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醫宗金鑑·刪補名醫方論

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Text ID
KR3ed074
Date
1742–1742
Dynasty
清

Yīzōng Jīnjiàn · Shānbǔ Míngyī Fānglùn 醫宗金鑑·刪補名醫方論

Golden Mirror of the Medical Ancestor: Pruned-and-Supplemented Recipe Discourses of the Famous Physicians imperially commissioned, compiled by 吳謙 (Wú Qiān) et al.

About the work

The Shānbǔ míngyī fānglùn (8 juǎn) is the formula-discussion section of the great imperially commissioned Yīzōng jīnjiàn 醫宗金鑑 (Golden Mirror of the Medical Ancestor), the standard Qīng government medical compendium completed in 1742 (Qiánlóng 7) under the editorship of the Tàiyīyuàn chief physician Wú Qiān 吳謙 with a panel of more than eighty contributing physicians. The full Yīzōng jīnjiàn runs to 90 juǎn in fifteen divisions; the Shānbǔ míngyī fānglùn is divisions 7 within the canonical arrangement and is one of the most widely used independent sections of the work.

Prefaces

The opening of the source carries the work’s own internal preface (substituting for the Yīzōng jīnjiàn general preface, which appears in the parent compendium):

古醫方得人乃傳，非人勿言。故扁鵲、倉公皆稱禁方，不輕授人，誠重之也。後漢張機著《傷寒雜病論》，始立眾方，公之天下。故建安以前，苦於無方；元豐而後，雖有《局方》，漫無指歸，不可為法。今博集《金匱》、《千金》、《外臺》諸書及王好古、李杲、劉完素、朱震亨、張從政、薛己諸方之佳者，採錄成編。

(“Ancient medical recipes were transmitted only to suitable persons; they were not given lightly. Hence Biǎnquè and Cánggōng both styled their recipes jìnfāng (‘sealed recipes’), reluctant to transmit them — for they truly valued them. After Zhāng Jī of the Latter Hàn composed his Treatise on Cold-Damage and Various Diseases, recipes were first publicly compiled and given to the world. Before Jiànān (= late Hàn) the difficulty was the lack of recipes; after Yuánfēng (= the Sòng era of the Júfāng compilation), though the Júfāng existed, it had no guiding principle and could not serve as method. We have now broadly gathered the choice recipes from the Jīnguì, Qiānjīn, Wàitái, and the works of Wáng Hǎogǔ, Lǐ Gǎo, Liú Wánsù, Zhū Zhènhēng, Zhāng Cóngzhèng, and Xuē Jǐ, and compiled them into this collection.“)

The preface continues: “Recipe-discussion began with Chéng Wújǐ; in recent times Wú Kūn (Yīfāng kǎo KR3ed039), Lǐ Zhōngzǐ, Kē Qín 柯琴, and Wāng Áng 汪昂 have contributed exegeses, but selections have sometimes been imprecise and explanations incomplete. We now further derive the prescribing-intention of each formula, sum up its essentials, prune the over-extensive and supplement the deficient, returning to clarity. Hence the title Shānbǔ míngyī fānglùn.”

Abstract

The Shānbǔ míngyī fānglùn is one of the most carefully edited formulary commentaries in the entire Qīng tradition, the product of imperial patronage applied to a panel of eighty-plus expert physicians under the editorial supervision of Wú Qiān (himself the yùyī 御醫 of the Qiánlóng emperor and a master scholar of the Zhòngjǐng tradition). The work’s distinctive editorial method is the 集註 jízhù “collected commentary” format: for each formula, after the indication, the constituents, and the basic prescribing notes, the editors gather the most penetrating commentaries from the post-Zhòngjǐng tradition — most frequently Kē Qín 柯琴 (early Qing), Wāng Áng 汪昂 (mid-Qīng), and the late-Míng commentators — and present them in dialogue.

Eight juǎn are organized by therapeutic principle: bǔyǎng 補養 (supplementing), fābiǎo 發表 (releasing the exterior), gōnglǐ 攻裡 (attacking the interior), yǒngtù 涌吐, héjiě 和解, biǎolǐ shuāngjiě 表裡雙解, qīngrè 清熱, xiāodǎo 消導, lǐqì 理氣, lǐxuè 理血, qūfēng 祛風, qūhán 祛寒, qūshǔ 祛暑, qūshī 祛濕, qūtán 祛痰, shāchóng 殺蟲, and emergency sections.

The 1742 dating is firm from the Yīzōng jīnjiàn imperial preface and printing-history.

Translations and research

  • Wú Qiān 吳謙 et al. Yīzōng jīnjiàn (modern punctuated editions: Beijing: Rénmín wèishēng chūbǎnshè, multiple printings since 1956; complete annotated edition by Liú Guó-zhèng 劉國正 et al., Beijing: Zhōngguó Zhōngyīyào chūbǎnshè, 1995).
  • Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual §41.3.2.
  • Marta Hanson, “The Golden Mirror in the Imperial Court of the Qianlong Emperor, 1739–1742,” Early Science and Medicine 8.2 (2003), 111–147. The standard English-language study of the parent Yīzōng jīnjiàn.

Other points of interest

The Yīzōng jīnjiàn as a whole was a deliberate Qiánlóng-court project of medical canon-formation: an authoritative, government-sanctioned medical compendium intended to fix the curriculum for Tàiyīyuàn examination and to standardize Qīng medical practice. The Shānbǔ míngyī fānglùn section was particularly successful in this canonical role and remained the principal formulary commentary in the Tàiyīyuàn examination through the end of the Qīng.

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