Jīnguì yào lüè fāng lùn 金匱要略方論
Treatise on Essential Prescriptions from the Golden Casket by 張機 (Zhāng Jī / Zhòngjǐng 仲景, fl. Jiàn’ān period, late Hàn), compiled by 王叔和 (Wáng Shūhé), edited under the Sòng校正醫書局 collation
About the work
The Jīnguì yào lüè fāng lùn 金匱要略方論 is one of the two principal surviving recensions of the Hàn-period clinical canon, the Shānghán zábìng lùn 傷寒雜病論 attributed to 張機 Zhāng Zhòngjǐng (張仲景). Where the Shānghán lùn 傷寒論 (KR3ef001 and parallels) covers shānghán 傷寒 (cold-damage / acute-febrile-illness) syndromes organized by six-conformation 六經, the Jīnguì yào lüè covers zá bìng 雜病 — miscellaneous (chronic, internal, gynaecological, etc.) disorders — organized by syndrome category. Together the two recensions constitute the foundation of the entire East Asian clinical-medicine tradition.
Abstract
The conventional dating to the late Hàn (Jiàn’ān 建安 era, ca. 196–220 CE) rests on Zhāng’s preface to the Shānghán zábìng lùn — the earliest extant first-person preface to a Chinese medical work — describing the loss of two-thirds of his own clan to epidemic disease in the Jiàn’ān decade. The historicity of Zhāng himself is unevenly attested: Hàn-period sources do not record him, and the attribution as Chángshā Tàishǒu 長沙太守 (Grand Protector of Chángshā) is first found in the Tàipíng yù lǎn 太平御覽 (10th c.) on a Liáng-period source.
The transmitted Jīnguì yào lüè was recovered from a discarded “chóng zhōng” 蟲冢 (worm-eaten manuscript) by the Northern-Sòng Jiàozhèng Yīshū jú 校正醫書局 (Imperial Office for the Collation of Medical Books) around Zhìpíng 治平 ca. 1066, in a fragmentary state — 林億 Lín Yì and the Sòng校正 staff compiled the surviving fragments into the received 3-juan / 25-piān structure. The Sòng校正 edition is the basis of all subsequent transmissions: it covers some 60 zá bìng syndrome-categories (痙濕暍, 中風歷節, 血痺虛勞, 肺痿肺癰, 奔豚氣, 胸痺心痛短氣, 腹滿寒疝宿食, 五臟風寒, 痰飲, 消渴小便不利, 水氣, 黃疸, 驚悸吐血, 嘔吐噦下利, 婦人妊娠, 婦人雜病…) with their canonical prescriptions.
The work is one of the absolutely foundational texts of Chinese-medicine practice. Together with the Shānghán lùn it constitutes the basis for the “jīng fāng” 經方 (canonical-prescription) tradition that runs through 王叔和 Wáng Shūhé, 孫思邈 Sūn Sīmiǎo, 林億 Lín Yì, 成無己 Chéng Wúyǐ, the Jīn–Yuán masters, the Edo kohō-ha, and into the modern Chinese-medicine clinical tradition.
The catalog meta gives author 張機 漢; the work is canonical and the attribution (in the conventional sense — i.e., as a work transmitted in Zhāng’s name, whatever its actual textual history may be) is universally accepted.
Translations and research
- English translations: Sabine Wilms, Twelve Characters: A Transmission of Wang Fengyi’s Teachings and several other partial translations; Mitchell, Féng Yè, Shang Han Lun: On Cold Damage, Translation and Commentaries (Paradigm, 1999) — focused on Shānghán lùn, with extensive Jīnguì references. Paradigm Publications has published Jīnguì yào lüè translations under various titles.
- 王叔和 Wáng Shūhé and 林億 Lín Yì collation work — see Lin Yi’s preface.
- Hinrichs and Barnes (2013), 67ff — on the Hàn-period medical canon and the Sòng校正醫書局 reconstruction.
- The standard modern Chinese critical edition: Hé Rén 何任 et al., Jīnguì yào lüè jiào zhù (人民衛生出版社, 1990).
- Mǎ Jìxīng 馬繼興, Zhōngyī wénxiàn xué (1990) — substantive textual history.
Other points of interest
The Jīnguì yào lüè is the principal canonical reference for chronic / miscellaneous disorders in Chinese medicine and has generated a commentary tradition almost as voluminous as the Shānghán lùn’s — including the Qīng works of 周揚俊 Zhōu Yángjùn, 尤怡 Yóu Yí, 徐彬 Xú Bīn, 李彣 Lǐ Wén, 黃元御 Huáng Yuányù, 陳念祖 Chén Niànzǔ, and 魏荔彤 Wèi Lìtóng catalogued in this division (KR3ef083–KR3ef091).
The Sòng校正 reconstruction is famous: the manuscript was discovered in a worm-eaten state and Lín Yì’s team had to reconstruct the work from internal evidence. The result is acknowledged to be partial (covering only the zá bìng portion plus some Shānghán overlap), the Shānghán portion being assumed to be more fully transmitted in the parallel Shānghán lùn recension.
Links
- See KR3ef001 (parallel Shānghán lùn).
- See KR3ef080 (the parallel Jīnguì yùhán jīng recension).
- See KR3ef083–KR3ef092 (the major Qīng commentaries on this text).
- 金匱要略方論 jicheng.tw
- Kanseki DB