) — the standard collected edition.
- Asaf Goldschmidt, The Evolution of Chinese Medicine: Song Dynasty, 960–1200 (Routledge, 2009) — context for the anti-Júfāng polemic.
- TJ Hinrichs and Linda L. Barnes (eds.), Chinese Medicine and Healing: An Illustrated History (Belknap, 2013) — chapter on the Four Masters of Jīn-Yuán Medicine.
Links
- Wikipedia 劉完素 (中文).
- Wikidata Q9098099 (Liú Wánsù).