Yàoxìng Néngdú 藥性能毒 / Yakushō Nōdoku
Drug Natures, Capabilities, and Poisons by 曲直瀨道三 (Manase Dōsan 曲直瀨道三, 1507–1594, late Sengoku / Azuchi-Momoyama)
About the work
The Yakushō nōdoku is the principal pharmacological work of Manase Dōsan, the dominant Sengoku-period Japanese physician and founder of the Goseihō 後世派 (Later-Period School) of Japanese medicine. The work is a clinically-oriented pharmacopoeia that organises each substance entry around three poles: the xìng 性 (nature), the néng 能 (capacity / what the drug can do), and the dú 毒 (poisons / toxic and contraindicated uses). This tripartite organisation captures the Goseihō-school clinical concern that each drug is simultaneously a therapeutic agent and a potential poison, with the practitioner’s task being to manage both poles in compound formulae.
The doctrine throughout reflects the JīnYuán pharmacological framework that Manase had absorbed from his teacher 田代三喜 Tashiro Sanki — Lǐ Gǎo 李杲’s píwèi (spleen-stomach) doctrine, 朱震亨 Zhū Zhènhēng’s yǎngyīn (yin-nourishing) doctrine, and the qìwèishēngjiàng framework of JīnYuán theoretical pharmacology. The substance selection is essentially the standard JīnYuán pharmacopoeia adapted for the Japanese drug-availability situation; substances that could be obtained in Japan (whether locally produced or via the Ming-period trade) are emphasised, with rare exotica abbreviated.
The work in 2 maki covers approximately 400 substances. It became the standard Goseihō pharmacology of the Edo period and was widely reprinted; its dominance was broken only after the rise of the Kohōha (Classical Formula school) of Yoshimasu Tōdō 吉益爲則 in the mid-18th century, whose Yakuchō (KR3ec077) is its philosophical antithesis.
Prefaces
The local repository preserves the substance body. Standard editions preserve Manase’s own preface and editorial conventions; many later Edo printings add prefaces by 曲直瀨玄朔 Manase Gensaku (his adopted heir, 1549–1632) and other Manase-lineage successors.
Abstract
Manase Dōsan (曲直瀨道三, 1507–1594). See his person note.
The work’s significance is as the foundational text of the Goseihō school and as the principal Japanese pharmacological reference of the Sengoku-Azuchi period. It is one of the principal documents of the JīnYuán reception in Japan and is one of the few documentary witnesses to Japanese pharmacological practice in the late 16th century, a period of dynamic interaction between traditional Heian-medical practice, newly imported Jīn-Yuán-school doctrine, and the contemporary Ming pharmacological literature reaching Japan through the trade networks.
Translations and research
- Goble, Andrew Edmund. 2011. Confluences of Medicine in Medieval Japan. UH Press. — major treatment of Manase.
- Yakazu Dōmei 矢數道明. 1976. Manase Dōsan no kenkyū 曲直瀨道三の研究. Meicho shuppan.
- Sakai Shizu 酒井シヅ. 2002. Nihon no iryō shi 日本の医療史.
- No complete Western-language translation.
Links
- Wikipedia (ja): 曲直瀬道三.
- Wikidata: Q11574257 (Manase Dōsan).
- 藥性能毒 jicheng.tw
- Kanseki DB