Běncǎo Cuōyào 本草撮要
Gathering the Essentials of the Materia Medica by 陳其瑞 (Chén Qíruì, zì Huìtíng 蕙亭, fl. 1880s–1900s, 清)
About the work
The Běncǎo cuōyào is a late-Qīng working clinical pharmacopoeia compiled by Chén Qíruì during his long tenure (1880s–90s) directing the official medical clinic (官醫局) of Sūzhōu prefecture. Chén explicitly positions the work between Wāng Áng’s 汪昂 Běncǎo bèiyào 本草備要 (KR3ec038) and 吳儀洛 Wú Yílò’s Běncǎo cóngxīn 本草從新 (KR3ec045): “藥品比備要略增，較從新稍減” — slightly more substances than the Bèiyào, slightly fewer than the Cóngxīn. The organising principle is “以藥為經，以方為緯” (drugs as warp, formulas as weft): for each substance, the formal entry describes the substance’s nature, channel-entry, and primary indications, and a secondary apparatus tabulates the formula combinations in which the substance characteristically appears.
The book in 10 juǎn is organised by natural-history classes (草、木、果、穀、菜、金石、水、火、土、人、獸、禽、鱗、介、蟲) following the Gāngmù’s Linnaean-style taxonomy rather than the therapeutic-action grouping of Huáng Gōngxiù 黃宮繡’s Běncǎo qiúzhēn (KR3ec051). Substance treatment is dense and clinical: nature/味, channel-entry, indications, contraindications, processing notes, frequent formula partners. Chén notes in his own preface (光緒十二年, 1886) that he did not know of Yáng Shítài 楊時泰’s Běncǎo shù gōuyuán (KR3ec052) when he began the Cuōyào but later discovered that his work had independently arrived at the same condensing approach.
Prefaces
The local repository preserves the substance body. The frontmatter retains:
- Preface 1: 張預 Zhāng Yù, dated 光緒辛丑 (1901), praising Chén’s clinical effectiveness.
- Preface 2: 翰芬 Hànfēn, dated 光緒十三年丁亥暮春 (1887), comparing Chén’s pharmacopoeia method to military strategy.
- Preface 3: 李鏡涵 Lǐ Jìnghán, dated 光緒十九年中秋後五日 (1893), Shānxī Língshí 山右靈石.
- Chén Qíruì’s own preface, dated 光緒十二年六月既望 (1886), the cuōyào statement of method.
- Chén’s postface (“蕙亭又筆”) explaining the relation to Yáng Shítài’s Gōuyuán.
Abstract
Chén Qíruì (陳其瑞, fl. 1880s–1900s, no confident CBDB id), zì Huìtíng 蕙亭, native of Pínghú 平湖 (Jiāxìng prefecture, Zhèjiāng). He came from a literate family (“浙東平湖之望族”) but failed the regular examinations and turned to medicine. His career was spent in Sūzhōu, where he directed the official clinic and treated large numbers of patients (“活人無算”) while compiling this pharmacopoeia.
The Cuōyào’s significance is as the most polished example of the late-Qīng clinic-pharmacopoeia genre — a working reference book designed for the busy practitioner rather than for theoretical exposition. The genre’s lineage runs Wāng Áng Bèiyào (1694) → Wú Yílò Cóngxīn (1757) → Yáng Shítài Gōuyuán (1842) → Chén Cuōyào (1886) → Zhāng Bǐngchéng Běncǎo biàn dú (KR3ec068, 1887). The Cuōyào and the Biàn dú are the two principal late-Qīng working pharmacopoeias.
Translations and research
- Běncǎo cuōyào jiào zhù 本草撮要校注. 1997. Renmin weisheng.
- Zhèng Jīnshēng 鄭金生. 2007. Yào lín wài shǐ 藥林外史.
- No Western-language treatment.
Links
- Wikidata: not yet assigned.
- 本草撮要 jicheng.tw
- Kanseki DB