聞分館君 Ask BunKanKun

校訂願體醫話良方

4 min read

Text ID
KR3ed140
Date
1850–1860
Dynasty
清

Jiàodìng Yuàntǐ Yīhuà Liángfāng 校訂願體醫話良方

Collated Yuàn-tǐ Medical-Talk and Good Formulas original by 史搢臣 (Shǐ Jìnchén); collated and published by 王士雄 (Wáng Mèngyīng) in the early 1850s

About the work

The collated edition of Shǐ Jìnchén’s Yuàntǐ yīhuà 願體醫話 (“Medical-Talk with the Body’s Will”) and accompanying Liángfāng (good-formulas), as edited and published by 王士雄 (Wáng Mèngyīng) in the early 1850s. The work consists of (i) the Yuàntǐ yīhuà, a series of practical clinical-and-pharmacological observations by Shǐ Jìnchén — mostly emergency-rescue and rare-syndrome material — and (ii) appended liángfāng (good-formulas) selected by Shǐ. Wáng’s collation removes one section that Shǐ’s nephew Yú Guìtíng had previously deleted (an yīnzhèng section judged unreliable) and supplements with several jīngyàn fāng (tested formulas) from Wáng’s own clinical experience.

Prefaces

Preface by Wáng Mèngyīng, signed “Wáng Mèngyīng”:

“My maternal-uncle Mr. Yú Guìtíng, though not professionally a physician, loved to read the XuānQí books. After his death, in his yíqiè (left-behind chests) I found one juǎn of Yuàntǐ yīhuà — its passages were all shíyī yàoshí zhī yán (words of the current physicians’ pharmacology), with many jíjiù quánshēng zhī fǎ (life-saving emergency methods). Regretting its brevity and suspecting it was not the complete book, I had stored it away for twenty years.

“The year before last, Xǔ Lǐngsān presented me with the yuángǎo (original manuscript) of Mr. Shǐ Jìnchén [the work’s author]. — Then I learned that it was originally not abridged. My late uncle had only removed one section [on] yīn-syndrome, which was especially perceptive; he added supplementary formulas, also all jīngmiào (refined-and-marvellous).

“The Zhǒuhòu (Pillow-Behind) and Jīfēng (Cock-Peak) [classical-formulary] works are rarely-read by men of the world; when disease comes in haste, the physician’s response is mángrán (blank). In recent times only the Zhǒngfútáng xuǎnfāng 種福堂選方 and the Yǎngshēng jīngyàn 養生經驗 — these two books are most-considered the best editions, circulated through the realm. — This compilation, although concise, has things that supplement what those two have left out. How can I dare keep it secret? — I therefore commit it to the gōngmù zhī gōng (cutting-of-wood craftsman) for public release.

“I recall that earlier in Wùzhōu, my uncle had written instructing me: ‘Whenever a disease is cured, you must keep a sufficient draft-record (dǐgǎo).’ I respected his words and have practised this. By the winter of guǐmǎo [= 1843], my friend Zhōu Guāngyuǎn selected and engraved my [case-records] in two juǎn, called it Huíchūn lù 回春錄. The cases of jiǎchén [= 1844], Zhāng Fēngwēng Xìntáng entitled Rénshù zhì 仁術志. Reaching gēngxū [= 1850] the [supplementary] eight-juǎn compilation. This spring [presumably 1851 or 1852], Yáng Dàlìng Sùyuán once again carefully deleted and edited and added detailed annotation, generously contributing Hèfèng (Crane-Allowance, his official salary), and we combined the printing at the Yíhuáng County Government office, totalling ten juǎn, given the overall title Wángshì yīàn 王氏醫案. — But my uncle is no longer alive to see it.”

Abstract

A precisely-dated early-1850s collation by Wáng Mèngyīng of a transmitted manuscript of Shǐ Jìnchén’s Yuàntǐ yīhuà. The preface is rich in biographical-bibliographic detail. Wáng’s collation is part of his broader late-clinical-career publishing project, which includes the publication of his own clinical case-records (Huíchūn lù 1843, Rénshù zhì 1844, the 8-juǎn expansion of 1850, the 10-juǎn Wángshì yīàn of the early 1850s) and his collation of other people’s jīngyàn literature (KR3ed138, KR3ed139, and the present work).

The work is significant for three reasons:

  1. Transmission preservation: it preserves the Yuàntǐ yīhuà of Shǐ Jìnchén, otherwise transmitted only in incomplete or rare manuscript form. Without Wáng’s collation, much of Shǐ’s yīhuà might have been lost.
  2. Documentation of the Wáng circle: the preface names Xǔ Lǐngsān 許領三 (the donor of the manuscript), Yú Guìtíng 俞桂庭 (Wáng’s maternal uncle, the prior owner), Zhōu Guāngyuǎn 周光遠, Zhāng Fēngwēng 張封翁, and Yáng Sùyuán 楊素園 — a snapshot of the Wáng Mèngyīng professional-publishing network in the post-Tài-píng-rebellion period.
  3. Methodological model: Wáng’s collation method — pairing a transmitted text with critical supplementation from his own clinical experience — is the standard mid-19th-century Wáng-school editorial practice.

Translations and research

  • Wáng Mèngyīng yīxué quánshū 王孟英醫學全書, ed. Shèng Zēngxiù 盛增秀 et al., Beijing: Zhōngguó zhōngyīyào chūbǎnshè, 1999.
  • Marta Hanson, Speaking of Epidemics in Chinese Medicine (Routledge, 2011).

Graph View

Backlinks