聞分館君 Ask BunKanKun

經方例釋

4 min read

Text ID
KR3ed081
Date
1885–1890
Dynasty
清

Jīngfāng Lìshì 經方例釋

Worked Examples in the Classical-Formula Tradition by 莫枚士 (Mò Méishì, míng Wénquán 文泉, 1837–1907, 清)

About the work

The Jīngfāng lìshì is a 4-juǎn analytical formulary by the late-Qīng jīngfāng scholar-physician Mò Méishì 莫枚士 of Guīān 歸安 (Húzhōu). It is the companion volume to his earlier Yánjīng yán 研經言 (essays on the classical pharmaco-therapeutic corpus, c. 1880). The work organises the Shānghán lùn and Jīnguì yàolüè formulas by category-and-variation: the principal classical formula is set first; its named jiājiǎn variants follow; analogous formulas from the Qiānjīn yìfāng, Wàitái mìyào, and other early formularies are then arrayed under each principal recipe with comparative annotation on dose, drug-substitution, and clinical extension.

Prefaces

The work carries a substantial preface by a senior contemporary (signature partially preserved in the KR transmission). Key points:

  1. The preface-writer’s relationship to Mò. He had previously written a preface for the Yánjīng yán five years earlier; Mò has now sent him the Jīngfāng lìshì by post and asked for a preface for that as well. The preface-writer modestly disclaims medical expertise but cannot refuse Mò’s earnest scholarly correspondence.
  2. A short history of formulary practice. Early formulary medicine used single-drug recipes (dānfāng). As life grew more complex and tastes more various, diseases multiplied and recipes grew correspondingly elaborate. From simple recipes to compound recipes to hybrid recipes to recipes-of-recipes, the formulary corpus has expanded several-fold beyond antiquity.
  3. The problem. Common physicians (cūgōng) see no order in this and dismiss the classical formulas as “unsuitable for modern disease.” This is medical-school decline.
  4. Mò’s project. “This book — fāngyǐlèijù — gathers the formulas by category, takes the basic formula as parent and arranges its variations beneath; further taking the Qiānjīn, Wàitái, and other formularies as comparative material, it traces names, identifies drugs, compares doses. Across ancient and modern formularies it cross-references, transforms, and reorganises; thus drawing out the hidden and clarifying the obscure, opening the whole landscape.” The preface concludes that even Xú Língtāi 徐靈胎 (Yáo Língyī 姚靈儀, Shānghán lèifāng), if alive, would call on Mò as a teacher.

Abstract

The work is one of the most ambitious late-Qīng jīngfāng scholarly contributions, combining the category-and-variation method of Xú Língtāi’s Shānghán lèifāng with deeper philological apparatus drawn from the Qīng kǎozhèng tradition. Mò’s method is to take a classical formula (e.g. Guìzhī tāng), present it with its primary Shānghán indication, then arrange beneath it all the named jiājiǎn variations (Xiǎo jiànzhōng tāng, Huángqí jiànzhōng tāng, Dāngguī sìnì tāng, Guìzhī jiā fùzǐ tāng, etc.) with discussion of the what and why of each variation, then bring in analogous formulas from the early-Táng (Qiānjīn) and middle-Táng (Wàitái) corpora for comparative annotation.

The work is among the highest-grade late-Qīng kǎozhèngyīxué productions and was praised by the rigorist physicians of the early Republican generation (Zhāng Xīchún 張錫純). Its composition window: Mò’s Yánjīng yán dates to c. 1880; the Jīngfāng lìshì preface notes “five years later” — placing the new work at c. 1885. Printing followed shortly thereafter.

Translations and research

  • Mò Méishì. Jīng-fāng lì-shì (modern punctuated editions, in Mò Méishì yīxué quán-shū 莫枚士醫學全書 and in Jīng-fāng yīxué cóng-shū 經方醫學叢書 reprints).
  • No major Western-language monograph dedicated to Mò Méishì. Yú Yúng-chū’s 余聽鴻 Yī jīng yī-shū lùn 醫經醫書論 discusses Mò briefly.

Other points of interest

The work’s invocation of Xú Língtāi as the genre-ancestor is significant: Xú’s Shānghán lèifāng 傷寒類方 (1759, KR3e0099) had established the category-and-variation method for the Shānghán formulas; Mò extends this method to a broader corpus and adds the philological apparatus that the kǎozhèng movement had developed in the intervening century.

Graph View

Backlinks