Pàozhì Dàfǎ 炮炙大法
The Great Method of Drug Processing by 繆希雍 (Miù Xīyōng, zì Zhòngchún 仲醇, d. 1627, 明)
About the work
The Pàozhì dàfǎ is the principal late-Míng systematic treatise on drug processing (pàozhì 炮炙), compiled by Miù Xīyōng in the last years of his life (early Tiānqǐ era, c. 1622). It is conventionally regarded — together with the Bīnhú pàozhì fǎ KR3ec087 attributed to Lǐ Shízhēn 李時珍 — as one of the two foundational Míng pàozhì texts and as the immediate predecessor of the entire Qīng pàozhì tradition.
The work organises drug-processing methods under the famous 十七法 (“seventeen methods”) rubric, a systematic taxonomy of pàozhì operations: 炮 (roasting), 爁 (singeing), 煿 (fire-treating), 炙 (broiling), 煨 (ash-roasting), 炒 (frying), 煅 (calcining), 煉 (refining), 制 (general processing), 度 (measuring), 飛 (levigation), 伏 (suppressing — typically heating with auxiliaries), 鎊 (planing), 𥕴 (?), 㕮咀 (chopping), 切 (slicing), and 㬠 (sun-drying). The seventeen-method framework has been the standard taxonomic organisation of Chinese pàozhì ever since.
For each of approximately 400 substances, the work specifies the appropriate seventeen-method operations, the auxiliary substances to use (wine, vinegar, ginger juice, honey, child’s urine, salt-water, gānhé 甘和, huáng tǔ 黃土, etc.), the temperature and duration, and the resulting pharmacological transformation. Miù’s preface emphasises that improper pàozhì turns medicine into poison; the work is therefore both a technical manual and a polemic against the carelessness of contemporary pharmacist practice.
Prefaces
The local repository preserves the substance body. Standard editions preserve Miù’s own preface and the editorial fánlì on the seventeen-method taxonomy.
Abstract
Miù Xīyōng (繆希雍, d. 1627), the late-Míng physician of Chángshú. See his person note for biographical detail. The Pàozhì dàfǎ is one of Miù’s three principal works alongside the Shénnóng běncǎo jīng shū KR3ec019 (a major Běnjīng commentary) and the Xiānxǐng zhāi guǎng bǐ jì (clinical compilation).
The work’s significance is as the systematising treatment of the Chinese pàozhì tradition. Where Léi Xiào’s 雷斆 Léigōng pàozhì lùn KR3ec086 established the practice and the Bīnhú pàozhì fǎ KR3ec087 extracted the Gāngmù’s notes, the Pàozhì dàfǎ organised the cumulative tradition into the systematic seventeen-method taxonomy that has been the framework for all subsequent Chinese pàozhì discussion. The Qīng and Mínguó pharmaceutical-processing literature, and the modern PRC standardised pàozhì discipline, all use Miù’s seventeen-method framework directly.
Translations and research
- Zhèng Jīnshēng 鄭金生. 2007. Yào lín wài shǐ.
- Liào Yùqún 廖育群. 2003. Yīxué wǔshí jiā. — chapter on Miù.
- Pàozhì dàfǎ jiào zhù 炮炙大法校注 (multiple modern editions; standard reference Renmin weisheng 1992).
- No Western-language translation.
Other points of interest
The “seventeen methods” 十七法 framework that Miù established remains the standard organisational principle in modern Chinese pharmacy-school pàozhì (drug-processing) teaching. The PRC national standard Zhōngguó yàodiǎn 中國藥典 and the Quánguó zhōng yào pàozhì guī fàn 全國中藥炮製規範 both organise their processing standards using descendants of Miù’s seventeen-method taxonomy.
Links
- Wikidata: not yet assigned.
- 炮炙大法 jicheng.tw
- Kanseki DB