Shíjiàn Běncǎo 食鑑本草
A Dietary Mirror of Materia Medica by 費伯雄 (Fèi Bóxióng, zì Jìnqīng 晉卿, hào Yànyúnzǐ 硯雲子, 1800–1879, 清)
About the work
The Shíjiàn běncǎo is a mid-19th-century dietary pharmacopoeia by Fèi Bóxióng, the founding figure of the prestigious Mènghé 孟河 medical lineage of Wǔjìn 武進. It belongs to the shí liáo 食療 (dietary therapy) sub-tradition that runs from 孟詵 Mèng Shēn’s Shí liáo běncǎo KR3ec008 (Táng) through 薛己 Xuē Jǐ’s Shí wù běncǎo KR3ec034 (Míng) to the various Qīng dietary works. Fèi’s distinctive contribution is the integration of shí liáo with the Mènghé school’s elegantly conservative clinical doctrine: foods are treated not merely as dietary substances but as pharmacological agents with channel-entry, qìwèi, and combinatorial properties of the same kind as ordinary drugs.
The work in 2 juǎn covers approximately 240 foodstuffs — grains, vegetables, fruits, meats, fish, eggs, drinks — organised by class. For each entry, the standard pharmacopoeia apparatus is given: nature, channel-entry, primary indications, contraindications, and characteristic combinations with other foods or drugs. The work served as a household reference in literate Jiāngnán households as well as a clinical reference for Mènghé practitioners advising patients on convalescent diet.
Prefaces
The local repository preserves the substance body. Standard editions preserve Fèi’s own preface explaining the dietary-pharmacology rationale; the work was printed posthumously by Fèi’s son and grandson in the late 19th century.
Abstract
Fèi Bóxióng (費伯雄, 1800–1879, CBDB 85440), zì Jìnqīng 晉卿. Native of Wǔjìn 武進 (Chángzhōu prefecture, Jiāngsū). The founder of the Mènghé 孟河 medical lineage — the most prestigious 19th-century Chinese medical school, centred on the small town of Mènghé in Wǔjìn county. He was twice summoned to Běijīng to treat the Dàoguāng emperor and the empress dowager but declined formal office, returning to private practice in Wǔjìn. His grandson 費繩甫 Fèi Shēngfǔ carried the Mènghé tradition into the Republican period; the lineage was the dominant Jiāngnán medical school of the late 19th century. See his person note for fuller biographical detail.
The work’s significance is twofold. First, it is the principal mid-19th-century shí liáo monograph and one of the few dietary pharmacopoeias from this period. Second, it is one of the few Mènghé works that addresses the materia medica directly; most of Fèi’s other writings (the Yī chún shèng yì, Yī fāng lùn) treat clinical method and case analysis rather than substances.
Translations and research
- Scheid, Volker. 2007. Currents of Tradition in Chinese Medicine, 1626–2006. Eastland Press. — extensive treatment of the Mèng-hé lineage and Fèi.
- Liào Yùqún 廖育群. 2003. Yīxué wǔshí jiā.
- Mèng-hé yī xué cóng shū 孟河醫學叢書 (multiple editions) — the Shí jiàn běncǎo is included.
- No Western-language translation.
Links
- Wikidata: Q15869098 (Fèi Bóxióng).
- 食鑑本草 jicheng.tw
- Kanseki DB