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巢氏病源補養宣導法

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Text ID
KR3eo033
Date
1100–1500
Dynasty
隋(?)

Cháoshì bìngyuán bǔyǎng xuāndǎo fǎ 巢氏病源補養宣導法

Methods of Supplementary Nourishment and Outflow-Guidance from Master Cháo’s “Origins of Disease” extracted from the Zhūbìng yuánhòu lùn 諸病源候論 of 巢元方 Cháo Yuánfāng (the Suí imperial medical official; the Bìngyuán was completed in Dàyè 6 = 610).

About the work

A two-juan editorial extraction of the bǔyǎng xuāndǎo 補養宣導 (supplementary-nourishment and outflow-guidance) passages from the Zhūbìng yuánhòu lùn 諸病源候論 — the canonical Suí-era medical encyclopaedia by Cháo Yuánfāng et al. The Bìngyuán is unusual among classical medical texts in attaching to its discussion of each disease-syndrome a substantial section of non-pharmaceutical therapy — specifically dǎoyǐn 導引 (gymnastic guidance), xíngqì 行氣 (qì-circulation), and ànmó 按摩 (massage) — sourced from the now-lost Yǎngshēng fāng 養生方 of the Northern dynasties period. The present text gathers these bǔyǎng xuāndǎo passages from across the Bìngyuán’s 67 chapters into a single working compilation arranged by disease-class.

The opening section on “various symptoms of wind disease” (Fēngbìng zhūhòu shàng) presents the Yǎngshēng fāng 養生方 sequence for hemiplegia: “Sit upright leaning against the wall, stop breathing, circulate qì from head to feet; this cures abscess, hernia, great-wind disease, and various wind-paralyses”; “lift both feet’s toes for five breaths, leading the lower-back and back; for paralysis and hemiplegia, this can make one’s ears hear sounds”; “lean the back straight against the wall, stretch both feet and toes, close the heart, lead qì from above the head downward through the ten toes and the centres of the feet; do this 21 times until the foot-centres feel as if receiving qì” — the canonical shàngyǐn níwán xiàdá yǒngquán 上引泥丸下達湧泉 (“upward leading to the Mud-Pellet [crown], downward reaching to the Bubbling Spring [foot-centre]”) sequence.

Prefaces

The 漢學文典 reprint preserves no separate xù; the work opens directly with the disease-class extraction.

Abstract

The work is not an original Suí composition but rather an editorial extraction made at some later date (most plausibly late Sòng to Yuán-Míng) of the bǔyǎng xuāndǎo materials embedded throughout the Bìngyuán. Cháo Yuánfāng’s Bìngyuán (Suí Dàyè 6 = 610) is itself the principal Suí-era medical compendium, integrating Six-Dynasties medical doctrine with the Yǎngshēng fāng tradition. The motivation for the extraction was practical-pedagogical: the Bìngyuán’s 50 juan format made it cumbersome to use as a dǎoyǐn manual, and the extraction strategy concentrated the practically-relevant yǎngshēng material into a single working volume.

The work’s principal historical value lies in its preservation of the Yǎngshēng fāng — a now-lost Northern Dynasties text on dǎoyǐn practice — through Cháo’s quotation. The Yǎngshēng fāng is otherwise known only through scattered fragments in Táng and Sòng compendia; the Bìngyuán’s extensive quotation, distilled in the present extraction, is the principal surviving witness.

The date bracket 1100–1500 reflects the plausible window for the extraction itself (the parent Bìngyuán dates to 610). The Yǎngshēng fāng itself is pre-Suí.

Note on transmission: the 漢學文典 source files preserve KR3eo033_001.txt and KR3eo033_003.txt but no _002 or _000 — the middle juan is missing from the present recension.

Translations and research

  • 巢元方, Zhū-bìng yuán-hòu lùn jiào-shì 諸病源候論校釋, ed. 丁光迪 (Běijīng: Rén-mín wèi-shēng, 1992) — the standard critical edition of the parent work.
  • Sabine Wilms, “Of Daoyin and Diet: The Yangsheng Tradition”, in Vivienne Lo et al. (eds.), Imagining Chinese Medicine (Leiden: Brill, 2018).
  • Catherine Despeux, La moelle du phénix rouge (Paris: Trédaniel, 1988) — for the dǎo-yǐn tradition.
  • Donald Harper, Early Chinese Medical Literature: The Mawangdui Manuscripts (London: Kegan Paul, 1998) — for the longer history of dǎo-yǐn practice.

Other points of interest

The methodology of the present extraction — pulling embedded yǎngshēng material out of a large clinical encyclopaedia into a separate practical volume — is a recurrent late-imperial editorial procedure also applied to the Qiānjīn fāng (e.g., the Qiānjīn shízhì of KR3eo038), and is a useful indicator of the late-imperial demand for accessible yǎngshēng manuals.

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