Jīngyàn Xuǎnmì 經驗選秘
Selected Secret Tested Formulas by 胡增彬 (Hú Zēngbīn, zì Qiānbó 謙伯 = the “Qiānpò” of the preface; fl. 1870s, late Qīng; Liángān 梁安)
About the work
A late-Qīng clinical-pharmacology compendium by Hú Zēngbīn — the same Huīzhōu literatus who collated and published Zōu Cúngàn’s Wàizhì shòushì fāng in 1877 (KR3ed118). The Jīngyàn xuǎnmì is in 6 juǎn and represents Hú’s own clinical-research compilation, distinct from his collation work for Zōu. The title’s two-key-words — xuǎn (selection) and mì (secret/treasured) — signal Hú’s editorial criterion: he selects from a wide pool only those formulas judged especially reliable, and includes those that have circulated as mìfāng (secret formulas) within particular medical-house traditions.
Prefaces
Postface (bá) for the Jīngyàn xuǎnmì, dated gēngwǔ (= 1870):
“The ancients had a saying: ‘Life’s advantage to me is great indeed.’ But the zhìshēng (governing-of-life) takes not-harming as its foundation; the yǎngshēng (nourishing-of-life) takes medicine-and-medicaments as primary. — Of the words of the medical houses, from the Sùwèn and Língshū on downward, cart-loads sweating-cattle, beyond all telling. But those who read them do not necessarily fully understand them; those who understand them do not necessarily fully grasp their àozhǐ (profound essentials) — the Way of medicine is difficult to speak indeed. And yet those of three-fold-broken-forearm experience — the shénmíng biànhuà (spirit-and-luminosity transformative-and-changing), the miàoshù shēngrén (subtle-art life-saving) — even with grass-roots and tree-skins of the meanest sort, used once and as luminous-and-penetrating to the heart-and-spleen, like a xiǎngsī yìng (sound-and-echo response). It seems again as if it is without sufficient difficulty. So the proverb says: ‘The physician is intention’ (yīzhě yì yě); once one has obtained the intention, there is nothing impassable.
“Mr. Hú Qiānpò of Liángān has been a fervent niànqiè dòngzhòng (deeply-pitying-the-multitude); he has often set his heart on this matter. In the gēngwǔ year [= 1870], he showed me a manuscript, titled at its head Jīngyàn xuǎnmì — these are the good formulas he had compiled. Our task is to take lìjì (benefit-and-help) as the heart-thought. To keep it secret to benefit oneself — is that not less than to make it public for ten-thousand generations and benefit men? People all know to consult it. — Press the syndrome to test the formula: clear to the heart-and-eye. This is like gathering thousands-of-hundreds of good physicians in one hall and applying their life-saving art. Mr. Hú’s contribution is not far away, and is also great indeed!
“Of old, Bāopǔzǐ’s Zhǒuhòu bèijí fāng has formulas but no discussions; Sūn Zhēnrén’s Qiānjīn yàofāng in turn is widened to over ninety juǎn — making people’s eyes pass over five colours, and the reader is unable-to-avoid being injured by its bulk. — Now what the gentleman has compiled has some that are simple-and-convenient, some that detailedly-narrate the disease-source, some that expound the formula’s intention …”
Abstract
A precisely-dated 1870 clinical-pharmacology compendium by Hú Zēngbīn 胡增彬 (zì Qiānbó 謙伯, the preface-signature Qiānpò 謙怕 being a graphic variant) of Liángān 梁安 (a township in the Huīzhōu / Xīnān 新安 area, modern Shèxiàn 歙縣, Anhui). The work is Hú’s principal independent contribution to the late-Qīng popular-pharmacology literature, distinct from his 1877 collation of Zōu Cúngàn’s Wàizhì shòushì fāng (KR3ed118).
The work’s editorial principle — xuǎn (selection) combined with mì (treasured/secret) — represents the curated mid-Qīng popular-pharmacy tradition’s approach to the overwhelming inheritance of Chinese clinical literature. The postface explicitly contrasts the work with Gě Hóng’s Zhǒuhòu (formulas without discussion) and Sūn Sīmiǎo’s Qiānjīn yàofāng (90+ juǎn, “eyes-pass-over-five-colours”); Hú occupies a middle position — selective and discussed — between minimal-formula and encyclopedic compendia.
The Huīzhōu / Xīnān 新安 location is significant: this is one of the principal late-Imperial / early-modern Chinese medical-heritage regions, and Hú’s work belongs to the broader Xīnān 醫派 (Xīnān medical school) tradition of mid-to-late-Qīng popular pharmacology.
Translations and research
No substantial secondary literature located. The work is briefly catalogued in the Zhōngguó zhōngyī gǔjí zǒngmù (2007).
Links
- See 胡增彬.
- Companion work (Hú as collator): KR3ed118 Wàizhì shòushì fāng.
- 經驗選秘 (jicheng.tw)
- Kanseki DB