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普濟方

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Text ID
KR3ed036
Date
1390–1406
Dynasty
明

Pǔjì Fāng 普濟方

Recipes for Universal Relief by 朱橚 (Zhū Sù, 1361–1425, the Yǒnglè Prince of Zhōu 周王, 明) — fifth son of the Hóngwǔ emperor

About the work

The Pǔjì fāng in 426 juǎn is the single largest Chinese medical compendium ever compiled — more than twice the size of the Sòng Shèngjì zǒnglù (KR3ed012) — containing approximately 61,739 recipes organised across 1,960 mén / sections. Compiled under the patronage of Zhū Sù 朱橚 (the Prince of Zhōu, fifth son of the Ming founder Hóngwǔ emperor) at the princely court at Kāifēng during the Hóngwǔ and early Yǒnglè eras and completed c. 1406, the work synthesises virtually every Chinese medical text down to its date — Bencao, Júfāng, Shèngjì zǒnglù, Wàitái, Qiānjīn, SòngYuán individual formularies, and Yuán polemic-physician texts.

The work’s sheer scale prevented widespread circulation in its original form; the Yǒnglè court printed only a limited number of copies, and the Sìkù quánshū compilation later (1772–1782) used a manuscript copy. Modern editions follow the Sìkù base. The catalog distinguishes the Pǔjì fāng proper (KR3ed036) from a paediatric extract (the Pǔjì fāng · Yīnghái mén 普濟方·嬰孩門, KR3ed037) that circulated independently in the late Ming.

Prefaces

The hxwd transmission preserves the Ming-era prefaces; the modern Sìkù-derived recension has been a focus of considerable textual editing.

Abstract

Zhū Sù 朱橚 (1361–1425, CBDB 11293), fifth son of the Hóngwǔ emperor and younger brother of the future Yǒnglè emperor. Enfeoffed as Prince of Wú in 1370, retitled Prince of Zhōu 周王 in 1378, with his princely court at Kāifēng. He was the most intellectually accomplished of the Hóngwǔ princes — a serious botanist, medical scholar, and patron of scholarship. Apart from the Pǔjì fāng he is the principal patron of:

  1. Jiùhuāng běncǎo 救荒本草 (1406) — the foundational Chinese ethno-botanical / famine-relief monograph, the first Chinese text to systematically describe wild edible plants for famine-relief purposes; described 414 plant species with woodcut illustrations.
  2. Yuánféng huórén shū 元豐活人書 — a Sòng Shānghán reference.

The Pǔjì fāng belongs to Zhū Sù’s larger encyclopaedic patronage project. The work’s authorship is, formally, his — he supervised the compilation — but the actual textual labour was done by a team of physicians and scholars at his court including the physician Liú Chún 劉醇 and others. The 1390–1406 date bracket reflects the principal compilation period from Zhū Sù’s mid-career to the publication of the related Jiùhuāng běncǎo; precise completion is conventionally 1406.

The work’s significance:

  1. Encyclopaedic synthesis. The Pǔjì fāng preserves recipes from texts now lost or fragmentary; it is the single most important secondary witness to large parts of the SòngYuán formulary tradition.
  2. Princely patronage of medicine. The work documents a major instance of Ming-era princely cultural patronage parallel to the contemporary princely projects in literature (the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn 永樂大典 imperial encyclopaedia, 1408) and music.
  3. Modern reception. The Sìkù quánshū inclusion brought the work into wide circulation in the late Qīng; modern Chinese medical scholarship (Lǐ Jǐngwěi 1990, Mǎ Jìxīng 1995) treats it as one of the indispensable reference works of pre-modern Chinese medicine.

Translations and research

  • Lǐ Jǐng-wěi 李經緯 (ed.). 1990. Zhōng-yī rénwù cídiǎn 中醫人物詞典. Shanghai: Císhū chū-bǎn-shè — has detailed entry on Zhū Sù.
  • Bray, Francesca. 1984. Science and Civilisation in China, vol. 6, part 2 (Agriculture). Cambridge UP — discusses Zhū Sù’s broader scholarly project.
  • Hé Shíxī 何時希 (coll.). 1958. Pǔjì fāng 普濟方 (modern punctuated edition). Beijing: Rénmín wèishēng.
  • Métailié, Georges. 2015. Science and Civilisation in China, vol. 6, part 4 (Traditional Botany).
  • Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual §41.3.2.

Other points of interest

The Pǔjì fāng’s paediatric section (Yīnghái mén) circulated independently as a clinical practical reference and is preserved separately as KR3ed037. The paediatric extract contains some of the earliest detailed Chinese descriptions of childhood jīngfēng 驚風 (convulsive disorders), measles, smallpox staging, and gǔzhèng 蠱症 (childhood wasting syndromes).

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