Yīfāng Zhèngzhì Huìbiān Gējué 醫方證治彙編歌訣
Rhymed Verses on the Collected Formulae for Syndrome-Treatment by 王泰林 (Wáng Tàilín = Wáng Xùgāo 王旭高, 1798–1862, 清)
About the work
The Yīfāng zhèngzhì huìbiān gējué is a 2-juǎn rhymed-verse formulary by Wáng Xùgāo 王旭高 (Tàilín), one of the Wáng Xùgāo yīshū liùzhǒng posthumous collection of 1862. The work compiles the common-treatment formulas (tōngzhì fāng) of clinical practice in rhymed-verse pedagogical form, following Xú Língtāi’s Lántái guǐfàn 蘭臺軌範 as its principal model for the tōngzhì fāng category (tōngzhì = “broadly applicable across syndromes,” contrasted with zhuānzhì = “syndrome-specific”).
Prefaces
The source begins immediately with the first formula category (tōngzhì fāng 通治方) with the opening verse on the Liùwèi dìhuáng wán 六味地黃丸 of Qián Zhòngyáng 錢仲陽. The verse is densely annotated with constituent doses, source-citations (the Liùwèi is a modification of Zhāng Zhòngjǐng’s Shènqì wán 腎氣丸 by Qián), syndrome indications, and named jiājiǎn variants (the Liùwèi jiā dùzhòng niúxī wán, the Liùwèi qù zéxiè jiā yìzhì wán, the Cuīshì bāwèi wán with addition of fùzǐ and ròuguì, the Zhībǎi bāwèi wán, the Míngmù dìhuáng wán with júhuā and gǒuqǐzǐ, the Zuǒcí wán with císhí and mǔlì and cháihú, the Bāxiān chángshòu wán with màiméndōng and wǔwèizǐ, the Dūqì wán, the Jīnguì shènqì wán for zhuǎnbāo — etc.).
No separate dated authorial preface is in the visible portion. The work entered print as one of the Wáng Xùgāo yīshū liùzhǒng in 1862.
Abstract
The work belongs to the Chén-school gējué (rhymed-formulary) genre established by Wāng Áng’s Tāngtóu gējué KR3ed083 (1694) and brought to its highest pitch by Chén Xiūyuán’s Shífāng gēkuò / Chángshā fāng gēkuò / Jīnguì fāng gēkuò (1801–1830). Wáng Xùgāo’s Yīfāng zhèngzhì huìbiān gējué extends the genre with a particular methodological signature: each verse is a dense, philologically careful encoding of the formula’s name, constituent doses, source-attribution, primary indication, and key jiājiǎn variants — with the gējué itself followed by extensive interlinear or parenthetical glosses.
The work’s pedagogical ambition is comprehensive within the tōngzhì category — the formulas useful across many syndromes — and was particularly successful in transmitting the Yè-school clinical curriculum to Wáng Xùgāo’s students in mid-19th-century Wúxī.
Composition window: Wáng died in 1862; the work was printed posthumously the same year. Most of his gējué projects fall in his last decade, c. 1850–1862.
Translations and research
- Wáng Xù-gāo yī-shū liù-zhǒng 王旭高醫書六種 (modern punctuated editions: Shanghai: Shànghǎi kēxué jìshù chūbǎnshè, 1956; Beijing: Rénmín wèishēng chūbǎnshè, 1987; with apparatus).
- Volker Scheid. Currents of Tradition in Chinese Medicine 1626–2006. Discusses Wáng Xùgāo in late-Qing context.
Other points of interest
The work’s heavy reliance on interlinear and parenthetical glosses within the rhymed verse is methodologically interesting: where Wāng Áng’s Tāngtóu gējué aimed at pure mnemonic-verse memorability, and Chén Xiūyuán’s gēkuò aimed at verse + separate prose volume, Wáng Xùgāo’s solution embeds the prose into the verse itself through close-set parenthetical glossing — making the work a hybrid of memorisable verse and reference-pharmacy compendium. The choice fits Wáng’s pedagogical context (private yīshí teaching of advanced clinical apprentices, who could be expected to study line-by-line).
Links
- Wikidata: no dedicated entry.
- 醫方證治彙編歌訣 jicheng.tw
- Kanseki DB