Jīnguì yào lüè fāng lùn běn yì 金匱要略方論本義
The Original Meaning of the Treatise on Essential Prescriptions from the Golden Casket by 魏荔彤 (Wèi Lìtóng, zì Niàntíng 念庭, fl. 1720s, 清)
About the work
A twenty-two-juan early-eighteenth-century commentary on the Jīnguì yào lüè by 魏荔彤 Wèi Lìtóng (字 Niàntíng 念庭), the Yōngzhèng-period official-philologist of Bǎixiāng 柏鄉 (Héběi) better known for his fifteen-juan Dà Yì tōng jiě 大易通解 (KR1a0136). The work belongs to the “běn yì” 本義 (“original meaning”) commentarial genre, characteristic of the eighteenth-century kǎo zhèng 考證 tradition: a clause-by-clause exegesis aimed at recovering the canonical text’s authorial intent against the accumulated commentarial overlay.
Abstract
The Kanripo source file is effectively empty (header only) — body content has not been digitized into the jicheng.tw edition Kanripo carries. The work is bibliographically attested as one of Wèi’s two major medical commentaries (alongside the parallel Shānghán lùn běn yì) and is one of the principal early-eighteenth-century Jīnguì commentaries. Composition window 1720–1725 is bracketed by Wèi’s productive post-removal period (after his removal from the Daotai office) and the conventional dating of his medical writings.
The “běn yì” form — clause-by-clause exegesis aimed at the canonical author’s intent — was pioneered for the Confucian classics by 朱熹 Zhū Xī in his Shī jí zhuàn 詩集傳 and Zhōuyì běn yì 周易本義, and extended to medical canonical texts in the early Qīng by figures including Wèi and his contemporary 尤怡 (Yóu Yí). The genre’s methodological commitment — to recover canonical meaning by close reading rather than by accumulated commentary — places Wèi’s work in the philological mainstream of mid-Qīng kǎo zhèng scholarship.
The work was a major source for the editors of the Yī zōng jīn jiàn 醫宗金鑑 (KR3ef086), who cite Wèi’s Jīnguì běn yì as one of the principal authorities for their Dìng zhèng Jīnguì yào lüè zhù 訂正金匱要略註.
The Kanripo jicheng.tw edition is a stub. For the actual text content, see modern reprintings of Wèi’s medical works.
Translations and research
- No comprehensive English-language translation located.
- The work is cited in standard Chinese-language Jīnguì scholarship and in surveys of mid-Qīng kǎo zhèng medical scholarship.
Other points of interest
The Kanripo source file is essentially empty — body content was not digitized into the jicheng.tw base edition. Researchers needing the actual text should consult modern reprintings.
The combination of Yìjīng philology (the Dà Yì tōng jiě) and medical philology (the Jīnguì and Shānghán běn yì commentaries) in Wèi’s oeuvre is characteristic of the mid-Qīng kǎo zhèng movement, which treated medical and ritual canons as continuous with the principal Confucian-classical texts in respect of philological method.
Links
- See KR3ef079 (parent Jīnguì yào lüè).
- See KR1a0136 (Wèi’s parallel Dà Yì tōng jiě).
- 金匱要略方論本義 jicheng.tw
- Kanseki DB