Běncǎo Chéngyǎ Bànjì 本草乘雅半偈
Vehicle of Elegance for the Materia Medica — Half-Verses (a “half” because the original four-fold cānhéyǎnduàn 參核衍斷 structure survives only in halves) by 盧之頤 (Lú Zhīyí, zì Jǐmán 紀漫, hào Bùyuǎn 不遠, c. 1590 – c. 1664, 明末清初)
About the work
The Běncǎo chéngyǎ bànjì is one of the most distinctive late-Míng / early-Qīng pharmacological works — an exegetical philosophy-of-pharmacology in the tradition of Miù Xīyōng’s 繆希雍 Běncǎo jīng shū (KR3ec019), to which it stands in direct lineage. Lú Zhīyí worked on the book from 1626 (Tiānqǐ 6 / bǐngyín 丙寅) through 1643 (Chóngzhēn 16 / guǐwèi 癸未), an eighteen-year project. The original plan was a four-fold structure for each substance:
- 參 (cān — consultation): Lú’s discussion of the Běnjīng original entry, explicating the intended meaning (“the jīng speaks concisely yet exhaustively; its sublime principle is divine”).
- 核 (hé — verification): cross-checking against the natural-history descriptions in earlier běncǎo literature and against Lú’s own field observation; the 核 sections argue from Lú’s personal cultivation of medicinal plants in his Hángzhōu garden.
- 衍 (yǎn — drawing out): expansion through the Míngyī biélù (KR3ec007) layer, in the spirit of Táo Hóngjǐng’s 陶弘景 supplementation.
- 斷 (duàn — judgement): final discussion of prescriptions (fùfāng) using the substance, with critical evaluation.
The 1644 fall of Beijing and the subsequent military disruption in Lǐnjiā (Lú lost his manuscripts in the 1645 bīng biàn) meant that the 衍 and 斷 sections could not be reconstructed; only 參 and 核 survive, in 10 juǎn (hence the title “Half-Verses” Bànjì 半偈, jì in the Buddhist sense of gāthā).
Prefaces
The 漢學文典 transmitted text preserves Lú’s own preface (date 丁亥重九 = 1647 Chóngyáng) and the Yìlì 義例 (editorial principles).
The 自序 narrates the composition history: Lú began the work after the 1630 gathering of Hángzhōu literati who urged him to elucidate Zhāng Zhòngjǐng’s Liǎnglùn and the Lìngshū / Sùwèn; he carried on through difficult years (specifically referencing his loss of household and manuscripts in the 1645 invasion). His acknowledgements name his father (his teacher in pharmacology), and his teachers Wáng Shàolóng 王紹隆 (in Jīnguì), Chén Xiàngxiān 陳象先 (in Xuē Jǐ 薛己’s casebook tradition), Miù Zhòngchún (Miù Xīyōng 繆希雍) — placing his work in the late-Míng exegetical lineage.
The 凡例 clarifies the work’s method: “Every section is built on the Běncǎo gāngmù (李氏父子)” — Lú treats Lǐ Shízhēn’s Gāngmù KR3ec025 as his base text and elaborates exegetically from there. The 16 yìlì points include the principle of gé wù (investigation of names), the limit of yào xìng fù-style mnemonic learning, and Lú’s view that pharmacology must be derived from yīnyáng and the Yìjīng trigrams.
Abstract
Lú Zhīyí (盧之頤), zì Jǐmán 紀漫, hào Bùyuǎn 不遠 (also Jīnzhī jūshì 晉之居士), native of Qiántáng 錢唐 (modern Hángzhōu), c. 1590 – c. 1664. Son of Lú Fùhuá 盧復華, a well-known late-Míng physician. He never held office and devoted his life to medical practice, yìli xué (medical philosophy), and Buddhist learning — he was a lay disciple of the great late-Míng Chán masters Hānshān Déqīng 憨山德清 and Wén Gǔ 聞谷. His other works are the Mò jǐn pǔ 摩擒譜 (a Shānghán lùn commentary), Xuěyī shén pǔ 學易心譜 (on the Yìjīng applied to medicine), and the Jīn jīn duì zhì 痎瘧論疏.
Lú is one of the most original late-Míng pharmacological writers. Where Miù Xīyōng’s Běncǎo jīng shū offered a systematic exegesis of the Shénnóng běncǎo jīng, Lú’s Chéngyǎ offers a philosophical-Buddhist reading of the Gāngmù corpus, integrating Buddhist epistemology (gé wù = jiàn sè jiàn xīn) with pharmacological knowledge. The work has been comparatively understudied; it deserves attention as a key witness to the late-Míng integration of Buddhism, Confucian gé wù xué, and clinical pharmacology.
Translations and research
- Tao Yufeng 陶宇峰. 2007. Lú Zhīyí Běncǎo Chéngyǎ Bànjì zhī yánjiū. — modern monograph.
- Furth, Charlotte. 1999. A Flourishing Yin. UCP. — uses Lú as a witness to late-Míng medical-religious intersection.
- Hanson, Marta. 2011. Speaking of Epidemics in Chinese Medicine. Routledge. — discusses the late-Míng exegetical tradition.
- No Western-language translation.
Links
- Wikidata: not yet assigned.
- 本草乘雅半偈 jicheng.tw
- Kanseki DB