Zhēnzhū Náng Bǔyí Yàoxìng Fù 珍珠囊補遺藥性賦
Supplemented Pearl-Pouch Rhapsodies on Drug Properties pseudepigraphically attributed to 李杲 (Lǐ Gǎo, Dōngyuán 東垣, 1180–1251); actually a late-Míng expansion of Zhāng Yuánsù’s Zhēnzhū náng yàoxìng fù (KR3ec015)
About the work
The Zhēnzhū náng bǔyí yàoxìng fù is a late-Míng expansion of the Jīn-dynasty Yàoxìng fù (KR3ec015), with substantial supplementary chapters added — on drug-channel entries (歸經), drug-pairing rules, and a much expanded core of substances (the original c. 200 drugs expanded to over 240). The frontmatter attributes the work to Lǐ Gǎo (李杲, 1180–1251), but modern textual scholarship has shown that the work as transmitted contains material clearly post-dating Lǐ’s death (citations of Zhū Zhènhēng’s mid-14th-century writings, late-Míng botanical names, etc.) and is therefore better understood as a late-Míng pseudepigraphic compilation in the Dōngyuán school’s name. The probable date of compilation is the late Hóngzhì 弘治 / Zhèngdé 正德 era (early 16th c.) through to the end of the Míng.
The catalog meta gives “李杲（疑託名）” — “Lǐ Gǎo (suspected pseudonym)” — and assigns 明 dynasty. The work was widely circulated as a pedagogical pharmacological primer through the late-Míng and Qīng, and is the immediate ancestor of much of the simpler-format late-Qīng yàoxìng gē (drug-property song) literature.
Prefaces
No editorial preface survives in the 漢學文典 transmitted text. The work opens with the four-fù (寒, 熱, 溫, 平) structure inherited from the Jīn-dynasty original, expanded with supplementary chapters on drug-channels, the 用藥心法 (mental method for using drugs), 引經報使 (channel-leading routes), and 標本陰陽 doctrine. Each substance entry is briefer than in the original Yàoxìng fù and gives the rhymed mnemonic line followed by occasional gloss.
Abstract
The pseudepigraphic ascription to Lǐ Gǎo serves to anchor the work in the prestigious Yìshuǐ–Dōngyuán lineage; in fact the work synthesises Jīn-Yuán pharmacology (Zhāng Yuánsù, Lǐ Gǎo, Wáng Hàogǔ, Zhū Zhènhēng) into a single concise primer for Míng-dynasty students. It is regularly read alongside the original Yàoxìng fù (KR3ec015) as a paired set in Yìzōng pedagogy. The date range in frontmatter (1505–1644) covers the plausible composition window from the early Hóngzhì era to the end of the Míng; the work is securely attested by the late Wànlì era.
The relation to the original is one of expansion-and-modernisation: the Bǔyí adds the 240-drug expanded list and the channel-entry doctrines that became standard in late-Míng / Qīng pharmacology; it preserves the rhyming structure but updates the mnemonic vocabulary.
Translations and research
- Liào Yùqún. 1994. Jīn-Yuán yī xué jiǎn shǐ. Hubei kexue jishu. — discusses the pseudepigraphic problem.
- Wáng Bǐn 王彬. 2003. Zhēnzhū náng bǔyí yàoxìng fù tóngzhì 珍珠囊補遺藥性賦通釋. Renmin weisheng.
- No Western-language translation.
Other points of interest
The Bǔyí’s pseudepigraphic ascription to Lǐ Gǎo follows a recurring late-Míng pattern in pharmacological texts, where the prestige of the Jīn-Yuán founders was leveraged to attract readership for fundamentally Míng-era curricula. Compare the parallel pseudepigraphic ascription of Běncǎo jīng jiě (KR3ec044) to Yè Tiānshì rather than its actual author Yáo Qiú.
Links
- Wikidata: not yet assigned.
- 珍珠囊補遺藥性賦 jicheng.tw
- Kanseki DB