Ruìzhútáng Jīngyàn Fāng (Sìkù běn) 瑞竹堂經驗方（四庫本）
Tested Recipes of the Auspicious-Bamboo Hall (Sìkù quánshū abridged recension) by 沙圖穆蘇 (Shātúmùsū, 元) — abridged by the Sìkù quánshū editorial committee from the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn 永樂大典 quotations
About the work
This is the Sìkù quánshū abridged recension of Shātúmùsū’s Ruìzhútáng jīngyàn fāng (KR3ed023), reduced to 5 juǎn from the 15-juǎn original. The Sìkù editors, working in the 乾隆 reign (1772–1782), reconstructed the work from quotations preserved in the Ming Yǒnglè dàdiǎn 永樂大典, the original full 15-juǎn print being inaccessible to them. The reconstruction captures about one third of the original’s recipe count and most of the work’s structural framework, but loses the patronage prefaces and substantial portions of the practical-recipe text.
The Kanripo catalog distinguishes this Sìkù recension (KR3ed024) from the full 15-juǎn recension (KR3ed023) by appending “（四庫本）” to the title. The catalog meta records both under Shātúmùsū / 元, which is accurate for the underlying composition; the Sìkù recension itself is of course a 1772–1782 editorial reconstruction.
Prefaces
The Sìkù recension preserves only the standard Sìkù tíyào 四庫提要 imperial-summary preface, not the original Yuán-era patronage prefaces by Wáng Dōuzhōng et al. (which survive in the KR3ed023 hxwd recension). The tíyào notes the work’s Mongol-Chinese cultural milieu, identifies Shātúmùsū’s Chinese alias and sobriquet, and records the Ruìzhútáng “Auspicious-Bamboo Hall” name’s origin in his personal study.
Abstract
The relationship between this recension and the full text (KR3ed023) is best understood as two distinct textual witnesses to a single underlying Yuán work:
- KR3ed023 = full 15-juǎn recension descending from a Ming reprint of the Yuán original.
- KR3ed024 (this) = 5-juǎn Sìkù reconstruction from Yǒnglè dàdiǎn quotations.
Modern Chinese medical-historical scholarship (Hé Shíxī, Mǎ Jìxīng) prefers the 15-juǎn recension as the better textual witness; the Sìkù recension is consulted mainly for variant readings.
The bracket 1326–1782 reflects the underlying Yuán composition (lower bound, the Jiànchāngfǔ prefectship of Shātúmùsū) and the Sìkù editorial date (upper bound, the Sìkù quánshū completion in 1782).
For the substantive content, prosopography, and historical significance, see KR3ed023.
Translations and research
See KR3ed023 for the full bibliography. The Sìkù recension is the textual base of the Sìkù quánshū and is cited by Sìkù-derived modern editions; the Sìkù tíyào is the principal Sìkù-era source.
Other points of interest
The two-recension preservation of this work is a useful methodological case-study in Yuán-text recovery: the 1782 Sìkù editors had to reconstruct from indirect Ming quotations because the direct Yuán-Ming print transmission had passed them by, while a Ming print survived in private collections that the Sìkù editors did not see. The two recensions therefore allow a comparison of Yǒnglè dàdiǎn and Ming-print transmission lineages — a rare opportunity in Yuán textual scholarship.
Links
- Wikidata Q11086476 (瑞竹堂經驗方).
- Sister recension: KR3ed023 (15-juǎn full text).
- Sìkù quánshū sub-stitute base text.
- 瑞竹堂經驗方（四庫本） jicheng.tw
- Kanseki DB