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普濟本事方

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Text ID
KR3ed015
Date
1132–1145
Dynasty
南宋

Pǔjì Běnshì Fāng 普濟本事方

Recipes for Universal Relief, with Case Stories by 許叔微 (Xǔ Shūwēi, 1079–1154, zì Zhīkě 知可, 南宋) — Southern-Sòng physician of Báishā 白沙 (Zhēnzhōu 真州), jìnshì 1132

About the work

The Pǔjì běnshì fāng in 10 juǎn is the most clinically and philosophically significant Southern-Sòng physician’s formulary, written by Xǔ Shūwēi 許叔微 in the early Shàoxīng era and circulated under that title from c. 1132. Its central innovation is the běnshì 本事 (“original-case”) format borrowed from Méng Qǐ 孟棨’s Běnshì shī 本事詩 and Yáng Yuánsù 楊元素’s Běnshì qǔ 本事曲 (Xǔ explicitly names these literary models in his preface): each recipe is presented together with the actual clinical case from which Xǔ derived or verified it, with patient details, symptoms, pulse signs, prescription reasoning, and outcome. This is the earliest sustained Chinese case-history-based formulary and a foundational document of the biànzhèng lùnzhì 辨證論治 tradition.

Xǔ’s preface frames the work autobiographically. He lost both parents at age 11 within 100 days (father to shíyì 時疫 epidemic disease, mother to qì zhōng 氣中 wind-stroke); the trauma drove him to study medicine. He spent decades collecting and testing recipes; the Běnshì fāng is the distillation. The preface explicitly rejects the secretive yīzhě xīsuízhī 醫者匿之 (“physician-as-hoarder”) mentality of his contemporaries and asserts the bóshī jìzhòng 博施濟眾 Confucian ideal — the same framing as in Wáng Gǔn’s Bójì fāng (KR3ed008).

Prefaces

The hxwd transmission preserves Xǔ Shūwēi’s autograph preface. It articulates four positions:

  1. Medicine is among the dàyī great arts — capable of yǎngshēng, quánshēn, jìnnián, lì tiānxià yǔ láishì (nurturing life, preserving the body, fulfilling one’s years, benefiting both the world and posterity). Not a mere yì 藝 or jì 技 (art or technique).
  2. The classical-medical tradition has declined. From Qíbó and Yīyǐn through Hé / Huǎn, Biǎnquè, Cānggōng, Huàtuó, Xú Wénbó, Sūn Sīmiǎo — a continuous lineage of “sage physicians” — but after the Táng, “the marvel is no longer transmitted; among the moderns one or two can be counted.” Xǔ’s explanation: ancient physicians used their art to save people, so Heaven gave them the dào; later physicians use it to chase profit, so Heaven withholds.
  3. Autobiographical motivation. The family catastrophe of 1089 (Xǔ’s age 11) drove him to medicine.
  4. The běnshì method. Borrowed from Méng Qǐ and Yáng Yuánsù — recipes presented with their case-stories, so the reader can see the contingencies.

Abstract

Xǔ Shūwēi 許叔微 (1079–1154, CBDB 33833), zì Zhīkě 知可, posthumous title Bóshàn xiānshēng 白沙先生, was a Southern-Sòng physician-scholar of Báishā 白沙 in Zhēnzhōu 真州 (modern Yízhēng 儀征, Jiāngsū). The Sòngshǐ Yìwénzhì records him as jìnshì of 紹興二年 (1132) at age 52 — an unusually late entry that he himself attributed to having put medicine before exam preparation in his youth. He held only minor official posts and devoted his career primarily to clinical practice and medical writing. He is most famous for his three works on the Shānghán lùn tradition: Shānghán bǎizhèng gē 傷寒百證歌 (100 verse mnemonics for Shānghán syndromes), Shānghán fāwēi lùn 傷寒發微論 (a Shānghán commentary), and Shānghán jiǔshílùn 傷寒九十論 (90 case-histories of Shānghán practice).

The Pǔjì běnshì fāng is his general-medicine companion. Its 300+ recipes are arranged by ailment across the 10 juǎn and consistently presented with case-history evidence. The work is repeatedly cited as the first sustained Chinese medical case-history collection and as the philosophical predecessor of the Jin-Yuán polemic-physicians’ insistence on syndrome-differentiated diagnosis. Lǐ Gǎo 李杲 (1180–1251) and Zhū Zhènhēng 朱震亨 (1281–1358) both cite Xǔ as a methodological model. A separate Pǔjì běnshì fāng hòují 普濟本事方後集 of 10 juǎn, of disputed authenticity, circulates as an appendix.

The 1132 jìnshì date and Xǔ’s floruit place the compilation in the early Shàoxīng era; the bracket 1132–1145 reflects the years between his exam success and the maturation of his clinical-philological output. The work was widely reprinted in the late Sòng and Yuán, and was the principal model for the Qīng-era Lèizhèng pǔjì běnshì fāng shìyì 類證普濟本事方釋義 (KR3ed082) by Yè Guì 葉桂.

Translations and research

  • Goldschmidt, Asaf. 2009. The Evolution of Chinese Medicine: Song Dynasty, 960–1200. Routledge. — discusses Xǔ Shūwēi’s clinical-case method.
  • Scheid, Volker. 2007. Currents of Tradition in Chinese Medicine, 1626–2006. Eastland Press — places Xǔ Shūwēi as a foundational figure for the modern biàn-zhèng tradition.
  • 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.
  • Hé Shíxī 何時希 (coll.). 1959. Pǔjì běnshì fāng 普濟本事方 (punctuated edition). Shanghai.
  • Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual §41.3.2.

Other points of interest

Xǔ Shūwēi is one of the very few Sòng physicians who is also documented as a jìnshì — the rare combination of late-imperial scholar-official rank with full-time clinical practice. His autobiographical account in the preface (orphaned at 11, driven into medicine by family catastrophe) is among the most-quoted passages in the entire Sòng medical tradition.

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