Fāngjī 方機
The Mechanism of Formulas (Japanese Hōki) by 吉益為則 (Yoshimasu Tameru = Yoshimasu Tōdō 吉益東洞, 1702–1773), oral teachings; collated and printed in 1811 by 殿經文緯 (Tono no Kyō Bun’i)
About the work
A clinical jīngfāng manual presenting Zhāng Zhòngjǐng’s formulas in the simplified handbook format developed by Yoshimasu Tōdō’s school for everyday teaching use. Each formula entry gives: (i) the canonical name; (ii) the canonical Sòng-recension ingredients with both the Hàn doses and the Edo-Japanese conversion (e.g. “Guìzhī tāng: guìzhī, sháoyào, shēngjiāng each 3 liǎng; dàzǎo 12 pieces — converted as 0.75 fēn each in Japanese measure; gāncǎo 2 liǎng → 0.5 fēn”); (iii) the decoction directions; (iv) at the foot of the entry a brief list of zhǔzhì indications and jiānyòng (supplementary-use) clauses. The book is essentially the teaching script of Tōdō’s classroom — a beginner’s Hōki (Fāngjī, “formula mechanism”) to be set alongside the more concentrated Hōkyoku (Fāngjí, “formula apex”; see KR3ed100).
Prefaces
Preface by Tono no Kyō Bun’i 殿經文緯, Bunka 8 xīnwèi (= 1811), èryuè (second lunar month).
“The art of dāoguī (the medical art) — beginning with [the Yellow Emperor and] Qíbó and Huángdì, and continuing through every dynasty since, has produced famous masters and consummate craftsmen in succession. Fāngshū and treatises are scattered beyond counting. After the Later Hàn, Zhāng Zhòngjǐng stood out among them; but only the Shānghán lùn and Jīnguì of his works survive. The Jìn-period Wáng Shūhé re-arranged and added his own opinions, so the original was lost in editorial confusion, and after a thousand years no one knew Zhòngjǐng’s mind.”
“Our country’s Tōdō-weng, troubled by this circuit of distorted argument, set himself to it with vigour, and wrote books to bǒyáng (winnow). The chaff being all removed, the work of Zhāng was restored to its original. — Recently, [the bookseller] Bei-lín-táng came to me with a manuscript of the Fāngjī, saying: ‘This book is Tōdō-weng’s oral instruction (kǒushòu), which his disciples recorded as a secret family-treasure. I have obtained it from one Qián Shǒuyè 乾守業. I wish to publish it and make it public — please vouchsafe to me your collation work.’ I dared not refuse. In the intervals of my official duties I collated it many times, and below each formula-name I have added the formula itself, in order to serve the readership.”
The preface-writer’s “fánlì” (general principles) further note that Tōdō’s Hōkyoku circulated widely but its terse style was difficult for beginners, hence the present supplementary publication of his oral-teaching transcript.
Abstract
The work is a posthumous compilation of Yoshimasu Tōdō’s oral teaching, kept as a family-secret manuscript among his disciples for nearly four decades after his death in 1773 and finally printed in 1811 through the collation of Tono no Kyō Bun’i. It is one of the two principal handbook formularies of the Ko-iho school (the other being Hōkyoku), and was used as the standard textbook by Tōdō-school clinics throughout the late Edo and Meiji periods. The opening canon of formulas — Guìzhī tāng, Máhuáng tāng, Gégēn tāng, Xiǎocháihú tāng, Báihǔ tāng, Wǔlíng sǎn, Lǐzhōng wán, etc. — exactly parallels the Shānghán lùn sequence.
The principal innovation is the Bunka-edition addition of dose-conversion tables in Japanese measure (fēn and lí, 分 / 釐), making the book directly usable in the Japanese clinic. The dose conversion follows Tōdō’s own published Yakuchō 藥徵 calibration of the Hàn liǎng to roughly one-eighth of the corresponding modern Japanese liǎng, with adjustments by formula. The conversion is one of the principal Edo contributions to jīngfāng clinical practice.
Subsidiary points: the book argues against the contemporary Edo apothecary trade for cutting drug-quality in pursuit of profit (“the price-cutters who deceive others — how can they be other than gravely bùrén?”); and instructs the practitioner that all formula-selection should follow the canonical guījǔ (rules-of-thumb) of the ancients without modification.
Translations and research
- Hōki in modern annotated edition: Kampō kohōha sōsho 漢方古方派叢書 (Tokyo: Meicho shuppan, 1971 and 1979 reprints).
- For Tōdō’s broader doctrinal context: Daniel Trambaiolo, “Diagnosing Disease in Edo Japan: A Practitioner’s Hermeneutics,” in Asian Medicine: Tradition and Modernity 5 (2009).
Links
- See 吉益為則 for biography.
- For Tōdō’s other works see KR3ed096 Ruijuhō and KR3ed100 Hōkyoku.
- 方機 jicheng.tw
- Kanseki DB