Yào Yào Fēn Jì 要藥分劑
The Essential Drugs, Classified by Preparation by 沈金鰲 (Shěn Jīn’áo, zì Qínyuán 芹園, hào Zūnshēng lǎorén 尊生老人, 1717–1776, 清)
About the work
The Yào yào fēn jì is one part of Shěn Jīn’áo’s massive 70-juǎn Shěn shì zūnshēng shū 沈氏尊生書 (1773), a comprehensive medical encyclopedia. The pharmacological component covers 449 commonly-used drugs in 10 juǎn, organised by jì 劑 — preparation-type / therapeutic action — into ten major classes: 宣 (dispersing), 通 (unblocking), 補 (tonifying), 泄 (draining), 輕 (light/raising), 重 (heavy/anchoring), 澀 (astringing), 滑 (lubricating), 燥 (drying), 濕 (moistening). Each substance is presented under its principal therapeutic jì and discussed in relation to that action. This classification by jì is a distinctive contribution; most prior pharmacologies organise by botanical category or by Běnjīng three-grade structure.
The work was widely studied in the late Qīng for its clinical clarity and is referenced in Tāng Zōnghǎi 唐宗海’s Běncǎo wèn dá (KR3ec056).
Prefaces
The local repository preserves the substance entries. Shěn Jīn’áo’s preface to the parent Zūnshēng shū (1773) is preserved in the standard edition.
Abstract
Shěn Jīn’áo (沈金鰲, 1717–1776, CBDB 79676), zì Qínyuán 芹園, hào Zūnshēng lǎorén 尊生老人, native of Wúxī 無錫 (Jiāngsū). He was a jǔrén who served briefly as a local educational officer (xùndǎo 訓導) before retiring to medical practice. His Shěn shì zūnshēng shū (1773) is one of the most comprehensive late-Qīng medical syntheses, covering pharmacology (Yào yào fēn jì), gynaecology, paediatrics, internal medicine, Shānghán, and other domains in 72 juǎn. The pharmacological component is part of a larger pedagogical vision.
The work is significant for its therapeutic-action-based organisational principle, which anticipates the modern zhōngyī curriculum’s reorganisation of pharmacology around clinical function.
Translations and research
- Lǐ Zhànyǒng 李占永. 1997. Shěn shì zūnshēng shū (校注本). Renmin weisheng.
- No Western-language translation.
Links
- Wikidata: not yet assigned.
- 要藥分劑 jicheng.tw
- Kanseki DB