Míngyī Biélù 名醫別錄
Separate Records of Renowned Physicians attributed compilation by 陶弘景 (Táo Hóngjǐng, 456–536, 南朝·梁) — 輯錄
About the work
The Míngyī biélù is one of the two principal textual layers that Táo Hóngjǐng combined to produce the Běncǎo jīng jízhù (KR3ec003). It was never a single integral work in the strict sense: rather, the name designates the post-Běnjīng annotations and additions made by named (and unnamed) physicians of the late Eastern Hàn, Three Kingdoms, and Jìn — Lǐ Dāngzhī 李當之, Wú Pǔ 吳普, the Tóng-Jūn cǎiyào lù 桐君採藥錄, the Yào duì 藥對, etc. — and gathered, organised, and transmitted under that title by Táo as a parallel corpus to the Shénnóng běncǎo jīng 神農本草經 (KR3ec001). In Táo’s Jízhù the Biélù entries appear in black ink beside the Běnjīng’s red, both contributing parallel layers of 365 substances each, for a combined 730. The catalog meta gives 佚名，陶弘景 輯錄 — “anonymous, compiled and recorded by Táo Hóngjǐng” — capturing the work’s anonymous-collective character with Táo as the figure responsible for textual fixation.
Prefaces
The 漢學文典 transmitted text begins directly with the 上品·卷第一 玉屑 entry, without an editorial preface. The reconstruction method is transparent: for each substance the modern editor reproduces (a) the Biélù layer (giving 味 (taste), 氣 (qì), 主 (main effects), 別名 (alternate names), 出處 (habitat), 採時 (gathering time), 七情 (paired-action notes)) and (b) cross-references the Běnjīng original text in a paired panel beginning “《本經》原文：“. This makes the modern Biélù edition a particularly transparent witness to the two-tier structure of the early Chinese pharmacological canon.
Abstract
The Biélù’s authorship and dating are debated. The catalog meta follows the Sòng-era understanding: the work is a Hàn-Wèi compilation, the named physicians being from the late Eastern Hàn to the Jìn (i.e. c. 25 CE – 200 CE for the earliest stratum, with accretions through 350 CE), and Táo Hóngjǐng’s contribution being editorial fixation rather than original composition. In its actually surviving form, however, the Biélù is inextricable from Táo’s Jízhù: every later běncǎo receives the Biélù layer through Táo, not from an independent textual tradition. The modern reconstruction in 漢學文典 (and parallel critical editions like Shang Zhijun’s) lift the Biélù layer back out of the Zhènglèi běncǎo (KR3ec009) by reading 墨字 (black-character) entries as Biélù and 朱字 (red-character) as Běnjīng; this is reliable for the substances both works share, but uncertain for Biélù-only substances where chromatic markers were lost in transcription.
Each entry includes paired-action drug interactions (the qī qíng 七情 doctrine: 單行, 相須, 相使, 相畏, 相惡, 相反, 相殺), making the Biélù the principal Hàn-Wèi source for the systematic theory of drug compatibility. Many of its specific items survive only here — including foundational text on 鍾乳 (stalactite), 雲母 (mica), 朴硝, 滑石 (talc), 玉泉, etc., all of which become canonical mineral medicines.
The composition window in frontmatter (25–220 CE) reflects the Eastern Hàn dating of the named-physicians corpus; some material likely accretes into the third century but is not securely datable. Táo’s editorial fixation is c. 492–500.
Translations and research
- Shang Zhijun 尚志鈞 (coll.). 1986. Míngyī biélù (jí jiào běn) 名醫別錄 (輯校本). Renmin weisheng. — the standard modern critical edition.
- Wáng Jiākuí 王家葵 et al. 1998. Běncǎo jīng jízhù yánjiū 本草經集註研究, esp. ch. 2 on the Biélù problem. Beijing kexue jishu.
- Unschuld, Paul U. 1986. Medicine in China: A History of Pharmaceutics. UCP. — ch. 1.5 on the Biélù.
- No Western-language translation exists.
Other points of interest
The Biélù is the source of the still-current 君臣佐使 (sovereign / minister / assistant / messenger) terminology for the role-hierarchy of drugs in a single prescription. Although the basic vocabulary already appears in the Běnjīng, the Biélù elaborates it through paired-action notes (e.g. 半夏有毒，用之必須生薑 — “bànxià is toxic, when used it must be paired with fresh ginger”), making it the foundational text of clinical prescription theory.
Links
- Wikidata: Q11078318 (名醫別錄).
- Encyclopaedia entry in Pregadio, Encyclopedia of Taoism (Routledge 2008), under “Mingyi bielu.”
- 名醫別錄 jicheng.tw
- Kanseki DB