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Text ID
KR3ed120
Date
1789–1789
Dynasty
清

Huíshēng Jí 回生集

Collection on Restoring Life by 陳杰 (Chén Jié, hào Lètiānsǒu 樂天叟; Gǔběi 古北, Qīng); printed at the Dǔzhōngtáng 篤忠堂 of Yúnjiān 云間 (Sōngjiāng, Jiāngsū) in 1789

About the work

A late Qiánlóng-era planchette-formulary (jīfāng 乩方) of approximately 400 prescriptions claimed to have been transmitted through fújī (planchette spirit-writing) by the patriarch-immortal Gě Xiānwēng 葛仙翁 (= Gě Xuán 葛玄, 164–244 CE, the third-century Daoist patriarch and uncle of Gě Hóng) and verified by the compiler. The work is in 2 juǎn, divided into Nèizhèng mén 內症門 (internal-syndrome) and Wàizhèng mén 外症門 (external-syndrome), with the planchette-immortal “Patriarch Lǚ” 呂祖師 contributing prominently in the opening section (his Tiěguǎizhàng fāng 鐵柺杖方, “Iron-Crutch Cane Recipe” — a Tiānméndōng / Shúdì / fúlíng preparation for general consumption).

Prefaces

Original Preface (yuánxù) by Chén Jié himself, in the voice of Lètiānsǒu of Gǔběi, written at the Dǔzhōngtáng official residence at Yúnjiān, Qiánlóng jǐyǒu = 1789, mèngxià yuè zhōnghuàn (first month of summer, middle decade).

“From ancient times, the excellent prescriptions mostly come from immortal-transmission — like the Qiānjīn and similar formularies, the most-famous are examples of this. — I had long suffered phlegmatic ailment and later also chronic cold pain in my left knee; for twenty years I had repeatedly sought treatment without recovery.

“In the wùshēn year [= 1788] I respectfully established a planchette-altar and sought treatment from the patriarch Gě Xiānwēng. The planchette descended its words: ‘This knee-pain is caused by accumulated phlegm.’ I was favoured to receive his prescription — and the old illness was immediately cured. Whenever any of my household had a complaint thereafter, I would respectfully petition for the divine formula — and never was the response otherwise than immediate.

“However, the patriarch treats only the patient who is presented; thus the planchette-formulas I had received I had not dared to circulate broadly. — I therefore vowed to seek out the tested-and-effective good formulas in the world, whether already printed or not yet printed, and to publish them together. Yet I still feared that among the established formulas there might be some that worked only once and might not serve as a permanent standard. — I therefore respectfully petitioned the patriarch to select them. Some 400-plus formulas were obtained, and his planchette-note descended: ‘I have a single mind to save the world; therefore, whenever there is a request, I borrow the planchette-and-luán to teach. — You now have established formulas ready, asking me to make a selection — I too rejoice in it. But disease has xū / shí / hán / rè (deficiency, excess, cold, heat), and drugs have wēn / liáng / bǔ / fá (warming, cooling, tonifying, attacking). Xū must be tonified-and-warmed, shí must be drained-and-dispersed. — If the symptom is not seen clearly and the drug is misadministered, the harm is no light matter. Now I have selected those that must surely hit the mark to be used — none will fail to work.’ This book may therefore be named the Huíshēng jí.”

Second Preface for the 1837 reprint, by the editor of that edition (Zhōu Cǎixuān 周採軒, of Nányángjiē 南陽街, the year dīngyǒu 1837 xiāngshì / provincial-examination season).

“In the dīngyǒu year I lodged at Nányángjiē for the provincial examinations; it happened that Zhōu Cǎixuān was bringing out a new edition of the Huíshēng jí of Chén Lètiānsǒu. Because he knew I had a little knowledge of medicine, he asked me for a preface. I took the original preface and read it through. It is what is called shéndào shèjiào (the divine way’s establishment of teaching). What is to be taken from it is just these two phrases: jīngyàn (tested-by-experience) and jìshì (saving-the-world).”

Abstract

A precisely-dated 1789 planchette-formulary by Chén Jié (hào Lètiānsǒu) of Gǔběi 古北, working at his Dǔzhōngtáng official residence in Yúnjiān 云間 (Sōngjiāng prefecture, southern Jiāngsū). The work is one of the principal Qiánlóng-era specimens of the planchette-formulary genre, alongside the slightly later KR3ed110 Shénxiān jǐshì liángfāng of 1796–1797. The patriarch-immortal Gě Xiánwēng (Gě Xuán) is the principal source of authorisation — appropriate to his historical role as a third-century Daoist patriarch of the Jiāngnán region.

The work’s special interest is in the interplay between received-pharmaceutical authority and planchette-revelation: Chén explicitly states that he gathered prescriptions from existing print-formularies and submitted them to the planchette-patriarch for selection-and-approval — a Daoist-revelatory authentication procedure layered on top of the standard jīngyàn (proven-by-experience) criterion. This represents a sophisticated and self-conscious double-validation methodology (textual + revelatory) that is unusual in the late-Imperial popular-pharmacology genre.

The 1837 reprint with the second preface signals continued circulation of the work into the mid-nineteenth century. The 1837 preface-writer’s gentle ironic distance from the shéndào shèjiào (“divine way’s establishment of teaching”) frame — taking only the jīngyàn and jìshì dimensions as substantive — is itself a datum on the late-Qīng intellectual reception of planchette-medicine: the genre’s social authority persisted, but the literati class increasingly received it as a moral-pedagogic frame for substantively-orthodox material.

Translations and research

  • Huíshēng jí, modern punctuated edition: in the Zhōngyī gǔjí míngzhù cóngshū series.
  • For the fújī / planchette-religion context: Paul Katz, Religion in China and Its Modern Fate (Brandeis, 2014); David Palmer and Liu Xun, Daoism in the Twentieth Century (UCP, 2012).

Other points of interest

The 1837 reprint-preface’s quietly-critical attitude — accepting the jīngyàn and jìshì content while bracketing the shéndào shèjiào frame — is one of the better Qīng documentary glimpses of the literati distance from planchette-religion: even within a tradition that nominally accepts planchette-authority, the Yǐzōng jīnjiàn imperially-published reference (cited by name in the 1837 preface for its Tiānwáng bǔxīn dān recipe) is taken as the canonical authority, with the planchette-source treated as confirming-rather-than-authorising.

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