Běncǎo Fāhuī 本草發揮
Pharmacology Drawn Out and Made Plain by 徐彥純 (Xú Yànchún, zì Yòngchéng 用誠, late 14th c., 明), in the lineage of 朱震亨 (Zhū Zhènhēng, Dānxī 丹溪, 1281–1358), 李杲 (Lǐ Gǎo, Dōngyuán 東垣), 張元素 (Zhāng Yuánsù, Jiégǔ 潔古), and 王好古 (Wáng Hàogǔ, Hǎicáng 海藏)
About the work
The Běncǎo fāhuī is an early-Míng anthology of pharmacological commentary that gathers the doctrinal opinions of the four great Jīn-Yuán masters of pharmacology — Zhāng Jiégǔ, Lǐ Dōngyuán, Wáng Hǎicáng, and Zhū Dānxī — on each substance, presenting them as parallel commentaries below a Jiāyòu / Dàguān base entry. Xú Yànchún was a direct disciple of Zhū Zhènhēng in the 1340s–1350s and after Zhū’s death (1358) compiled this work as a definitive synthesis of the Yìshuǐ / Dānxī schools’ pharmacological doctrine. The text is in 4 juǎn organised by classical Běnjīng class (金石 mineral, 草木 plant, etc.).
Prefaces
The transmitted text begins directly with substance entries, each opening with a Běnjīng-style header (gathering the canonical 味, 氣, 主) followed by sections labelled by master: 《衍義》云… (citing Kòu Zōngshí’s 寇宗奭 Yǎnyì KR3ec010), 潔古云… (Zhāng Yuánsù), 東垣云… (Lǐ Gǎo), 海藏云… (Wáng Hǎocǎn), 丹溪云… (Zhū Zhènhēng), and 成聊攝云… (Chéng Wújǐ 成無己, the great Jīn commentator on Zhāng Zhòngjǐng’s Shānghán lùn). The compilation method makes it possible to read each substance through four or five expert commentators at once.
Abstract
Xú Yànchún (徐彥純), zì Yòngchéng 用誠, native of Yìwū 義烏 (modern Zhèjiāng), is securely dated to the late Yuán / early Míng. He was one of the principal disciples of Zhū Zhènhēng in the master’s last decade, and after Zhū’s death (1358) he carried on the Dānxī tradition through teaching at the Lǚ-Jìtāng 履義堂 academy. His other surviving work is the Yī xué jǐ yùn 醫學集驗 (verified medical knowledge). The Běncǎo fāhuī was probably composed between 1368 (founding of the Míng) and 1384 (Xú’s likely death), with a terminus ad quem at the latest in the Hóngwǔ era.
The work’s significance is that it consolidates the Jīn-Yuán pharmacological reformation into a single Míng-accessible compendium. Where Wáng Hàogǔ’s Tāngyè běncǎo (KR3ec011) gives the Yìshuǐ doctrine alone, the Fāhuī layers it with the Dānxī school’s distinctive contributions — the doctrine of yáng yǒu yú yīn bù zú (陽有餘陰不足), the emphasis on xiānghuǒ 相火, the critique of mineral-drug long-term use as in Zhū’s striking warning under 石鐘乳 against the Táng vogue for “Stone-Drug” alchemical longevity. The Fāhuī is a principal source for Lǐ Shízhēn’s Gāngmù citations of Jīn-Yuán authority, which he reproduces wholesale under the relevant substance entries.
Translations and research
- Liào Yùqún. 1994. Jīn-Yuán yī xué jiǎn shǐ. Hubei kexue jishu. — places Xú Yànchún in the Dānxī succession.
- Furth, Charlotte. 1999. A Flourishing Yin: Gender in Chinese Medicine, 960–1665. UCP. — uses Xú as a witness to the early-Míng diffusion of Zhū Zhènhēng.
- Cullen, Christopher. 2001. “Yi’an 醫案 (case statements): the origins of a genre of Chinese medical literature.” In Hsu (ed.), Innovation in Chinese Medicine.
- No Western-language translation.
Other points of interest
Xú Yànchún’s Fāhuī is the principal textual conduit by which Zhū Zhènhēng’s pharmacology — itself mostly preserved in scattered prescription-records rather than a single běncǎo — entered the Míng pharmacological canon. Lǐ Shízhēn’s frequent 丹溪云 citations in the Běncǎo gāngmù are mostly second-hand through Xú.
Links
- Wikidata: not yet assigned.
- 本草發揮 jicheng.tw
- Kanseki DB