Zhēnzhū Náng Yàoxìng Fù 珍珠囊藥性賦
Rhapsodies on Drug Properties from the Pearl Pouch attributed to 張元素 (Zhāng Yuánsù, Jiégǔ lǎorén 潔古老人, c. 1131 – after 1234, 金)
About the work
The Zhēnzhū náng yàoxìng fù is a four-juǎn Jīn-dynasty pharmacological mnemonic in rhymed fù 賦 form, organised by the four pharmacological “natures” — hán 寒, rè 熱, wēn 溫, píng 平 — with each fù setting drugs of that nature into parallel rhyming couplets that summarise main indications. It is the textual ancestor of the entire Jīn-Yuán mnemonic tradition for memorising drug properties, and through its absorption into Lǐ Gǎo 李杲’s Yǐnyào fǎxiàng 引藥法象, into the Yìshuǐ school’s mnemonic curriculum, and ultimately into Wāng Áng’s 汪昂 Yàoxìng gē 藥性歌 (KR3ec038) — it remained the principal pedagogical text for memorising drug-property associations through the late Qīng.
The work is traditionally attributed to Zhāng Yuánsù (張元素), known as Jiégǔ lǎorén 潔古老人 — the founder of the Yìshuǐ 易水 (Yì-River, Héběi) medical school, teacher of Lǐ Gǎo, and one of the four great masters of Jīn-Yuán medicine. Modern scholarship (e.g. Shang Zhijun, Liào Yùqún) regards the Yàoxìng fù as plausibly Zhāng’s, while the related Zhēnzhū náng 珍珠囊 (the prose pharmacology in 1 juǎn, also attributed to Zhāng) is more securely his. The two are companion pieces.
Prefaces
The 漢學文典 transmitted text begins directly with the 上卷 寒性 fù: “Drugs have natures, of which the cold are the most numerous (識性，此類最寒)…” There is no surviving editorial preface in the present recension. Each fù concludes with a substance-count: 此六十六種，藥性之寒 (“these are 66 substances of cold nature”); 此六十二種藥性之熱 (“these 62 substances of hot nature”); and so on. The total of 兩百餘 drugs is organised into four sub-rhapsodies plus auxiliary chapters on drug-channels (歸經), drug-pairing rules, and standard formulas.
Abstract
Zhāng Yuánsù (張元素, zì Jiégǔ 潔古), of Yíshuǐ 易水 (modern Yìxiàn 易縣, Héběi), is described in 《元史》 j.205 as having lived to a great age (he is variously dated 1131–1234, though the exact terminus is disputed). He was the seminal pharmacological reformer of his generation, the first to make pharmacology systematically derive from zàngfǔ doctrine (“each drug enters specific channels and serves specific organs”). His direct student was Lǐ Gǎo (李杲, 1180–1251), who founded the Dōngyuán school proper. The Yàoxìng fù belongs to a cluster of Zhāng-school texts: Zhēnzhū náng (珍珠囊), Jiégǔ lǎorén yīxué qǐyuán (潔古老人醫學啟源), Zàngfǔ biāoběn yàoshì (臟腑標本藥式).
The Yàoxìng fù’s significance is pedagogical: its rhymed format makes it memorisable, and it served as the principal pharmacological catechism in the Yìshuǐ–Dōngyuán–Dānxī succession. Late-Míng / Qīng Yàoxìng gē kuò 藥性歌括 chapbooks (still in print) derive from this template. The work’s date is the floruit of Zhāng Yuánsù, conventionally placed 1186–1234.
Translations and research
- Liào Yùqún. 1994. Jīn-Yuán yī xué jiǎn shǐ, ch. 3. Hubei kexue jishu.
- Shang Zhijun (coll.). 1985. Zhēnzhū náng (校注). Renmin weisheng.
- Furth, Charlotte. 1999. A Flourishing Yin. UCP. — ch. 4 on the Yìshuǐ school.
- No Western-language translation.
Links
- Wikidata: not yet assigned.
- 珍珠囊藥性賦 jicheng.tw
- Kanseki DB