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廣嗣要語

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Text ID
KR3ei071
Date
1540–1570
Dynasty
明

Guǎngsì yàoyǔ 廣嗣要語

Essential Words for Producing Heirs by 俞橋 (Yú Qiáo, zì Zǐmù 子木, hào Sùhuízǐ 溯洄子, fl. mid-Míng)

About the work

A single-juǎn mid-Míng fertility-treatise by Yú Qiáo 俞橋 of Hǎiníng 海寧 (Zhèjiāng), one of the most influential Míng-period works on the zhǒngzǐ (producing-heirs / seed-planting) topic. The work establishes Yú’s distinctive synthesis: a xiāntiān / hòutiān “pre-celestial / post-celestial” inner-alchemy theoretical framework, combined with a practical clinical-prescription pharmacology drawing on standard Míng obstetrical-gynaecological literature. Yú himself produced three sons in late life by applying the forward-cultivation (shùnxiū 順修) method of his own treatise — the experiential anchor for his teaching.

Abstract

Composition window: mid-16th century, set on the basis of the Jiājìng dīnghài (1527) reference in the preface (Jiājìng dīnghài, yú Guǎngxìn Zhèng Zhōngchéng zhái — Yú obtained the Wǔzǐ yǎnzōng wán recipe at Guǎngxìn in 1527), and a terminus ante quem before 1570 based on the work’s first appearance in late-Míng catalog records. We bracket 1540–1570 to cover the mature productive period of Yú’s career after the 1527 acquisition.

The work has five constituent parts:

  1. Diàolǐ jīngxuè lùn 調理精血論 — On regulating the jīng and xuè. The theoretical chapter establishing the gūyáng bùshēng / dúyīn bùchéng doctrine.
  2. Zhízhǐ zhēnyuán lùn 直指真源論 — On pointing-directly to the true source. The chapter on the inner-alchemical zhìzhěn and the role of mental quietude in fertility.
  3. Nánnǚ fúyào lùn 男女服藥論 — On male and female drug-administration. The pharmacological core, introducing the Sīxiān dān 思仙丹 for the male and the Yùyào qǐróng wán 玉鑰啟榮丸 for the female as the work’s two signature formulas.
  4. The Jiāohuì yíjì rì table — listing the yí (auspicious) and jì (forbidden) days for conception, drawing on the Wǔyùn liùqì and the Bǔshì lì.
  5. The yīnyáng xūshí sìtú 陰陽虛實四圖 — Four diagrams of the yīnyáng virtual-and-real types, with their corresponding clinical-prescriptions.

The work was widely cited in the late-Míng and Qīng zhǒngzǐ literature. It is preserved as the appendix to KR3ed126 Jǐshì zhēnbǎo (王永 Wáng Yǒng’s compilation) and also in independent printings (the Wàn Lùyuán 萬鹿園 edition of the Brocade-Robed-Guard officer Wànjūn, and the 劉仲恆 Liú Zhònghéng edition of a District Magistrate). The Hǎiwài huíguī recension preserves the standalone Míng print witness.

Translations and research

  • Charlotte Furth, A Flourishing Yin (1999), chapter 6 — extensive discussion of Yú Qiáo’s fertility-theory and its place in the late-Míng zhǒng-zǐ discourse.
  • 馬繼興 Mǎ Jì-xìng, Zhōng-yī wén-xiàn xué — for Yú Qiáo’s bibliographic record.
  • No standalone English translation located.

Other points of interest

Yú Qiáo’s fusion of inner-alchemical theory with practical clinical pharmacology is one of the most-cited models in the late-Míng zhǒngzǐ literature. The work’s Wǔzǐ yǎnzōng wán 五子衍宗丸 (枸杞子, 菟絲子, 車前子, 五味子, 覆盆子) — first published with explicit transmission-history in this work — became one of the canonical Chinese-medicine fertility formulas, still in use in contemporary TCM.

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