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婦人大全良方

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Text ID
KR3ed020
Date
1237–1237
Dynasty
南宋

Fùrén Dàquán Liángfāng 婦人大全良方

Complete Good Recipes for Women by 陳自明 (Chén Zìmíng, zì Liángfǔ 良父, c. 1190–1270, 南宋) — Southern-Sòng physician of Línchuān 臨川 (modern Jiāngxī), yīyù 醫諭 (Medical Instructor) at the Míngdào Shūyuàn 明道書院 in Jiànkāngfǔ 建康府

About the work

The Fùrén dàquán liángfāng in 24 juǎn (often abbreviated Fùrén liángfāng 婦人良方) is the foundational treatise of pre-modern Chinese gynaecology, completed in jiāxī yuánnián 嘉熙元年 (1237). It is the first Chinese medical book to integrate the inherited gynaecological and obstetric tradition (since the SuíTáng Bìngyuán hòulùn 病源候論 of Cháo Yuánfāng and the Wài tái mì yào of Wáng Tāo) into a coherent eight-section system: (1) regulation of menstruation 調經, (2) common gynaecological diseases 眾疾, (3) infertility 求嗣, (4) pregnancy management 胎教, (5) pre-natal complications 妊娠, (6) parturition 坐月, (7) postpartum recovery 產後, (8) general advice 雜病. Across these sections Chén distributes some 260 tì 體 (clinical-syndrome sub-headings) and 600 named recipes.

Chén’s preface is one of the great Sòng-era medical zìxù (autograph prefaces). He laments that prior gynaecological texts — the unattributed Zhuānzhì fùrén fāng 專治婦人方 and the Táng Chǎnbǎo fāng 產寶方 of Zǐmǔ jūnshì 子母君侍 — are gānglǐng sǎnmàn ér wú tǒng, jiémù chúnluè ér wèi bèi (the overall structure scattered and lacking system; the detailed entries excessive in some places and missing in others). His own three-generation family tradition of medicine, combined with his travel through the Southern-Sòng eastern circuits collecting medical books, allowed him to produce a more systematic synthesis. The preface explicitly disavows novelty: “I do not seek to be different from my predecessors; I merely supplement their incompleteness and consolidate their dispersal.”

Prefaces

Two paratexts head the work:

  1. 《婦人良方》序 by Chén Zìmíng (autograph), dated 嘉熙元年八月良日 (= autumn 1237), signed “Jiànkāngfǔ Míngdào Shūyuàn yīyù Línchuān Chén Zìmíng Liángfǔ” 建康府明道書院醫諭臨川陳自明良父. Sets out Chén’s three-generation family-medical background; his travel-collection method; the eight-section organisational scheme; the clinical-syndrome (260+) and recipe (600+) total counts; the editorial principle that recipes be evaluated by efficacy not by drug cost (“藥不惟其貴賤，惟其效”).
  2. 辨識修製藥物法度 — a pharmaceutical-preparation methodological section that follows the preface and prefaces the recipe sections. It codifies preparation methods for problem drugs: cinnabar (chén shā 辰砂), realgar (xióng huáng 雄黃), orpiment (cí huáng 雌黃), sulphur (shí líuhuáng 石硫黃), fúlónggān 伏龍肝 (stove-soil), magnetite (cí shí 磁石), and others; specifies grinding-to-flour-fine consistency, huǒ duàn cù cuì fire-calcine-and-quench-in-vinegar protocols, shuǐ fēi water-flotation purification methods.

Abstract

Chén Zìmíng 陳自明 (c. 1190–1270; zì Liángfǔ 良父; hào YàoLín 藥隱 lit. “Medicine-Hermit”), of Línchuān 臨川 (modern Jiāngxī). His three-generation family medical tradition — recorded in the preface — is exceptional in the Southern-Sòng physician demographic: medicine had been the jiā chuán 家傳 (family-transmitted) profession of his grandfather, father, and himself. He held the post of yīyù 醫諭 (Medical Instructor) at the Míngdào shūyuàn 明道書院 (a Sòng Confucian academy) in Jiànkāngfǔ 建康府 (modern Nanjing), making him one of the rare Sòng physicians documented as both a yī (physician) and a yù (academy instructor) — a sign of the rising status of medicine in the late-Southern-Sòng academic world.

Apart from the Fùrén dàquán liángfāng, Chén also composed the other foundational pre-modern Chinese specialty treatise, the Wàikē jīngyào 外科精要 (KR3ee* in the wàikē division), 3 juǎn, on surgical / external-medicine practice. The two works together establish him as the principal pre-modern Chinese specialist-medicine theorist.

The work’s reception is exceptional. It was the standard Chinese gynaecological reference through the entire Yuán-Ming-Qīng tradition. The Ming editor Xuē Jǐ 薛己 (1487–1559) issued a heavily-annotated Jiàozhù Fùrén liángfāng 校註婦人良方 that became the dominant reception of the work; Wáng Kěntáng 王肯堂 (1549–1613)‘s Zhèngzhì zhǔnshéng 證治準繩 (KR3ed044) incorporates substantial material. The 24-juǎn hxwd recension reflects the Xuē Jǐ-annotated transmission with the original Chén text restored.

The 1237 dating is precise: Chén’s autograph preface signs it jiāxī yuánnián 嘉熙元年 (Lǐzōng era) 八月 良日. His CBDB record (id uncertain among multiple Chén Zìmíng) gives no precise lifedates; the standard scholarly view (Hé Shíxī, Wilkinson) places him c. 1190–1270, consistent with his being a senior teacher in 1237.

Translations and research

  • Furth, Charlotte. 1999. A Flourishing Yin: Gender in China’s Medical History, 960–1665. UCP. — Chapters 2–4 on Chén Zìmíng’s Fùrén liángfāng as the foundation of Chinese gynaecology.
  • Wilms, Sabine (tr.). 2007. Chinese Medicine in Fertility Disorders. Thieme. — translates substantial portions.
  • Hé Shíxī 何時希 (coll.). 1985. Fùrén dàquán liángfāng 婦人大全良方 (punctuated edition). Beijing.
  • Liào Yùqún 廖育群. 1998. Zhōngguó kēxué jìshù shǐ: yīxué juàn.
  • Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual §41.3.2.

Other points of interest

Chén Zìmíng’s section on zhìzǐ 治子 (paediatric pre-natal medicine, including foetal-position management and difficult-birth procedures) preserves what is generally regarded as the first systematic Chinese description of breech-birth turning manoeuvres. His section on yāngyīng 殃英 (postpartum haemorrhage management) preserves the earliest detailed Chinese clinical accounts of obstetric emergency.

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