全生指迷方

Quánshēng Zhǐmí Fāng 全生指迷方

Pointers for the Perplexed in Whole-Life [Preservation] by 王貺 (Wáng Kuàng, zì Zǐhēng 子亨, fl. late Northern Sòng – early Southern Sòng, c. 1100–1135) — physician-scholar of Kǎochéng 考城 (modern Lánkǎo 蘭考, Hénán)

About the work

The Quánshēng zhǐmí fāng in 4 juǎn is a Northern–Southern Sòng transitional formulary noted for its diagnostic-prose-with-recipe-application structure: each section opens with an extensive lùn 論 discussion of disease aetiology, pulse signs, and presentation, then prescribes recipes keyed to syndrome differentiation. The work was endorsed by the senior official Wú Mǐn 吳敏 (a zuǒshǐ 左史 and Hanlin official), whose preface narrates two personal anecdotes of being cured by Wáng Kuàng using the book’s prescriptions. Wú Mǐn presents the work as “direct yet profound, bent yet penetrating … a treasure for hygiene, a fine art for relieving creatures” (直而邃，曲而通…衛生之奇寶，濟物之良術).

The work was lost in the SòngYuán transition and reconstructed by the Sìkù editors from quotations in the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn 永樂大典; the modern recension is the Sìkù reconstruction of 4 juǎn, which the Sìkù tíyào judges to preserve roughly two-thirds of the original.

Prefaces

The hxwd transmission preserves two prefaces:

1. 吳敏 序 by Wú Mǐn 吳敏 (a senior Northern-Sòng official, fl. Huīzōng–Qīnzōng). The preface narrates: when Wú was zuǒshǐ (Left Reminder of the Ménxiàshěng), he fell gravely ill; Wáng Kuàng diagnosed which physician’s medicine had nearly killed him, redirected the treatment, and saved his life — then gave him the manuscript of his Quánshēng fāng 全生方 as a parting gift. Wú later put it away unread. While serving in the central drafting bureau, he fell ill again with a strange affection; the physicians could not agree; Wáng Kuàng laughed and said “don’t worry, this is in my book — see section X, take recipe Y” — and Wú recovered overnight. Wú made the book his clinical companion thereafter, taking it when posted to Huáinán, exiled to the Three Bā 三巴 (Sìchuān), and reposted to BǎiYuè 百粵 (Lǐngnán). The preface frames Wáng Kuàng as both a jūnzǐ official-scholar and a jiùshí lìwù 救世利物 (world-saving, creature-benefiting) physician.
2. 自序 by Wáng Kuàng himself (“Kǎochéng Wáng Kuàng Zǐhēng xù”). A short philosophical preface invoking Yī Yǐn and Zhāng Zhòngjǐng; arguing that medicine without classical-theoretical grounding (yì zhì tōngshén zhī miào, zài hū zhīlǜ yǐ wéi xiān 術至通神之妙，在乎知慮以為先) and without bencao drug-nature knowledge is mere fumbling; setting out the editorial method of arranging by bìngzhèng (disease-presentation) and noting jūnchén zǔshǐ 君臣佐使 (ruler-minister / aide-envoy) drug-relationship within each recipe.

Abstract

Wáng Kuàng 王貺 (zì Zǐhēng 子亨; fl. late Northern – early Southern Sòng) was a physician-scholar of Kǎochéng 考城 (the same prefecture as Wú Mǐn). He served, like many literati of the Sòng-Jin transition, as a court-attendant physician of moderate but reputable rank; Wú Mǐn’s preface attests his being twice memorialised to extend his post-retirement leave by “ten thousand lǐ” of further service (再請出疆萬里). The 1100–1135 floruit bracket covers his recorded service through the Jìngkāng catastrophe and the early Gāozōng reign; CBDB has no clearly matching record.

The work’s significance: (i) it transmits one of the most articulate Sòng-era statements of theory-first, recipe-second clinical reasoning — a position that anticipates the Jin-Yuán polemic-physicians; (ii) its Sìkù reconstruction from the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn makes it one of the cleanest extant Northern-Sòng physician-scholar formularies; (iii) its emphasis on xūshí biànzhèng (deficiency-excess syndrome differentiation) anticipates the polemic between gōngxià 攻下 (attack-and-purge) and bǔyì 補益 (replenishment) schools that would dominate Jin-Yuán medical theory.

Translations and research

• Hé Shíxī 何時希 (coll.). 1959. Quánshēng zhǐmí fāng 全生指迷方 (Sìkù reconstruction, punctuated). Shanghai.
• Goldschmidt, Asaf. 2009. The Evolution of Chinese Medicine: Song Dynasty, 960–1200. Routledge. — places Wáng Kuàng in the late-Northern-Sòng theorist tradition.
• Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual §41.3.2.

Other points of interest

Wú Mǐn’s preface — a high-ranking Sòng official narrating his personal experience of being twice cured by the author’s book — is among the most personal patron-prefaces in the entire Chinese medical literature, and a useful primary source for the social embedding of medicine in the Sòng senior-official milieu.

Links

• Wikidata: no dedicated entry.
• Reconstructed from Yǒnglè dàdiǎn in the Sìkù quánshū.
• 全生指迷方 jicheng.tw
• Kanseki DB