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嚴氏濟生方

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Text ID
KR3ed022
Date
1253–1267
Dynasty
南宋

Yánshì Jìshēng Fāng 嚴氏濟生方

Recipes for Relieving Life, by Mr Yán by 嚴用和 (Yán Yònghé, fl. mid-13th c., 南宋) — Lúshān 廬山 physician, student of Liú Kāi 劉開 (zhī Zǐlì 立之, hào Fùzhēn 復真先生)

About the work

The Yánshì jìshēng fāng in 10 juǎn / 80 discussion-sections / 400 recipes is a Late-Southern-Sòng physician-scholar formulary, completed in bǎoyòu guǐchǒu shàngsì 寶治癸丑上巳 (= spring 1253). Yán Yònghé 嚴用和’s preface narrates his medical formation: he began studying at age 8, took instruction at age 12 under Liú Kāi 劉開 (Fùzhēn xiānshēng 復真先生), and by 17 was being consulted by senior officials despite his youth. After thirty years of practice he produced the Jìshēng fāng as a synthesis. A supplement, the Jìshēng xùfāng 濟生續方 of 5 juǎn / 90 discussions / 240 recipes, was completed a decade later in 1267 (xiánchún 3), giving the full transmitted text as 15 juǎn. The catalog meta records the 10-juǎn core as the primary work.

The work’s distinctive features: (i) the 80-discussion / 400-recipe scale — neither too brief to be useless nor too long to be unwieldy, well-calibrated for clinical reference; (ii) the explicit attention to gǔjīn zhī shū 古今之殊 (the changes between ancient and modern times) and fēngtǔ zhī yì 風土之異 (regional variation), echoing Chén Yánzhī’s yìngsuí principle (KR3ed006); (iii) the systematic separation of lùn 論 (theoretical discussion) and fāng 方 (recipe) so that the diagnostic logic can be read independently of the prescription.

Prefaces

Two prefaces head the work, both autograph:

  1. 原序一 by Yán Yònghé, dated 寶治癸丑上巳 (= spring 1253), signed Lúshān Yán Yònghé 廬山嚴用和. Sets out the four desiderata of a competent physician: mài 脈 (pulse), bìng 病 (disease), zhèng 證 (presentation), zhì 治 (treatment). Each is necessary; missing any one will kill the patient. Yán’s autobiographical sketch follows, then the editorial method: he selects古人 ancient recipes that have been tested by his own practice plus his teacher’s clinical experience.
  2. 原序二 by Yán Yònghé (later in date than the first preface, accompanying the Jìshēng xùfāng supplement of 1267, xiánchún 3). Records that after 50 years of medical practice he produced 80 discussions and 400 recipes in 10 juǎn (the original Jìshēng fāng), and is now appending 90 further discussions and 240 recipes (the Xùfāng supplement) totalling 5 further juǎn.

Abstract

Yán Yònghé 嚴用和 (fl. mid-13th c., precise lifedates unrecorded; not in CBDB) was a Lúshān 廬山 (Jiāngxī) physician whose teacher Liú Kāi 劉開 (Fùzhēn xiānshēng 復真先生) is one of the few documented southern Sòng yīshī 醫師 (medical instructors). Yán’s literary self-presentation positions him as a student-physician working in the inherited jīngfāng 經方 (classical recipe) tradition while adapting it to the changed conditions of late-Southern-Sòng medicine.

The work’s most-cited recipe is Guīpí tāng 歸脾湯 (the “Restore-Spleen Decoction” — báizhú 白朮, huángqí 黃耆, fúshén 茯神, lóngyǎnròu 龍眼肉, suānzǎorén 酸棗仁, yuǎnzhì 遠志, rénshēn 人參, mùxiāng 木香, gāncǎo 甘草, dāngguī 當歸, jiāng 薑, zǎo 棗), the foundational recipe for the xīnpí liǎngxū 心脾兩虛 (concurrent heart-and-spleen deficiency) syndrome and still standard in modern TCM clinical practice. The recipe was modified and re-canonised by the Ming physician Xuē Jǐ 薛己 in his Xuēshì yī’àn 薛氏醫案, but the prior-art source is Yán Yònghé’s Jìshēng fāng. Other widely cited Yán recipes include Shíbǔ wán 實補丸 (the “Substantial-Reinforce Pill”) and Zìshēng wán 滋生丸 (the “Nourish-Life Pill”).

The Jìshēng fāng was widely transmitted in the late Sòng, Yuán, and Ming. The Ming editor Wú Wēnbǐng 吳文炳 issued a Yītǒng zhèngmài quánshū 醫統正脈全書 (1601) inclusion which became the standard print, and the Sìkù quánshū received text descends from this lineage. The hxwd recension follows the Ming Yītǒng zhèngmài tradition.

Translations and research

  • Hé Shíxī 何時希 (coll.). 1989. Yán-shì jìshēng fāng 嚴氏濟生方 (punctuated edition). Beijing.
  • Liào Yùqún 廖育群. 1998. Zhōngguó kēxué jìshù shǐ: yīxué juàn.
  • Scheid, Volker. 2007. Currents of Tradition. Eastland — discusses the Guī-pí tāng lineage from Yán Yònghé through Xuē Jǐ to modern TCM.
  • Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual §41.3.2.

Other points of interest

The Guīpí tāng — Yán’s signature recipe — is widely regarded as the prototype Sòng prescription for psychosomatic syndromes, addressing insomnia, palpitation, anxiety, and digestive weakness as a single clinical complex. Its survival into modern TCM clinical practice in essentially the original form is unusual for a 13th-century Chinese prescription.

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