Jīnguì yào lüè qiǎn zhù 金匱要略淺註
Accessible Annotation of the Jīnguì yào lüè by 陳念祖 (Chén Niànzǔ / Chén Xiūyuán, 1753–1823, 清), with companion Jīnguì gē kuò 金匱歌括 supplied by his son 陳靈石 (Chén Língshí)
About the work
A ten-juan late-Qiánlóng / early-Jiāqìng Jīnguì commentary by the Fújiàn pedagogue-physician 陳念祖 Chén Niànzǔ (Chén Xiūyuán 陳修園), in the “qiǎn zhù” 淺註 (“accessible annotation”) genre that he made his pedagogical signature. The work is the Jīnguì companion to his better-known Shānghán lùn qiǎn zhù 傷寒論淺注. Chén’s son 陳靈石 Chén Língshí (字 林石) compiled a supplementary versified mnemonic, the Jīnguì gē kuò 金匱歌括 in 6 juan, which is conventionally bound and printed with the Qiǎn zhù.
Abstract
The Kanripo source preserves the famous preface by 林則徐 Lín Zéxú (1785–1850, the Fújiàn statesman who later led the Qīng anti-opium campaign), dated Dàoguāng 10 / 道光十年歲次庚寅仲春望後 = mid-spring 1830, three days after the full moon. Lín signs himself “愚侄” (foolish nephew) of the late Chén Xiūyuán — Chén had been a frequent guest at Lín’s father’s “zhēn lǜ huì” 真率會 literary gathering in Fújiàn — and records his having heard Chén discourse on medicine “洞然有見垣一方之眼” (with the penetrating vision of one who can see through a wall). Lín praises Chén’s Qiǎn zhù as comparable to 王叔和 Wáng Shūhé’s exposition of the Nèi jīng and concludes with the famous 范仲淹 Fàn Zhòngyān dictum: “bù wéi liáng xiàng, zé wéi liáng yī” 不為良相，則為良醫 (If not to be a good chancellor, then to be a good physician).
Composition window 1810–1823 is bracketed by Chén’s late pedagogical period at Fúzhōu (where he taught for the last fifteen years of his life) and his death in 1823. The 1830 printing — under the supervision of Chén Língshí, the son — is one of the principal early-Dào-guāng publishing events of Fújiàn medical pedagogy.
The work has been continuously reprinted in the Xiūyuán quánshū 修園全書 and remains in active pedagogical use in modern Chinese-medicine education.
Translations and research
- Lǐ Lǐ 李力, Chén Xiūyuán yīxué quánshū 陳修園醫學全書 (Rénmín wèishēng, 2002).
- No comprehensive English-language translation located.
Other points of interest
林則徐 Lín Zéxú’s preface is one of the more historically resonant medical-publication forewords: written in 1830, nine years before Lín’s famous 1839 confrontation with British opium-traders in Guǎngzhōu, it presents Lín in his Fújiàn provincial-official phase — a moment in his biography that is less well documented than his anti-opium career. The preface is also a useful biographical witness to Chén Xiūyuán’s status in late-Qiánlóng / early-Jiāqìng Fújiàn literati society.
Links
- See KR3ef079 (parent Jīnguì yào lüè).
- See KR3ef066 (Chén’s Shānghán yī jué chuàn jiě).
- See KR3ef091 (the later expanded edition with bǔ zhèng annotations by 唐宗海 Táng Róngchuān).
- 金匱要略淺註 jicheng.tw
- Kanseki DB