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 ShānghánJīnguì formulae and discussed sporadically by JīnYuán 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
- 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