Zhěnyàn Yīfāng Gēkuò 診驗醫方歌括
Rhymed Mnemonics of Tested and Diagnostically-Verified Medical Formulae by 坐嘯山人 (Zuòxiào Shānrén, pseudonym, late Qīng)
About the work
A late-Qīng pedagogical formulary in rhymed seven- or four-character mnemonic verse (gēkuò 歌括), arranging proven (yàn 驗) prescriptions under disease-categories with the standard apparatus of explanatory ingredients-and-doses notes and decoction directions appended below each verse. The opening sequence (Wēnyì 溫疫 → Wēnbìng 溫病 → Shīwēn 濕溫 → Wēnyì once more, etc.) shows that the compiler organises the book around the Wēnbìng 溫病 (warm-disease / epidemic-disease) tradition rather than around the Shānghán classical headings: the opening formulae are Yínqiáo sǎn 銀翹散 and Sāngjú yǐn 桑菊飲, both quoted under Wú Jūtōng’s authorship from the Wēnbìng tiáobiàn 溫病條辨 (1813); the Gānlù xiāodú dān 甘露消毒丹 and the Shénxī dān 神犀丹 quoted under Yè Tiānshì are also flagship Wēnbìng formulae of the JiāngsūZhèjiāng school. The text is preserved as a manuscript in the Nánjīng Zhōngyīyào Dàxué library, 3 fascicles, thread-bound.
Prefaces
The source carries no front matter beyond title and category headings; the work is anonymous in the sense that the hào “Zuòxiào Shānrén” (Whistling-Recluse Mountain-Man) is a zìháo with no firm identification in CBDB or in the standard SòngYuánMíngQīng yījiā xìngmíng zìháo lùmíng dictionaries. Throughout the body of the text many formula-annotations are signed “(軒)” — apparently an abbreviated hào (single graph from a longer studio-name) by which the compiler distinguishes his own emendations and self-composed formulae from the classical-quotations he is harvesting. The “Xuān” annotations include several new prescriptions (Tǔfúlíng tāng 土茯苓湯, Xìngbèi èrchén tāng 杏貝二陳湯, Shànqì huàqì shūgān tāng 疝氣化氣疏肝湯, Tòngjīng wán 痛經丸) and substantive editorial notes on dose-substitution and contraindication.
Abstract
The work is firmly post-1813, since it incorporates Wú Jūtōng (Wú Táng 吳瑭, 1758–1836) Wēnbìng tiáobiàn formulae as quoted core material. The doctrinal positioning is mainstream late-Qīng JiāngZhè Wēnbìng with strong absorption of Yè Tiānshì (Yè Guì 葉桂, 1666–1745) and the Sì jiā xué shuō (the four-masters synthesis Yè–Xuē–Wú–Wáng of Wútōng, Xuē Shēngbái, Wáng Mèngyǐn, etc.). The compiler signs himself “Zuòxiào Shānrén” — a pen-name found in no major biographical dictionary, and the conventional cataloguers’ guess “late Qīng” cannot at present be tightened further than 1813 × ca. 1900. The Nánjīng Zhōngyīyào Dàxué library holds the manuscript in three thread-bound fascicles, which is the terminus state of the work as transmitted; no woodblock printing is recorded. The KR digital text is keyed from this manuscript.
The structure within each disease-category (e.g. Wēnyì → Wēnbìng → Shīwēn → Fēngwēn → …) places the mnemonic verse first, then the ingredients with doses, then the indications, then the variant-clauses (加減 jiājiǎn) — a layout that derives directly from the late-Míng formula-songbook tradition (cf. Tāngtóu gējué 湯頭歌訣 (KR3ed083) and the Yīfāng jíjiě 醫方集解 of Wāng Áng 1682 (KR3ed076)) but with Wēnbìng material added in the upper layer.
Translations and research
No substantial secondary literature located. Brief catalogue notices exist in the Zhōng-guó zhōng-yī gǔ-jí zǒng-mù 中國中醫古籍總目 (Beijing, 2007) under the Wēn-bìng / Fāng-shū heading.
Links
- Wēnbìng tiáobiàn (1813) is the doctrinal foundation; see KR3ed083 for the cognate rhymed-formulary tradition.
- 診驗醫方歌括 jicheng.tw
- Kanseki DB