Jīnguì Fāng Gēkuò 金匱方歌括
Rhymed Verses on the Jīnguì Formulas project of 陳念祖 (Chén Niànzǔ, zì Xiūyuán 修園, 1753–1823, 清); completed by his son 陳元犀 (Chén Yuánxī, zì Língshí 靈石, fl. early 19th c.)
About the work
The Jīnguì fāng gēkuò in 6 juǎn is the rhymed-verse pedagogical commentary on the classical formulas of the Jīnguì yàolüè 金匱要略 — Zhāng Zhòngjǐng’s Treatise on Various Diseases paralleling the Shānghán lùn. The work was conceived by Chén Xiūyuán as the third panel of his rhymed-formulary trilogy (after the Shífāng gēkuò KR3ed084 of 1801–1803 and the Chángshā fāng gēkuò KR3ed085 of c. 1803–1810). It was completed by his son Chén Yuánxī (zì Língshí) after Chén Xiūyuán’s death in 1823.
Prefaces
The KR source carries a 後跋 hòubá (postface) by Yè Xiǎnghuì 葉享會 (shòuyè ménrén — disciple), which provides clear documentation:
金匱歌括者。吾師靈石先生續師祖修園老夫子大人金匱淺注之後而作。所以便後學傳誦之章也。會未及門時。即讀傷寒論淺注並長沙歌括。…本年春。因從吾師遊。聞吾師緒論。深以未成父書為憾。及夏間。金匱淺注書成付梓。復踵成歌括六卷。俱告竣。
(“The Jīnguì gēkuò was composed by my teacher Mr. Língshí [Chén Yuánxī], following on from his grand-teacher’s [his father Chén Xiūyuán’s] Jīnguì qiǎnzhù. Its purpose is to make the work easy for later students to recite. When I had not yet been received as a student, I read the Shānghán lùn qiǎnzhù and the Chángshā gēkuò, deeply pondering them, but could not quite penetrate their depth. This spring I came to follow my teacher; hearing his discussions I learned that he much regretted not having completed his father’s books. In summer the Jīnguì qiǎnzhù was finished and went to the printer, and he then completed the Gēkuò in 6 juǎn. All is now finished.“)
The postface’s “this spring … summer” refers to a single working year — most likely Dàoguāng 5 or 6 (1825 or 1826), when Chén Yuánxī completed both the Jīnguì qiǎnzhù (his father’s parallel prose commentary) and this rhymed companion.
Abstract
The work covers the formulas of the Jīnguì yàolüè — Zhāng Zhòngjǐng’s miscellaneous-disease formulary, paralleling the Shānghán lùn — in rhymed verse for memorization, following the strict prosodic discipline established in the Chángshā fāng gēkuò. Chén Yuánxī’s editorial style preserves his father’s gēkuò method faithfully, and the work was received by contemporaries as a worthy completion of the Chén-school pedagogical trilogy.
The catalog meta attributes the work to Chén Niànzǔ alone, but the postface makes clear that the Jīnguì fāng gēkuò and its prose-companion Jīnguì qiǎnzhù were both completed posthumously by Chén Yuánxī working from his father’s notes and project plan. The persons frontmatter therefore lists both — Chén Niànzǔ as the originator (yuánzhù) and Chén Yuánxī as the xùchéng (continuation completer).
The terminus ad quem is c. 1830 (the latest plausible date for Chén Yuánxī’s continued posthumous publication of his father’s project). The terminus a quo is 1823 (the year of Chén Xiūyuán’s death and Chén Yuánxī’s beginning of the completion project).
Translations and research
- Chén Xiūyuán yīxué quánshū 陳修園醫學全書 (Beijing: Zhōngguó Zhōngyīyào chūbǎnshè, 1999). Contains the Jīn-guì fāng gē-kuò with apparatus, with editorial discussion of the Chén Yuánxī continuation.
Other points of interest
The work documents the father-son medical-pedagogy lineage as a Qīng institutional form. Chén Yuánxī’s task — completing his father’s unfinished pedagogical project — is the most demanding form of filial piety in scholarly families, and the explicit postface acknowledgement of this is poignantly typical of the late-Qīng yīxué jiāchuán (family-transmission medical tradition).
Links
- Wikidata Q67137040 (Jīnguì fāng gēkuò).
- 金匱方歌括 jicheng.tw
- Kanseki DB