Shísì jīng fāhuī 十四經發揮
Elucidation of the Fourteen Channels by 滑壽 Huá Shòu (撰)
About the work
A three-juan Yuán treatise on the fourteen channels (twelve regular + rènmài 任脈 + dūmài 督脈) by 滑壽 Huá Shòu (zì Bórén 伯仁, hào Yīngníngshēng 攖寧生, late-Yuán to early-Míng). The opening preface by 呂復 Lǚ Fù (Yǎngshēngzhǔ 養生主, 1364) of Sìmíng 四明 frames the work programmatically: “the Yellow Emperor’s Língshū has no transmitted commentary, scholars find it diseased; this gentleman of Xǔchāng [= Huá Shòu] composed the Shísì jīng fāhuī, exclusively expounding the hand-and-foot three-yīn three-yáng and the rèn-dū — observing his diagrams, his glosses, the principal threads are clearly raised, the subordinate threads spread out, sufficient as a guide to the entry of scholars, truly a sīnán 司南 [south-pointing compass] of the medical gate.” Huá’s self-preface adds that he was the first to treat rèn and dū alongside the twelve regular channels — making the standard “fourteen-channel” framework that has organized East-Asian acupuncture ever since.
Tiyao
The Sìkù quánshū zǒngmù tíyào (Zǐbù · Yījiā lèi) carries a detailed tiyao for the work, praising Huá for the clarity of his channel-trajectories and for his diagrams, and noting that the work “since its publication has become the most widely-read elementary acupuncture textbook” (世以為入門之要).
Abstract
The Shísì jīng fāhuī is the most influential single Yuán acupuncture treatise and the foundation of the entire late-Yuán to Republican-period acupuncture pedagogy. The “fourteen channels” framework — adding rèn and dū to the twelve regular channels of the Língshū — is Huá Shòu’s organizational innovation and has been the standard since. The work was first printed in 1341 (Zhìzhèng 1) and reprinted multiple times in the Yuán and Míng; it survives in the SKQS recension and in a Yuán Zhìzhèng edition. The composition window 1341–1364 followed here brackets the initial composition (probably finished by 1341) and the formal printing with Lǚ Fù’s preface in 1364. Huá Shòu’s biographical record is in Míngshǐ · Fāngjì.
Translations and research
- Charles Chace & Miáo Jeffres (trans.), Shísì jīng fāhuī: Exposition of the Fourteen Meridians, Brookline: Paradigm Publications, 1994 — full English translation with commentary.
- Catherine Despeux, “Huá Shòu”, in Encyclopedia of Taoism, Routledge, 2008.
- 黄龍祥 Huáng Lóngxiáng, Zhōngguó zhēnjiǔ shǐ tújiàn (2003) — Huá Shòu’s foundational role.
Links
- Sìkù quánshū zǒngmù tíyào, Zǐbù · Yījiā lèi.
- Wikipedia: 十四經發揮
- Wikidata Q11107603
- 十四經發揮 jicheng.tw
- Kanseki DB