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脾胃論

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Text ID
KR3eh015
Date
1245–1249
Dynasty
金

Píwèi lùn 脾胃論

A Discourse on the Spleen-and-Stomach by 李杲 (Lǐ Gǎo, zì Míngzhī 明之, hào Dōngyuán lǎorén 東垣老人, 1180–1251)

About the work

Lǐ Gǎo’s most influential work, in 3 juǎn, the doctrinal manifesto of the PíWèi (補土) school of Chinese medicine. Composed as a clarifying follow-up to the Nèiwài shāng biànhuò lùn (KR3eh009 / KR3e0052), Píwèi lùn drives home the spleen-and-stomach focus with greater systematicity. The work is preserved with a preface by 元好問 Yuán Hàowèn (the great JīnYuán literary figure) at the head and a postface by 羅天益 Luó Tiānyì (Lǐ’s principal disciple) at the close, the latter recording the famous deathbed transmission scene. The HXWD recension catalogued here is the same text as the WYG-source KR3e0053.

Abstract

Composition window: 1245–1249, the years immediately following the publication of the Nèiwài shāng biànhuò lùn and shortly before Lǐ Gǎo’s death in 1251. The work’s three central doctrinal positions are:

(a) Spleen as the foundation of post-natal health (pí wéi hòutiān zhī běn 脾為後天之本): the spleen-and-stomach is the source of all qì and xuè generation in the adult body, a doctrinal extension of the Sùwèn’s identification of spleen with the Earth element (“tǔ wéi wànwù zhī mǔ” 土為萬物之母).

(b) Spleen-deficiency-as-source-of-disease (píwèi nèishāng bǎi bìng yóu shēng 脾胃內傷百病由生): most internal-disease conditions originate in spleen-and-stomach disorder.

(c) Sweet-warm tonification clears severe heat (gānwēn chú dà rè 甘溫除大熱): paradoxically, sweet-warm prescriptions can clear severe febrile syndromes by addressing their root in spleen-deficiency rather than fighting the heat directly. This is the doctrinal foundation of the Bǔzhōng yìqì tāng 補中益氣湯 prescription strategy and one of the most counterintuitive and clinically powerful Chinese medical principles.

The work is preserved with Yuán Hàowèn’s preface (a major JīnYuán literary figure’s testimony to Lǐ Gǎo’s medical importance, valuable for the post-Jīn-collapse social-historical context) and Luó Tiānyì’s postface, which records the famous deathbed-entrustment scene preserved in 硯堅 Yán Jiān’s Dōngyuán lǎorén zhuàn: Lǐ Gǎo on his deathbed arranged his works in sequence on a table and entrusted them to Luó Tiānyì with the words “The man to whom these are given — here he is” (cǐ shū fù rǔ zhě jí qí rén yě 此書付汝者即其人也).

The catalog dynasty marker 金 reflects Lǐ’s primary lifework under the Jīn; the WYG parallel KR3e0053 uses 元 to mark the publication date. Both are defensible.

The user prompt’s date of 1276 (Zhìyuán bǐngzǐ) for the postface preface should be flagged as belonging to the sister text Lánshì mìcáng 蘭室秘藏 (compiled posthumously by Luó Tiānyì), not to the Píwèi lùn itself; Píwèi lùn was issued in Lǐ’s lifetime.

Translations and research

  • See parallel entry KR3e0053 for full bibliography. Principal references:
  • Yang Shou-zhong, Treatise on the Spleen and Stomach: A Translation of the Pi Wei Lun. Boulder: Blue Poppy Press, 2004 — the standard English translation.
  • Bob Flaws, The Pi Wei Lun: Treatise on the Spleen and Stomach. Boulder: Blue Poppy Press, 1993 — earlier translation.
  • Robert P. Hymes, “A Tale of Two Sieges: Liu Qi, Li Gao, and Epidemics in the Jin-Yuan Transition,” Journal of Song-Yuan Studies (2021): 293–365.
  • 吳一立 Wú Yīyī (Yi-Li Wu), “A Medical Line of Many Masters,” Chinese Science 11 (1994): 36–65.
  • Hinrichs & Barnes 2013, Chinese Medicine and Healing, pp. 130, 138.

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