聖濟總錄

Shèngjì Zǒnglù 聖濟總錄

General Record of Sagely Relief (also Zhènghé shèngjì zǒnglù 政和聖濟總錄) imperially commissioned and prefaced by Sòng Huīzōng 趙佶 (Zhào Jí, 1082–1135, r. 1100–1126, 北宋); compiled by the Yīxué 醫學 staff of the imperial court

About the work

The Shèngjì zǒnglù in 200 juǎn and approximately 20,000 recipes is the largest single Chinese medical compilation of the Northern Sòng and arguably the most ambitious imperial medical project in pre-modern Chinese history. Personally commissioned by Sòng Huīzōng 宋徽宗 (an emperor with serious intellectual and religious commitments to medicine, materia medica, and Daoist physiology), the work consolidates the inherited Sòng medical tradition — the Tàipíng shènghuì fāng (KR3ed007), the Huìmín héjì jú fāng (KR3ed011), the Bencao literature (KR3ec*), the Sùwèn / Língshū and their Sòng-period interpretation — and adds substantial newly collected material gathered through an empire-wide call for recipe submissions.

The book opens with Huīzōng’s own Shèngjì jīng 聖濟經 (42 chapters of theoretical medicine, based on the Huángdì nèijīng), then proceeds through 66 disease-categories, each opening with a lùn 論 theoretical discussion followed by recipe entries. The closing chapters cover meridian-and-acupuncture-point treatment, zhùyóu 祝由 incantation therapy, paediatric, gynaecological, and Daoist longevity-recipe (神仙服餌) sub-disciplines — making this the single most complete pre-modern Chinese medical encyclopedia.

Prefaces

The hxwd recension preserves two imperial prefaces:

1. 《政和聖濟總錄》序 by Huīzōng himself (政和年間, 1111–1117). The preface is a long literary-medical essay framing imperial sponsorship of medicine within the Daoist-cosmological framework Huīzōng favoured. He laments that Huángdì nèijīng terminology has become unintelligible to contemporary physicians, that the bencao drug-natures are confused, and that yōngyī 庸醫 (“ordinary physicians”) indiscriminately mix dangerous compounds. He recounts his own composition of the Shèngjì jīng 聖濟經 (42 chapters of medical theory, attached as preface to the work), and the empire-wide call for recipe submissions that built the practical Zǒnglù 總錄. The structure is articulated: 200 juǎn, ~20,000 recipes, classified by ailment, each opening with lùn and ending with prescription.
2. 大德重校《聖濟總錄》序 — the Yuán imperial re-edition preface, dated 大德年間 (1297–1307). The Yuán court reissued the work after the Sòng original was scattered in the Jìngkāng catastrophe (1126–1127); the re-edition’s preface explains the recovery and re-printing project.

Abstract

Sòng Huīzōng 趙佶 (1082–1135), eighth emperor of Sòng, is the most personally engaged ruler-author of any imperial medical project in Chinese history. He composed the Shèngjì jīng himself (the theoretical preamble to the present work), patronised the Daoist physiological-medical synthesis of the Língbǎo 靈寶 and Shàngqīng 上清 traditions, established formal Yīxué 醫學 (medical academies) at the prefectural level, and personally oversaw the Zǒnglù compilation across the Zhènghé (1111–1117) reign-period. The work’s catalog meta date 北宋 + Huīzōng-era is correct; the bracket 1111–1117 reflects the Zhènghé reign period during which the work was assembled and finalised.

The compilation was structurally organised by the imperial Yīxué 醫學 medical academy staff under Huīzōng’s direction; no single named compiler oversees the project (in contrast to the Tàipíng shènghuì fāng, which is named with Wáng Huáiyǐn et al.). The work’s contents represent the most systematic application of Sòng-era medical theory to clinical practice, combining (i) Sùwèn / Língshū-derived physiology, (ii) Sòng-era bencao pharmacology, (iii) Daoist physiological-cultivation methods (nèidān 內丹 and cúnsī 存思 procedures), and (iv) the recipe-formulary tradition since the SuíTáng Wài tái and Sòng Shènghuì.

Its transmission history is dramatic. The original Northern-Sòng print and most copies were destroyed in the 1126–1127 Jìngkāng catastrophe; the work survived only through (i) Jin-dynasty manuscript copies smuggled north, (ii) the Yuán Dàdé 大德 (1297–1307) re-edition based on those surviving copies, and (iii) Ming Yǒnglè dàdiǎn 永樂大典 inclusion. The hxwd recension follows the Yuán Dàdé re-edition. A separate Ming editorial abridgement, the Shèngjì zǒnglù zuǎnyào 聖濟總錄纂要 (KR3ed013) by Chéng Lín 程林 of the Qīng dynasty, distilled the work into 26 juǎn for practical clinical use.

The work’s historical significance is several-fold: (i) the single largest pre-modern Chinese medical compilation; (ii) the institutional culmination of Sòng imperial medical patronage; (iii) the practical encyclopaedia from which Jin-Yuán and Ming clinical synthesis would diverge under the polemic-physicians (Lǐ Gǎo, Zhū Zhènhēng); (iv) the textual source-of-record for recipes preserved in no other surviving witness, including substantial sub-corpora of SuíTáng and Five-Dynasties medical knowledge.

Translations and research

• Goldschmidt, Asaf. 2009. The Evolution of Chinese Medicine: Song Dynasty, 960–1200. Routledge. — extended discussion of the Shèngjì zǒnglù and Huīzōng’s medical project.
• Liào Yùqún 廖育群 et al. 1998. Zhōngguó kēxué jìshù shǐ: yīxué juàn 中國科學技術史·醫學卷. Beijing.
• Bao Y. and X.K. Chen (eds). 2002. Shèngjì zǒnglù jiào-zhù běn 聖濟總錄校注本. — modern critical edition.
• Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual §41.3.2 — lists the Zǒnglù as the apex of Sòng imperial medical compilation.
• Ebrey, Patricia. 2014. Emperor Huizong. Harvard UP — chapter 8 on Huīzōng’s medical-cosmological project.

Other points of interest

Among the most studied features of the Zǒnglù are its non-recipe sections: juǎn 192–195 on Zhùyóu 祝由 incantation therapy (the most detailed pre-modern Chinese record of medical-incantatory practice), juǎn 196–197 on Fújìn 符禁 talismanic medicine, juǎn 198–200 on Shénxiān fúěr 神仙服餌 (Daoist longevity-recipes). These chapters preserve much material otherwise lost from the Shàngqīng 上清 and Língbǎo 靈寶 medical-Daoist traditions and are routinely cited in modern studies of Chinese religious medicine.

Links

• Wikidata Q11077105 (聖濟總錄).
• Wikipedia (zh): 聖濟總錄.
• See Goldschmidt 2009 and Ebrey 2014.
• 聖濟總錄 jicheng.tw
• Kanseki DB