史載之方

Shǐ Zàizhī Fāng 史載之方

Shǐ Zàizhī’s Recipes by 史堪 (Shǐ Kān, zì Zàizhī 載之, fl. 哲宗–欽宗 c. 1086–1126, 北宋) — a Shǔ 蜀 physician of Méizhōu 眉州 (modern Sìchuān)

About the work

The Shǐ Zàizhī fāng in 2 juǎn is a Northern-Sòng physician’s clinical formulary noteworthy chiefly for the highly individuated character of its recipes and the diagnostic reasoning that accompanies each section. The book was little circulated in its own time — none of the standard Sòng catalogs (Jùnzhāi dúshū zhì, Sòngshǐ yìwénzhì, Zhízhāi shūlù jiětí) records it — and it survives mainly through a single Northern-Sòng printed copy, which the late-Qīng cángshūjiā Huáng Pīliè 黃丕烈 (1763–1825) acquired in 1806 for 30 liǎng of silver and incorporated into his famous BǎiSòng yīchàn 百宋一廛 collection. This BǎiSòngyīchàn copy, characterized by avoidance of the Tàizōng (匡 / 炅) tabooed characters but not of the Qīnzōng (桓 / 完) ones, is dated to before 1126 by Wáng Zhènshēng 王振聲’s 1858 colophon. The Tiějíntóngjiànlóu 鐵琴銅劍樓 (Qǔ Yǒng 瞿鏞 collection) later acquired it; the modern hxwd recension follows that lineage.

Prefaces

The work has no Sòng-era preface. The hxwd transmission begins directly with the medical text, prefaced only by two later collectors’ colophons:

1. 黃丕烈 跋 (1806) — Huáng Pīliè’s acquisition note, dated 嘉慶丙寅立冬後一日 (= autumn 1806). Huáng narrates the recipe legend: a friend in Hángzhōu had told him that Shǐ Zàizhī was the Northern-Sòng physician who cured Chancellor Cài Jīng 蔡京 of intestinal blockage with the single drug zǐwǎn 紫菀 (Aster tataricus). Huáng’s friend Gù Qiānlǐ 顧千里 saw the book at Yán Jiǔnéng 嚴久能’s house in Hángzhōu; the Qiántáng book-dealer Hé Mènghuá 何夢華 bought it from Yán in 1805 and sold it to Huáng the following summer. On examining the text, Huáng confirmed the zǐwǎn recipe (“大府秘” section) and pronounced the book genuine Northern-Sòng. He praises the print quality (“字畫斬方，神氣肅穆”) and notes that 炅 (Tàizōng’s tabooed personal name) and 桓 (Qīnzōng’s tabooed name) are not consistently avoided, placing the print before 1126.
2. 王振聲 跋 (1858) — Wáng Zhènshēng’s colophon, dated 咸豐戊午季春既望 (= spring 1858), written at the Tiějíntóngjiànlóu 鐵琴銅劍樓 of Qǔ Yǒng. Wáng adds biographical confirmation: the Sòng bài lèi chāo 宋稗類鈔 records that Zhū Shīgǔ 朱師古 of Méizhōu 眉州 contracted a strange illness, travelled to the prefectural seat to consult Shǐ Zàizhī, and was cured. Méizhōu was part of Chéngdūfǔ 成都府 in the Sòng, so Shǐ was a Shǔ 蜀 / Sìchuān physician. The Zhízhāi shūlù jiětí records a Zhǐnán fāng 指南方 in 2 juǎn “by Shǐ Zàizhī of Shǔ” — Wáng wonders if it is the same work under a different title. Wáng also corrects Ruǎn Yuán 阮元’s tíyào error, which mistook Zàizhī (the zì) for the personal name; the real personal name is Kān 堪. The Cài Yuáncháng 蔡元長 (= Cài Jīng) cure with zǐwǎn is also attested in the Sòng note-book Běichuāng zhìguǒ lù 北窗炙輠錄.

Abstract

Shǐ Kān 史堪 (zì Zàizhī 載之, otherwise unrecorded for native place beyond the Méizhōu / Chéngdū attribution in the Sòng bài lèi chāo; not in CBDB under either form of the name) was a Northern-Sòng physician active in the late 11th and early 12th centuries. The biographical evidence is sparse but enough to fix him: he treated Cài Jīng 蔡京 (1047–1126; jìnshì 1070; chancellor under Huīzōng from 1102), and his cure of Zhū Shīgǔ 朱師古 of Méizhōu confirms his Shǔ origin. His floruit therefore brackets c. 1086 (the earliest plausible date for a clinical career senior enough to treat the chancellor) to 1126 (Cài Jīng’s death year). The catalog meta places him in 宋 — adequate, though “Northern Sòng (Zhézong–Qīnzōng)” would be more precise.

The work’s recipes are remarkable for their single-drug or short-compound boldness: the zǐwǎn cure for intestinal blockage; specific yīwèi 一味 (single-drug) regimens for difficult conditions; and a generally minimalist pharmacology that contrasts with the multi-ingredient compounding of the imperial formularies (KR3ed007, KR3ed012). Each section is prefaced by a diagnostic discussion (lùn 論) of pulse signs, presentation, and aetiology before listing the recipe. The medical reasoning is independent and articulate enough that modern Sòng medical historians (Hé Shíxī, Hú Yìnghán 胡迎漢) treat Shǐ Kān as one of the most clinically sophisticated of the under-recorded Northern-Sòng physicians.

The work’s transmission history is exceptional: rescued from oblivion by Huáng Pīliè’s antiquarian instinct, it would otherwise have vanished. The Sìkù quánshū did not include it (the editors apparently never saw a copy). The HuángPīliè / Tiějíntóngjiànlóu base text is the single most important Northern-Sòng formulary survival in original print outside of the imperial-sponsored compilations.

Translations and research

• Wáng Yùzhāo 王玉昭. 1986. Shǐ Zàizhī fāng yánjiū 史載之方研究. Zhōnghuá yīshǐ zázhì.
• Hé Shíxī 何時希 (coll.). 1986. Shǐ Zàizhī fāng 史載之方 (punctuated edition). Shanghai zhōngyī xuéyuàn.
• Goldschmidt, Asaf. 2009. The Evolution of Chinese Medicine: Song Dynasty, 960–1200. Routledge. — places Shǐ Kān among the literati-medical figures around the Sòng court.
• Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual §41.3.2.

Other points of interest

The zǐwǎn (Aster tataricus) cure for intestinal blockage is recorded in modern Chinese pharmacology (Chen and Chen, Chinese Medical Herbology and Pharmacology, 2004) as continuing to be effective. The recipe — single-drug zǐwǎn in decoction — appears in the dàfǔmì 大府秘 section of juǎn 1.

Links

• Wikidata: no dedicated entry.
• BǎiSòng yīchàn 百宋一廛 / Tiějíntóngjiànlóu 鐵琴銅劍樓 collection histories: Sūzhōu Cífāng museum publications.
• Sòng bài lèi chāo 宋稗類鈔 for the Zhū Shīgǔ story.
• 史載之方 jicheng.tw
• Kanseki DB