Yītōng Zǔfāng 醫通祖方
Ancestral Formulas of the Yītōng by 張璐 (Zhāng Lù, zì Lùyù 路玉, hào Shíwán Lǎorén 石頑老人, 1617–c. 1700, 清)
About the work
The Yītōng zǔfāng is the standalone formulary derived from the great Zhāngshì Yītōng 張氏醫通 of 1695, the comprehensive 16-juǎn clinical compendium of Zhāng Lù 張璐 — one of the “Three Great Physicians of the Early Qīng” alongside Yù Jiāyán 喻昌 and Wú Qiān 吳謙. The “ancestral formulas” (zǔfāng 祖方) of the title refers to the foundational recipes inherited from Zhāng Zhòngjǐng — the Guìzhī tāng 桂枝湯, Máhuáng tāng 麻黃湯, Sìnì tāng 四逆湯, and so forth — together with their classical and post-classical variations. For each ancestral formula, Zhāng Lù gives the Yùhán / Jīnguì / Qiānjīn primary attribution, the original constituents and doses, a clinical discussion of the indication, and a chain of jiājiǎn (additions and subtractions) variations as transmitted by post-Hàn masters.
Prefaces
The source begins immediately with body text (item 1: 桂枝湯) and carries no separate preface. The work’s preface in the parent Zhāngshì Yītōng gives Kāngxī 34 yǐhài = 1695 as the completion date.
Abstract
The genre of the work is essentially parent-formula commentary (zǔfāng zhù 祖方注): each Zhāng Zhòngjǐng formula is taken as a “parent” (zǔ) and its descendants are arrayed in a single chain, with editorial discussion of the rationale for each variation. The opening Guìzhī tāng example is paradigmatic:
Guìzhī tāng (《玉函》) treats wind injuring the wei-qi, pulse floating-relaxed, fever and spontaneous sweating, with discord of ying-wei. → Xiǎojiànzhōng tāng (《玉函》) for wood-element invading the spleen, cold-and-heat with abdominal pain (Guìzhī tāng with doubled sháoyào and added jiāoyí). → Huángqí jiànzhōng tāng (《金匱》) for xūláo with cold and self-sweating (add huángqí 1.5 qián and jiāoyí 1 gě; Qiānjīn adds 2 qián of rénshēn). → Nèibǔ dāngguī jiànzhōng tāng (《千金》) for post-partum blood-vacuity with abdominal stabbing pain. → and so on.
This parent-and-descendants arrangement is one of the most elegant and pedagogically useful classifications of the Zhòngjǐng corpus produced in the entire Qīng period. The work circulated separately from the parent Yītōng throughout the Qīng — sometimes printed in 1 juǎn, sometimes (in expanded form) in 16 juǎn paralleling the parent work. The catalog meta lists 1 juǎn, presumably the standalone short recension.
The 1695 date follows the parent Yītōng’s completion. Zhāng Lù was 78 sui at the time. Since this is a derivative compilation drawn directly from the parent work, no separate independent dating window applies.
The work stands as a commentary on the Zhāng Zhòngjǐng corpus rather than on any single one of his texts; for catalog purposes commentedTextid is set to the canonical Yītōng parent — KR3er043 (Zhāngshì Yītōng) — since the Yītōng zǔfāng is structurally an extract from that work — Zhāngshì Yītōng 張氏醫通 (KR3er043).
Translations and research
- Zhāng Lù. Zhāng Lù yīxué quánshū 張璐醫學全書 (modern punctuated edition: Beijing: Zhōngguó Zhōngyīyào chūbǎnshè 中國中醫藥出版社, 1999). Includes the Yītōng zǔfāng with apparatus.
- No major Western-language monograph dedicated to this work.
Other points of interest
The zǔfāng “ancestral formula” methodology that Zhāng Lù makes explicit in this work was widely imitated in 18th- and 19th-century Qīng pedagogy: Wáng Xùgāo’s Tuìsī jí lèifāng gēzhù KR3ed090, for example, is a direct lineal descendant of the zǔfāng method.
Links
- Wikidata: no dedicated entry for the standalone Yītōng zǔfāng; parent Yītōng at Q67137042.
- 醫通祖方 jicheng.tw
- Kanseki DB