Jǐshì Zhēnbǎo 濟世珍寶
A Treasured Compilation for Saving the World compiled by 王永 (Wáng Yǒng, fl. mid-late Míng); with an appended Guǎngsì yàoyǔ 廣嗣要語 by 俞橋 (Yú Qiáo, zì Sùhuízǐ 溯洄子, mid-Míng)
About the work
A mid-to-late Míng popular-clinical formulary with an unusually substantive appendix on descendant-producing methods (guǎngsì 廣嗣, “extending posterity”). The principal work is Wáng Yǒng’s compilation of jīngyàn prescriptions arranged by clinical category. The appendix — Yú Qiáo’s Guǎngsì yàoyǔ — is a treatise on fertility methodology combining Daoist nèidān (inner-alchemy) doctrine with practical clinical-prescription material; it became one of the most-cited mid-Míng works on the zǐsì (heir-producing) topic.
Prefaces
The KR source KR3ed126_000.txt opens with the Original Preface of Guǎngsì yàoyǔ by Yú Qiáo (zì Sùhuízǐ 溯洄子):
“The way of yīn-and-yáng: when followed, it produces Qián (heaven); when reversed, it produces Kūn (earth). When extended and made complete, the heavenly mechanism’s secret is exhausted.
“In my early years I had the good fortune to meet an extraordinary man who taught me the great Dào. — Thirty years have passed like a flowing stream, and yet I have not personally verified its covenant. Now: the forward cultivation (shùn xiū) — Qián above and Kūn below, by means of the formed exchanging with the formless, woman bearing-child — is the way of man. The reverse cultivation (nì xiū) — earth above and heaven below, by means of the formless exchanging with the formless. — Now the forward, with its forms, is the hòutiān tàijí qì (the qì of the Posterior Great Pole). The reverse, with its absence-of-substance, is the xiāntiān tàishǐ qì (the qì of the Prior Great Beginning).
“The forward is limited, the reverse is limitless. The forward has form, hence has destruction; the reverse has no substance, hence has no defeat. — Therefore the Perfected One withdraws yīn and advances yáng, casts off the exists and follows the nothings, abandons the rivers-and-lakes’ drowning-tides and turns back upstream to the jīnshuǐ (metal-and-water) pure-first qì. The Dào in the palm — and the ghosts-and-spirits cannot peep into it; the body in the cage — yet life-and-death cannot weigh him down. The Dào of man is in truth near; how could the Dào of immortals be far? — But the wise pass beyond it; the foolish do not reach it. Without the inherited transmission, one cannot arrive at the subtle meaning.
“Now in my late years I used the forward-cultivation method, and gained three sons. I do not dare keep this private; therefore I have composed the Guǎngsì yàoyǔ, slightly pointing out the way through the lost paths.
“Recently several printed editions with formulas attached have circulated: the Jǐnyī Wànjūn Lùyuán edition is one; the Zhōushǒu Liújūn Zhònghéng edition is another. — Regretting that their circulation has been limited, I have donated a small salary to commission new woodblocks for wider distribution.”
Abstract
The work is a Míng popular-pharmacy compilation of which the principal interest is the appendix, Yú Qiáo’s Guǎngsì yàoyǔ. Yú Qiáo (zì Sùhuízǐ 溯洄子, mid-Míng) was a Daoist-affiliated literatus-physician active in the mid-sixteenth century who combined inner-alchemy doctrine with practical clinical practice on infertility. His preface explicitly invokes the Daoist shùnnì (forward-and-reverse) cultivation distinction: forward cultivation produces children (the “human way”), reverse cultivation produces personal immortality (the “immortal way”). Yú declares that he himself, in late life, employed the forward method and successfully produced three sons — this autobiographical anchor frames the entire treatise as technically-tested fertility advice from a Daoist adept.
The work mentions two earlier editions that incorporated Yú’s text with appended formulas: a Jǐnyī Wànjūn Lùyuán edition (= Wàn Lùyuán, a Brocade-Robed-Guard officer) and a Zhōushǒu Liújūn Zhònghéng edition (= Liú Zhònghéng, a District Magistrate). These edition-traces help fix the work’s circulation history: by Yú’s own publication, two earlier independent printings had occurred. Wáng Yǒng’s Jǐshì zhēnbǎo incorporates Guǎngsì yàoyǔ as an appendix and gives it broader circulation in the late-Míng popular-pharmacy print trade.
The compiler Wáng Yǒng is not securely identified beyond the catalog’s bare attribution; he was a Míng literatus who assembled the main body of jīngyàn prescriptions and chose to append Yú’s Guǎngsì yàoyǔ — presumably because of the work’s contemporaneous popularity. The dating is conventionally mid-to-late sixteenth century.
Translations and research
- Guǎngsì yàoyǔ 廣嗣要語 in modern annotated edition: in the Zhōngyī gǔjí míngzhù cóngshū series.
- Charlotte Furth, A Flourishing Yin: Gender in China’s Medical History, 960–1665 (UC Press, 1999) — sustained treatment of Míng guǎng-sì literature and its Daoist-inner-alchemy framing.
- Bray, Francesca. Technology and Gender: Fabrics of Power in Late Imperial China (UC Press, 1997) — for the broader reproduction-medicine context.
Other points of interest
The Guǎngsì yàoyǔ’s framing — Daoist inner-alchemy theory applied to practical fertility prescribing — is one of the most interesting fusions of theoretical and clinical-pharmacological knowledge in Míng popular medicine. The work’s appearance as an appendix to a more conventional formulary (Wáng Yǒng’s Jǐshì zhēnbǎo) testifies to the late-Míng marketability of inner-alchemy-flavored clinical writing in the popular print trade.
Links
- See 王永 and 俞橋.
- 濟世珍寶 (jicheng.tw)
- Kanseki DB