Huìzhítáng Jīngyàn Fāng 惠直堂經驗方
Tested Formulas of the Huìzhí Studio compiled by 陶承熹 (Táo Chéngxī) and 王承勳 (Wáng Chéngxūn), fl. late 18th – early 19th c., Qīng
About the work
A mid-Qīng jīngyàn fāng (tested-formulas) collection associated with the Huìzhí studio 惠直堂 (“Studio of the Direct Benefactor”) — apparently a JiāngNán clinical practice or publishing house. The compilation comprises 4 juǎn of approximately several hundred prescriptions, organised by clinical category: Tōngzhì mén 通治門 (general-treatment formulas), Nèikē (internal medicine), Wàikē (external/surgical), gynaecology, paediatrics, and an appended emergency section (Fù jíjiù mén 附急救門).
The opening recipes are the standard late-Imperial multi-purpose master-formulas: the Zǐjīn dǐng 紫金錠 (also called Yùshū dān — the “Jade-Pivot Elixir,” a famous SòngYuán anti-toxin and rescue formula incorporating dāngménzǐ (musk), shāncígū, dàjǐ etc.); the Wèishēng bǎodān 衛生寶丹 (Healing-and-Treasure Elixir), with the same therapeutic indications as the Yùshū but with added animal substances (musk, xīniúhuáng, pearl, amber); the Pútí wán 菩提丸 (Bodhi Pill), a multi-ingredient qì-and-spleen formula for general internal disturbances. These flagship preparations are presented with extraordinary lists of indications (a hundred-plus syndromes apiece) and detailed instructions for yǐnjiǔ / yǐntāng (drug-vehicle for administration) selection depending on the condition.
Prefaces
The KR source KR3ed115 lacks a separate front-matter file; the digital text begins directly with juǎn 1 Tōngzhì mén. The standard Qīng woodblock editions normally carry compiler-prefaces by Táo and Wáng (one or both) that are not preserved in the KR deposit.
Abstract
A mid-Qīng popular-clinical formulary of substantial scope and circulation, but with sparse direct documentation in the catalogues. The two named compilers, Táo Chéngxī 陶承熹 and Wáng Chéngxūn 王承勳, are not securely identified in CBDB or the standard Qīng biographical dictionaries; the work’s title-line credits the two as co-compilers, suggesting a Huìzhítáng clinic in which both worked. The dating depends on the absence of preface evidence in the KR text; the Wèishēng bǎodān recipe, identical in structure to formulas in Yī fāng jí jiě (1682) but with extra ingredients, places the work in the post-1700 popular-master-formulary tradition that began with Wāng Áng’s Yīfāng jí jiě. The work is conventionally dated to the mid-eighteenth to early-nineteenth century.
The work’s principal contribution is its careful documentation of the drug-vehicle / dose-modifier system for multi-purpose master formulas: the same Zǐjīn dǐng tablet is taken in cold mint-broth for yīnyáng èrdú shānghán (yin-yang two-poison cold-damage), in fermented-wine for ulcerated yángméi (syphilis), in shēngjiāng and xùduàn wine for hanging-rescue, and so on — a single tablet with two dozen distinct administration protocols. This yǐnzǐ (drug-vehicle) doctrine is one of the principal Qīng formulary innovations.
The work was widely reprinted through the late Qīng; modern critical editions are available in the Zhōngyī fāngshū jīngdiǎn collections.
Translations and research
No substantial secondary literature located. Brief notice in the Zhōngguó zhōngyī gǔjí zǒngmù 中國中醫古籍總目 (Beijing, 2007).
Other points of interest
The Zǐjīn dǐng (Yùshū dān) is one of the most-cited rescue-formulas in the late-Imperial Chinese pharmacopoeia, with attested clinical use from the late Sòng through the early twentieth century. The Huìzhítáng jīngyàn fāng preserves the recipe with substantial pharmacological discussion of the constituent substances’ procurement (Zhèjiāng zǐ dàjǐ preferred over Jiāngnán sources; northern mián dàjǐ explicitly to be avoided) — useful Qīng-period evidence for the regional pharmacy trade.
Links
- See 陶承熹 and 王承勳.
- Cognate Qīng formularies: KR3ed092 Chéngfāng biàn dú (Wǔjìn pedagogical line), KR3ed112 Jīngyàn dānfāng huìbiān (Húzhōu).
- 惠直堂經驗方 (jicheng.tw)
- Kanseki DB