Lùzhútáng Jíyàn Fāng 菉竹堂集驗方
Tested Formulas of the Lùzhú Studio by 姚汝循 (Yáo Rǔxún, hào Luófúshānrén 羅浮山人, Tàifù 太傅 [Grand Tutor]; fl. late Wànlì era, Míng); reprint preface 1696 by an unnamed Provincial Commander of Zhè (Zhèjiāng)
About the work
A late-Míng jíyàn (tested-formulas) compendium associated with the Lùzhú Studio 菉竹堂 of the senior late-Míng official Yáo Rǔxún 姚汝循 — better known by his hào Luófúshānrén 羅浮山人 (the catalog’s bare “Luófúshānrén” attribution) and by his Tàifù (Grand Tutor) honorific rank. Yáo was a major Wàn-lì-era court figure famously associated with the anti-mining-eunuch (kāicǎi) memorial movement of the 1590s–1600s; his medical-philological pursuits at the Lùzhútáng were a leisure-time activity but produced this substantial formulary.
Prefaces
Preface for the 1696 (康熙丙子) reprint, signed by the Tídū Zhè-[jiāng] 提督浙[江] (Provincial Commander of Zhèjiāng), in the jú (chrysanthemum) month:
“Of old, jìnshēn (officials) who completed their careers and established their merit, most have books transmitted to later ages — not because they are eagerly-aiming at posthumous-fame. — Rather, what they discoursed-and-practised in retirement, what they advocated-and-proposed in court, what they let their hearts roam through the zhūzǐ hundred-houses — they would compile from time to time. Sons and grandsons preserve the tradition; later good-students-of-deep-thought further set them in order and biǎozhāng (publicly raise-up), so that they are transmitted into the long distance and the book is not cut off.
“Tàifù Yáogōng, hào Luófú, was yīdài zhī wěirén (a great-one of one age). In the Míng Wànlì era, there was the Kāicǎi (mining-opening) affair: at that time the various officials in court well-knew that it brought harm to the people, but none dared raise an opinion. The gentleman alone fèn bùgù shēn (rose-up not-considering-his-body), and remonstrated in kàngshū (strong memorial). He further composed the Kāicǎi shuō (Discussion-of-Opening-Mining) with illustrations, and presented it. The emperor was greatly moved, and the affair was then halted. — Because of this, the gentleman’s zhíshēng (upright-name) shook the world. And his illustrations-and-discussion were thereupon cut into woodblocks for circulation. I had long privately admired him.
“Later, taking charge of education in the two Zhè [Zhèdōng and Zhèxī = Zhèjiāng], I wished to obtain his túshuō (illustrations-and-discussion) to view — but I could not promptly jùgòu (encounter-them) to fulfil my long-held wish. — But I saw the gentleman’s other work, the Lùzhútáng yīfāng 菉竹堂醫方. I said: ‘Is this not the gentleman’s yóuxīn zhūzǐ bǎijiā and shǒudìng book? — By it dispelling disease and saving lives, this is still in the way of jiùshí (saving-the-times). To read the book is to see his heart.’ Were I able to press his illustrations and detail his discussion, by which to view his jiànbái (memorial-presentations) and verify what he ordinarily practised — that would still console my private admiration. How not so?”
The preface is signed simply Tídū Zhè-[jiāng] in the júyuè (chrysanthemum month = 9th lunar month) of Kāngxī bǐngzǐ 康熙丙子 = 1696.
Abstract
A Míng-era clinical formulary by Yáo Rǔxún 姚汝循 (hào Luófúshānrén, Tàifù), one of the most distinguished Wàn-lì-period official-scholars. Yáo’s principal political-historical claim to fame is the anti-mining-eunuch memorial of the 1590s — when the Wànlì emperor’s despatch of eunuch tax-officials to open new mines was crippling local populations, Yáo’s strong memorial and accompanying Kāicǎi shuō tú (Illustrated Discussion of Mining-Opening) reportedly moved the emperor to halt the policy. The Lùzhútáng yīfāng (here in the form Lùzhútáng jíyàn fāng) is Yáo’s medical-leisure compilation from the same period of his career.
The 1696 reprint by the unnamed Provincial Commander of Zhèjiāng, signing the preface as he serves in office at the two-Zhè (= Zhèjiāng) prefectures, brings the work into the early-Qīng popular-pharmacy circulation. The preface-writer’s interest is partly political-moral (admiration for Yáo’s Míng-loyalist career as an upright-anti-eunuch official) and partly practical (the formulary’s clinical content). The reprint reflects the early-Qīng moral-political rehabilitation of late-Míng anti-eunuch officials, with their writings being recovered and reprinted as part of the Qīng’s broader Míng-loyalist commemoration culture of the Kāngxī era.
The work is preserved in late-Míng and early-Qīng woodblock editions; modern annotated editions are in the Zhōngyī gǔjí míngzhù cóngshū.
Translations and research
- For Yáo Rǔxún’s political career see Míngshǐ 235 and Wànlì-era shílù records.
- Lùzhútáng jíyàn fāng in modern annotated edition: in the Zhōngyī gǔjí míngzhù cóngshū.
Other points of interest
The preface’s framing — that a jūnzǐ of merit completed-and-established necessarily leaves writings, that the medical-leisure compilation is a window into the zhōngxīn (loyal-heart) of the upright official — is a characteristically Confucian-classical mid-Qīng reception of late-Míng clinical writing. This is not the popular-pharmacy framing of KR3ed108 Yànfāng xīn biān or KR3ed125 Chūnjiǎo jí: this is the literati-Confucian framing of medical writing as a complement to political-moral integrity.
Links
- See 姚汝循 (= Luófúshānrén) for biographical and political-historical record.
- 菉竹堂集驗方 (jicheng.tw)
- Kanseki DB