Shénnóng Běncǎo Jīng Bǎi Zhǒng Lù 神農本草經百種錄
Records of One Hundred Substances from the Shennong Materia Medica Classic by 徐大椿 (Xú Dàchūn, zì Língtāi 靈胎, hào Huí xī lǎorén 洄溪老人, 1693–1771, 清)
About the work
The Shénnóng běncǎo jīng bǎi zhǒng lù is one of the most original and influential Qīng pharmacological essays. Xú Dàchūn — the leading mid-18th-century Sūzhōu / Wújiāng physician and a polymath theorist — selects 100 substances from the Shénnóng běncǎo jīng and provides for each a focused philosophical-clinical essay (not a mere textbook entry). The selections are deliberate: Xú aims not to cover the corpus but to demonstrate how the Běnjīng should be read against the background of zàngfǔ doctrine, the Sùwèn, and clinical experience. The work was completed in Qiánlóng 1 (1736) and printed in his Xú shì yī shū 徐氏醫書八種.
Xú’s approach is the opposite of Wāng Áng’s 汪昂 popularisation: he gives long, theoretical, classicist treatment to a small number of substances, expecting the reader to think with him rather than to look up information. The work has been called the most intellectually rigorous Qīng pharmacological essay.
Prefaces
The local repository contains only a header file. The work in standard transmission has Xú’s autograph preface (date 1736).
Abstract
Xú Dàchūn (徐大椿, 1693–1771, CBDB 61225), zì Língtāi 靈胎, hào Huí xī lǎorén 洄溪老人 (“The Old Man of the Returning Stream”), native of Wújiāng 吳江 (modern Sūzhōu, Jiāngsū). He was a polymath: a hydraulic engineer (recommended to court for the Suzhou flood-control projects), a martial-arts master, a Yìjīng commentator, and the leading clinical physician of his generation. He was twice summoned to Beijing to treat imperial relatives — once successfully under Qiánlóng — and refused appointment to the imperial medical service.
His principal works are:
- Nànjīng jīng yì 難經經義 (1727) — on the Nànjīng.
- Shénnóng běncǎo jīng bǎi zhǒng lù 神農本草經百種錄 (1736) — this work.
- Yīxué yuánliú lùn 醫學源流論 (1757) — the great essay on the history and theory of medicine; translated (unreliably) by Unschuld 1990.
- Lánshì mì cáng 蘭室秘藏 jiàozhèng — editing of Lǐ Gǎo’s work.
- Huí xī yī àn 洄溪醫案 — clinical casebook.
- Shānghán lùn lèi fāng 傷寒論類方 — restructuring of the Shānghán lùn.
- Yào xìng qiē yòng 藥性切用 (KR3ec061) — pharmacology textbook.
The Bǎi zhǒng lù’s significance is methodological: it shows that the Běnjīng can be read as canonical text yielding profound clinical principles when properly interrogated. It is the immediate ancestor of the late-Qīng Wáng Bùzī 王布池 and Tāng Zōnghǎi traditions of pharmacological philosophical commentary.
Translations and research
- Unschuld, Paul U. 1990. Forgotten Traditions of Chinese Ancient Medicine: A Chinese View from the Eighteenth Century. Paradigm. — translates Xú’s Yīxué yuánliú lùn with substantial discussion of his oeuvre.
- Hanson, Marta. 2008. “Hand mnemonics in classical Chinese medicine.” AM 21.1. — uses Xú as a key witness.
- Sivin, Nathan. 1987. Traditional Medicine in Contemporary China. CCS Michigan.
- Wáng Yùhuá 王玉華. 1990. Xú Dàchūn yīxué quánshū 徐大椿醫學全書. Renmin weisheng.
- Wilkinson, CH:NM §41.3.1 #14 — refers to Xú’s Yīxué yuánliú lùn.
Links
- Wikidata: not yet assigned.
- 神農本草經百種錄 jicheng.tw
- Kanseki DB