Dé Pèi Běncǎo 得配本草
Materia Medica of Achieving Combinations co-compiled by 嚴潔 (Yán Jié, zì Xītíng 西亭, b. 1678, 清), 施雯 (Shī Wén, zì Dànníng 澹寧, fl. mid-18th c., 清), and 洪煒全 (Hóng Wěiquán, zì Jí’ān 緝庵, fl. mid-18th c., 清)
About the work
The Dé pèi běncǎo is the principal Qīng pharmacopoeia organised around the doctrine of pèiwǔ 配伍 (drug-pairing / combinatorial action). Printed in 乾隆辛巳 (1761) by three Hángzhōu physicians collaboratively, the work re-thinks the materia medica from the standpoint of compound-formula construction: each substance entry treats the substance not in isolation but as it functions in pairings with other drugs to produce specific therapeutic actions. The title Dé pèi — “achieving combinations” — names this method: a substance “obtains” (得) its full therapeutic identity only when “matched” (配) with the right partners.
The work in 10 juǎn covers approximately 647 substances, organised by the Gāngmù’s natural-history classes (草、木、菜、果、穀、金石、水、火、土、人、獸、禽、鱗、介、蟲). For each substance the entry gives nature/味/channel-entry/indications in the conventional form, and then a “得” 配-列 listing of the substance’s typical pharmacological partners with the therapeutic action each pairing produces. This pèiwǔ doctrine, although implicit in Zhāng Zhòngjǐng’s Shānghán Jīnguì formulae and discussed sporadically by Jīn-Yuán theorists, had never before been systematised in pharmacopoeia form. The Dé pèi is therefore the principal pre-modern Chinese contribution to combinatorial (rather than substance-by-substance) pharmacology.
Prefaces
The local repository preserves the substance body. Standard editions preserve a co-signed preface by all three compilers dated 乾隆辛巳 (1761) explaining the pèiwǔ rationale, plus a separate preface by a Hángzhōu literatus patron.
Abstract
The three compilers — Yán Jié 嚴潔 (CBDB 76275, b. 1678), Shī Wén 施雯, and Hóng Wěiquán 洪煒全 — were all Qiántáng 錢唐 (Hángzhōu) physicians of the mid-18th century working in clinical practice. The collaborative authorship of a pharmacopoeia is unusual in the Chinese tradition (most pharmacopoeias are single-author works); the Dé pèi is one of the very few examples and reflects the highly developed Hángzhōu medical-circle culture of the mid-Qīng — the same milieu that produced Zhào Xuémǐn 趙學敏’s Běncǎo gāngmù shíyí (KR3ec049) two decades later.
The work’s significance is twofold: it is the principal Qīng pèiwǔ pharmacopoeia, and it is one of the indispensable bridges between formal pharmacological doctrine and actual prescribing practice. It remained in continuous use through the late-Qīng and Mínguó periods and is still used as a reference in modern TCM pharmacological-pairing teaching.
Translations and research
Reminder: AI generated list - beware of hallucinations. Corrections and additions welcome
- Liào Yùqún 廖育群. 2003. Yīxué wǔshí jiā. — discusses the Hángzhōu medical circle.
- Bian, He. 2020. Know Your Remedies. PUP.
- Dé pèi běncǎo jiào zhù 得配本草校注. 1997. Renmin weisheng.
- No Western-language translation.
Links
- Wikidata: not yet assigned.
- 得配本草 jicheng.tw
- Kanseki DB