楊氏家藏方

Yángshì Jiācáng Fāng 楊氏家藏方

Family-Treasured Recipes of Mr Yáng by 楊倓 (Yáng Tǎn, 1120–1185, zì Zǐmò 子默, 南宋) — Southern-Sòng official of Dàijùn 代郡 (modern Yùxiàn 蔚縣, Héběi), Surveillance Commissioner of Dāngtú 當塗

About the work

The Yángshì jiācáng fāng in 20 juǎn (1,111 recipes) is the late-Southern-Sòng family-collection formulary compiled by Yáng Tǎn 楊倓 while serving as guānchá (Surveillance Commissioner) at Dāngtú 當塗 (Gūshú 姑孰, Ānhuī). Yáng’s preface dates the publication to 淳熙五年三月乙未朔 (= April 1178). The work is principally the medical legacy of his grandfather, Yáng Yìbāng 楊益邦 (the xiān héwǔgōngwáng 先和武恭王 mentioned in the preface), supplemented with recipes Yáng Tǎn himself had used or obtained from reliable witnesses. Yáng explicitly notes in the preface that “most of what is here belongs to the well-tested recipes that good physicians secretly hoard and would not share” (今余之所得，多良醫之深藏而不語人者也), and praises his own decision to publish them as a cífù xiàozǐ zhī xīn 慈父孝子之心 (“the heart of a compassionate father and filial son”).

Prefaces

A single preface by Yáng Tǎn himself, dated 淳熙五年三月乙未朔 (= 1178). The preface develops a four-step argument: (i) classical medicine descended through Shénnóng, HuángdìQíbó, Biǎnquè, Hé / Huǎn, all of whom worked from internal mastery (心得其微) rather than written recipes; (ii) Yī Yǐn and Zhāng Zhòngjǐng began the written-recipe tradition, which is necessarily mò 末 (“a derivative ending”) since recipes are finite and diseases infinite; (iii) the cure for this limitation is not abandoning written recipes but layering jīngluò xíngzhèng 經絡形證 (channel-meridian and presentation-syndrome diagnostic frameworks) over them, plus the zēngjiǎn sānwǔ 增減三五 (“three-and-five increment-and-decrement” calibration) method that permits a finite recipe set to address infinite cases; (iv) since “physicians today are all secret-hoarders” (皆有嘗試之方，深藏篋中，不輕以語人), Yáng’s publication is morally compulsory. The preface closes with the editorial method: arrange by ailment, retain recipes that share a drug-list but differ in efficacy (so that the reader can see the variations), total 1,111 recipes.

Abstract

Yáng Tǎn 楊倓 (1120–1185, zì Zǐmò 子默, CBDB 7373), of Dàijùn 代郡 (modern Yùxiàn 蔚縣, Héběi). Son of Yáng Cúnzhōng 楊存中 (a major Southern-Sòng military commander, xiān héwǔgōngwáng 先和武恭王, c. 1102–1166). Yáng Tǎn was raised in the senior official-military milieu; his civil career took him through major prefectural and Hanlin appointments. The family medical collection that became the Jiācáng fāng was a multi-generational accumulation: medicine had been a serious interest of the family from his grandfather’s generation, and Yáng Tǎn’s compilation at Dāngtú in 1178 represents the consolidation of that collection.

The work’s distinctive features: (i) the 1,111-recipe count is one of the largest single-physician formularies of the entire Sòng period, exceeded only by the imperial commissions; (ii) the systematic recording of jiājiǎn 加減 variations (recipes that share a base drug-list but vary in indication) makes the work an invaluable witness to Sòng pharmaceutical reasoning; (iii) the family-aristocratic provenance and Yáng’s senior official status meant that the compilation drew on physicians and clinical materials that ordinary Sòng physicians could not access; (iv) the 1178 Dāngtú print was widely re-cut throughout the Southern Sòng and Yuán, and the work was a standard secondary reference in late-imperial formulary literature.

The catalog meta records the work under 楊倓 / 南宋, which stands. CBDB lifedates 1120–1185 are consistent with his Dāngtú prefectship and the 1178 publication.

Translations and research

• Hé Shíxī 何時希 (coll.). 1989. Yáng-shì jiācáng fāng 楊氏家藏方 (punctuated edition). Beijing: Rénmín wèishēng.
• Goldschmidt, Asaf. 2009. The Evolution of Chinese Medicine: Song Dynasty, 960–1200. Routledge. — places Yáng’s compilation in the Southern-Sòng physician-scholar tradition.
• Wáng Zhǐzhōng 王致中. 2007. Sòng-rén bǐjì zhōng de yīxué shǐliào yánjiū 宋人筆記中的醫學史料研究.
• Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual §41.3.2.

Other points of interest

The autograph preface’s articulation of zēngjiǎn sānwǔ 增減三五 — the principle that a single base recipe can be calibrated up or down by small increments to address a wide range of clinical conditions — is one of the clearest Sòng-era statements of the pharmacological-flexibility-through-systematic-modification principle that would later be codified in the Júfāng (KR3ed011) recipe lineages and in the modern TCM tradition.

Links

• Wikidata Q11086476 (楊氏家藏方).
• Wikipedia (zh): 楊氏家藏方.
• 1178 Dāngtú print is the textual base.
• 楊氏家藏方 jicheng.tw
• Kanseki DB