Shàng lùn piān 尚論篇
Esteemed-Discourse Chapters by 喻昌 (Yú Chāng, zì Jiāyán 嘉言, 1585–1664, 清)
About the work
喻昌 Yú Chāng’s eight-juan early-Qīng (Shùnzhì 5 = 1648) reconstruction-commentary on the Shānghán lùn — full title Shàng lùn Zhāng Zhòngjǐng Shānghán lùn chóng biān 397 fǎ 尚論張仲景傷寒論重編三百九十七法 (Esteemed Discourse [on] Zhāng Zhòngjǐng’s Shānghán lùn, Reorganized in 397 Methods). The work is the principal early-Qīng “ancient-text-restoration” Shānghán commentary, building directly on 方有執 Fāng Yǒuzhí’s Tiáo biàn (KR3ef015) — so directly that the 林起龍 Lín Qǐlóng 1674 reprint of the Tiáo biàn fiercely accused Yú of plagiarism.
Abstract
The composition date 1648 is given by Yú’s preface. The work re-segments the Shānghán lùn’s 113 prescriptive sections into 397 distinct clinical “methods” (法), each presented with a brief diagnostic header, the relevant canonical text, and Yú’s commentary. The reorganization closely follows the structural principles of Fāng’s Tiáo biàn: restoring an inferred “ancient Chángshā” chapter order, removing the 王叔和 Wáng Shūhé editorial sequence, and challenging 成無己 Chéng Wúyǐ’s annotation. Yú’s distinctive contribution is the systematic doctrinal classification of the 397 methods into a hierarchy of yáng / yīn / inter-channel patterns, with clinical implications.
The plagiarism controversy — first raised by 林起龍 Lín Qǐlóng in 1674 — remains a live scholarly issue. The substance of Lín’s charge is that Yú’s reorganization, terminology, and clinical conclusions follow Fāng’s almost point-by-point, without acknowledgment. Yú’s defenders argue that the work is an independent re-engagement with the Shānghán text using methods Yú learned through different channels. Modern textual scholarship (Mǎ Jìxīng 1991) tends to confirm a substantial debt to Fāng while granting Yú’s independent contribution.
Translations and research
- Mǎ Jìxīng 馬繼興, Shānghán lùn jiào zhù (1991) — handles the Shàng lùn piān / Tiáo biàn relation in detail.
- Hinrichs and Barnes (2013), 145–179.
- Endymion Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §35.7.1.
- No substantial English-language translation located.
Other points of interest
The Lín Qǐlóng-led campaign against Yú’s plagiarism, published as a long postface to the 1674 reprint of Fāng’s Tiáo biàn, is itself a foundational document of late-imperial Shānghán polemic. Yú’s school of disciples (notably 徐忠可 Xú Zhōngkě) responded with the Yī mén fǎlǜ 醫門法律 framing of Yú’s clinical-ethics program, which became more important than the Shāng lùn piān itself in later transmission.
Links
- ctext.org
- See KR3ef027 (Yú Chāng’s continuation Shàng lùn hòu piān).
- See KR3ef015 (Fāng’s Tiáo biàn).
- 尚論篇 jicheng.tw
- Kanseki DB