Běncǎo Zhèng 本草正
Correcting the Materia Medica by 張介賓 (Zhāng Jièbīn, zì Huìqīng 會卿, hào Jǐngyuè 景岳, 1563–1640, 明)
About the work
The Běncǎo zhèng is the pharmacological component of Zhāng Jièbīn’s encyclopaedic Jǐngyuè quánshū 景岳全書 (printed 1640). It comprises 2 juǎn devoted to drugs, organised by the standard categories (草 / 木 / 金石 / 蟲魚 / 米食) and presenting each substance with a discussion of qìwèi, guījīng, and main effects keyed to Zhāng’s distinctive theoretical framework of bǔ shèn 補腎 / wēn yáng 溫陽 (tonifying the kidney and warming yang). The work is the principal pharmacological articulation of the Wēnbǔ pài 溫補派 (warming-tonifying school) that Zhāng founded — explicitly opposing the Dānxī school’s earlier emphasis on yīn bù zú / huǒ yǒu yú and arguing instead for yáng bù zú / yīn yǒu yú.
The work is therefore a programmatic intervention in pharmacology, “correcting” (zhèng 正) the inherited corpus by reweighting drug indications toward warming-tonifying applications. It was widely studied through the Qīng and is the principal source for understanding Wēnbǔ pài pharmacology.
Prefaces
The transmitted text in the local repository contains only a header file. The actual prefaces (which would be those of the parent Jǐngyuè quánshū) are preserved in standard transmission and include Zhāng’s own preface and the preface by his disciple Yè Bǐn 葉秉.
Abstract
Zhāng Jièbīn (張介賓, 1563–1640), zì Huìqīng 會卿, hào Jǐngyuè 景岳, native of Kuàijī 會稽 / Shānyīn 山陰 (modern Shàoxīng, Zhèjiāng). His ancestors had served as Lóngmén wèi 龍門衛 hereditary military officers in the Yùnán border garrison, and Zhāng spent his early years in the northern garrison before retiring to Shàoxīng to study medicine. He is one of the four great clinical synthesisers of the late Míng (alongside Miù Xīyōng 繆希雍, Lǐ Zhōngzǐ 李中梓, and the Cháng Zhōu 常州 school). His magnum opus is the Jǐngyuè quánshū (which incorporates Lèi jīng 類經, Jǐngyuè xīn dào 景岳新道, Sān cǎo dào 三草道, Yī yì 醫意 etc.).
CBDB id: not securely assigned. Lifedates 1563–1640 are securely attested in 《明史·藝文志》 and in his own prefaces. He died in the year before the Míng dynasty fell, by which time the Quánshū (including the Běncǎo zhèng) was already in print.
The Wēnbǔ pài tradition that Zhāng founded continued through the Qīng with major exponents including Zhāng Lù 張璐 (KR3ec043), Xuē Shēngbái 薛生白 in the Wēnyì lùn shū, and through them into the modern zhōngyī curriculum.
Translations and research
- Lǐ Zhìyōng 李志庸. 1999. Zhāng Jǐngyuè yīxué quánshū 張景岳醫學全書. Renmin weisheng.
- Furth, Charlotte. 1999. A Flourishing Yin. UCP. — ch. 6 on the Wēn-bǔ school.
- Hanson, Marta. 2011. Speaking of Epidemics. Routledge.
- Sivin, Nathan. 1987. Traditional Medicine in Contemporary China. CCS Michigan.
- No complete Western-language translation of Běncǎo zhèng; portions in Bensky (2004).
Links
- Wikidata: not yet assigned (parent Jǐngyuè quánshū is Q15911148).
- 本草正 jicheng.tw
- Kanseki DB