Pūxī Mìchuán Jiǎnyàn Fāng 䱐溪秘傳簡驗方
Pū Stream’s Secret-Transmission Simple-Tested Formulas by 陸錦燧 (Lù Jǐnsuì, zì Jìnshēng 晉笙, fl. 1900s–1920s, early Republican period; Wújùn 吳郡 [Sūzhōu])
About the work
An early-Republican-era combined edition of single-drug formulas (dānfāng) and external-treatment formulas (wàizhì fāng), assembled by Lù Jǐnsuì 陸錦燧 of Wújùn (Sūzhōu) at his Pūxī 䱐溪 (“Pū Stream”) studio. The work is a careful selection from a wide variety of sources — the Qiānjīn yàofāng, the Tàipíng shènghuì fāng, later medical compilations, and oral transmission from contemporaries — with explicit attention to the selection criteria that govern inclusion or exclusion. Lù brings the work to print through a subscription scheme funded by his colleagues Zhuāng Xīnrú 莊心如 and Liú Jiàntáng 劉建堂 via the fāshòu yùyuēquàn (pre-subscription voucher) system characteristic of early-Republican popular-publishing.
Prefaces
Original Preface (xù) by Lù Jǐnsuì:
“Of the ancient and modern dānfāng (single-drug formulas) and wàizhì fāng (external-treatment formulas), how many thousand-and-myriads are there? In the several decades I — Pú (the menial ‘I’) — have been [practising], from the Qiānjīn and Shènghuì at the top, down to the recordings of later physicians, and what I have obtained orally from friends, I have continually selected: removing those that are not very efficacious; removing those whose drug-substances are lěngpì (cold-rare / hard to obtain); removing those whose drug-substances are guìzhòng (valuable-heavy / momentarily unobtainable); removing those whose drug-substances are jùnlì (powerful-fierce / though effective have side-effects); removing those whose drug-natures are tàipiān (too-extreme / which a non-physician applying-by-mistake could harm). I have compiled them by class.
“Large: tiáolǐ qiúsì bǔyǎng yánnián (regulating-organising, seeking-progeny, supplementing-nourishing, prolonging-years). Small: chóngzhě huǒtàng wùcì shígěng (insect-sting, fire-burn, object-prick, food-stuck). Urgent: bàozhòng duǎnjiàn yùsuì zhòngdú (sudden-stroke, suicidal-tendency, meeting-with-demons, drug-poison). Slow: jiǔlì yīnnüè xūláo gùzhèng (chronic dysentery, yīn-malaria, deficiency-exhaustion, chronic-syndrome). Almost no disease unprepared-for, and the drug is always efficacious.
“My colleagues seeing this thought it: for poor villages, remote countryside, travelling-and-lodging-as-guest one should obtain this one compilation — better than misguidedly summoning a quack physician. They urged me to commit it to woodblocks. — Only: it would require considerable funds, and single-strength is difficult to support. So I have consulted with Mr. Zhuāng Xīnrú and Mr. Liú Jiàntáng, issued pre-subscription vouchers (shòu yùyuēquàn) — jízī (collected funds) — and committed it to shíyìn (lithographic printing). All agreed, and once the book was complete I have xù (prefaced) its origin in this way.
“Suìcì wùwǔ jìchūn (year-cycle wùwǔ early-spring) = early spring of 1918, Wújùn Jìnshēng Lù Jǐnsuì xù.”
Abstract
A precisely-dated early spring 1918 combined edition of dānfāng and wàizhì fāng by Lù Jǐnsuì 陸錦燧 (zì Jìnshēng 晉笙) of Sūzhōu (Wújùn). The work is an early-Republican specimen of the late-Imperial jīngyàn fāng tradition (cf. especially KR3ed138–KR3ed140 of Wáng Mèngyīng), updated to:
- Lithographic printing technology (shíyìn 石印) rather than woodblock — characteristic of early-Republican publishing economy.
- Pre-subscription voucher funding (yùyuēquàn 預約券) — a modern publishing-finance mechanism.
- Explicit selection-criteria systematically articulated in the preface: removal of (a) low-efficacy formulas, (b) hard-to-procure ingredients, (c) expensive ingredients, (d) effective-but-side-effect-prone ingredients, (e) extreme-natured ingredients dangerous in lay use.
The preface’s five-fold exclusion principle is one of the clearest articulations of editorial criterion for late-Imperial / early-Republican popular pharmacology. It places clinical efficacy in a multi-dimensional optimisation that explicitly considers cost, accessibility, safety, and ease-of-use for the non-professional user — a recognisably modern approach to formulary curation.
The Pūxī 䱐溪 (“Pū Stream”) studio name uses a less-common character (䱐, pronounced pū, possibly a fish-related variant); its exact location in Sūzhōu is not securely identified.
Translations and research
No substantial secondary literature located. The work is briefly catalogued in the Zhōngguó zhōngyī gǔjí zǒngmù (2007).