聞分館君 Ask BunKanKun

萬氏家抄濟世良方

5 min read

Text ID
KR3ed049
Date
1602–1602
Dynasty
明

Wànshì Jiāchāo Jìshì Liángfāng 萬氏家抄濟世良方

Wàn-Family Hand-Copied World-Relieving Good Recipes by 萬表 (Wàn Biǎo, 1498–1556, zì Mínwàng 民望, hào Lùyuán 鹿園, 明) — late-Ming military commander and Confucian scholar of Sìmíng 四明 (Ningbo, Zhèjiāng); compilation continued and expanded by his grandson Wàn Bāngfú 萬邦孚

About the work

The Wànshì jiāchāo jìshì liángfāng in 6 juǎn is a Ming military-family hereditary recipe collection compiled by Wàn Biǎo 萬表 (1498–1556) and expanded by his grandson Wàn Bāngfú 萬邦孚 (the cānróng Military Commander of Ruìyán 瑞岩) into the present 6-juǎn form. The work was reprinted in wànlì 30 (1602) at the Wàn family compound after the old wood-blocks had decayed; the prefacer Zhū Dàoxiāng 朱道相 of Wàn’ān 萬安 records this reprint occasion.

The work consolidates the medical knowledge of three generations of the Wàn family military commanders of Sìmíng 四明 (Ningbo): Wàn Biǎo himself, his son (the Zǒngzhèn Regional Commander Wàn Lǐng 萬泠 or another middle-generation figure), and the grandson Wàn Bāngfú who completed the present consolidation. The recipes draw from family practice, Ming military-medical experience (wound treatment, zhōngshǔ heat-stroke, jíbìng contagion treatment), and the standard Ming pharmacological tradition. The 1602 reprint added a Màijué 脈訣 (pulse-diagnosis primer) and a Yàoxìng 藥性 (drug-natures) section.

Prefaces

The hxwd transmission preserves three paratexts:

  1. 刻萬氏家抄濟世良方序 by Zhū Dàoxiāng 朱道相 of Wàn’ān 萬安 (Zuǒqīng 佐卿, Vice-Minister), dated 萬曆壬寅八月一日吉旦 (= autumn 1602). Frames the Wàn-family contribution in the liángxiàngliángyī “good chancellor / good physician” parallel: the grandfather Wàn Biǎo’s Sīmíng wénwǔ liǎngquán “complete in both civil and military arts” was the family’s first achievement; the grandson Wàn Bāngfú’s jìfēng zhuōtǎo “swift naval campaigns to suppress Japanese pirate threats” was the second; the medical-publication patronage that “delivers the world from YīnYáng disorders” is the third. Praises the work’s clinical effectiveness as confirmed by three generations of family practice.
  2. 萬邦孚 跋 — Wàn Bāngfú’s own colophon. Records: “my late grandfather (大父) printed the Jìshì liángfāng in 5 juǎn, in circulation for long. The wood-blocks now decayed, I (Bāngfú) have added […].” The text is cut short in the hxwd preview but the meaning is clear: Bāngfú expanded his grandfather’s original 5 juǎn to 6 juǎn with additional pharmacological-pedagogical material (the Màijué and Yàoxìng sections).

Abstract

Wàn Biǎo 萬表 (1498–1556, CBDB 38020), zì Mínwàng 民望, hào Lùyuán 鹿園 / Jiǔshā shānrén 九沙山人, of Yīnxiàn 鄞縣 (modern Ningbo, Zhèjiāng). A senior Ming military-civil official: hereditary military officer (his family had held the Nánjīng zhōngjūn Nanjing Central Army hereditary appointment for several generations), jiājìng 5 jìnshì (1526), bīngbù shàngshū (Minister of War) and Tàizǐ shàobǎo (Minister-of-Defence and Minor Tutor to the Crown Prince). He was also a serious Confucian scholar — author of multiple statecraft treatises and a noted disciple in the Wáng Yángmíng 王陽明 xīnxué tradition.

His grandson Wàn Bāngfú 萬邦孚 was a cānróng (Military Commander) at Ruìyán 瑞岩 (a coastal-defence command), active in the late-Wànlì anti-pirate / anti-Japanese campaigns. The 1602 Wànlì rényín publication of the present recension belongs to his tenure.

The work’s significance:

  1. Hereditary-military medical patronage. The Wàn family’s three-generation medical-publication patronage documents the Ming hereditary-military officer’s medical practice: military commanders treating their own troops, gathering recipes for military-medical needs (wound treatment, heatstroke, dysentery, contagion). Few comparable hereditary-military medical compilations survive from the late Ming.
  2. Confucian-military-medical integration. The work’s framing — Wénwǔ liǎngquán “complete in both civil and military arts,” with medical patronage as one expression of rén humanity — is a particularly clear statement of the late-Ming integration of military and Confucian-humanitarian ideals.

Translations and research

  • Hé Shíxī 何時希 (coll.). 1992. Wàn-shì jiāchāo jìshì liángfāng 萬氏家抄濟世良方 (punctuated edition).
  • Robinson, David M. 2013. Martial Spectacles of the Ming Court. Harvard UP. — discusses Ming hereditary-military patronage.
  • For Wàn Biǎo’s Confucian-statecraft career: Brook, Timothy. 1998. The Confusions of Pleasure: Commerce and Culture in Ming China. UCP — locates him in late-Ming Ningbo socioeconomic context.
  • Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual §41.3.2.

Other points of interest

Wàn Biǎo’s hereditary-military background — his family had held a Nanjing central-army hereditary commission for several generations before his civil jìnshì attainment — is unusual in producing a major medical-publication tradition. His combination of military and civil distinction made him a model figure for the late-Ming Wáng Yángmíng school’s argument that all genuine learning serves practical, world-improving ends (致良知之學要在事功).

Graph View

Backlinks