Qiānjīn shízhì 千金食治
Food Therapy from the Qiānjīn fāng extracted from the Bèijí qiānjīn yàofāng 備急千金要方 (KR3e0013) of 孫思邈 Sūn Sīmiǎo (c. 581–682).
About the work
A one-juan extraction of the food-therapy (shízhì 食治) chapter (juan 26) of the Bèijí qiānjīn yàofāng 備急千金要方 (KR3e0013) — the foundational mid-Táng medical encyclopaedia compiled by Sūn Sīmiǎo, the Yàowáng 藥王 of post-Táng tradition. The original Shízhì chapter of the Qiānjīn fāng is the earliest substantial dietetic-medical treatise in the Chinese medical tradition — pre-dated only by the briefer dietary remarks in the Sùwèn 素問, the Língshū 靈樞, and scattered passages of the Shénnóng běncǎo 神農本草. Sūn’s Shízhì organises foodstuffs by category (grains, vegetables, fruits, meats, fishes) and for each item provides nature (xìng — cold / warm / neutral), taste (wèi — sweet, sour, bitter, salty, pungent), and therapeutic application (which diseases it treats, which it aggravates, which constitutions it suits).
Prefaces
The transmitted xù is a commentator’s preface — most likely the Sòng editor 林億 Lín Yì et al. (the Jiàozhèng yīshūjú 校正醫書局 editors who produced the standard Northern-Sòng critical edition of the Qiānjīn fāng in 1066) — narrating the medical-historical genealogy from 神農 Shénnóng tasting the herbs and 伊尹 Yī Yǐn perfecting the decoctions, through 黃帝 Huángdì and 岐伯 Qíbó, through 扁鵲 Biǎn Què, 倉公 Cānggōng (淳于意 Chúnyú Yì), 張仲景 Zhāng Zhòngjǐng’s Huángsù 黃素, 華佗 Huá Tuó’s Lǜzhì 綠袟, 葛洪 Gě Hóng’s Bìxiào fāng 必效方, 胡居士 Hú Jūshì’s Jīngyàn fāng 經驗方, 張苗 Zhāng Miáo’s Yàoduì 藥對, 王叔和 Wáng Shūhé’s Màifǎ 脈法, 皇甫謐 Huángfǔ Mì’s Sānbù 三部, 陶弘景 Táo Yǐnjū’s Bǎiyī fāng 百一方 — leading up to Sūn Sīmiǎo, whom the preface frames as the synthesiser of “the secrets of all schools” and the eliminator of “what the crowd of explainers had not reached”. The work is then summarised: “Established the book in one part, totalling 30 juan, with one mùlù (table of contents). The discussions of the zàngfǔ, the methods of needling and moxibustion, the differentiation of pulse-and-syndrome, the appropriateness of shízhì; beginning with women and then infants; first leg-qì, then stroke, then cold-damage, abscesses, xiāokě (wasting-thirst), water-edema; the diseases of the seven orifices, the toxicities of the five minerals, the prescriptions for emergencies, the arts of nourishing-xìng — totalling 232 mén (sections), with 5300 prescriptions in all”.
The preface is one of the most important late-Sòng medical bibliographies, providing the canonical narrative of the formation of the Chinese medical tradition.
Abstract
The work is one of the foundational documents of Chinese dietary medicine. Sūn Sīmiǎo’s principle — embedded in juan 26 of the Qiānjīn fāng — that “the shàngyī (highest physician) first uses food to treat illness; if food does not avail, then he may prescribe drugs” was the doctrinal basis of all subsequent Chinese dietetic medicine, from the Táng Shíliáo běncǎo 食療本草 of 孟詵 Mèng Shēn through the Yuán Yǐnshàn zhèngyào of 忽思慧 Hū Sīhuì (KR3eo040) to the Suíxījū yǐnshí pǔ 隨息居飲食譜 of 王士雄 Wáng Shìxióng (KR3eo043). The Sòng editors’ critical text — preserved in the present extraction — is the standard form.
The 漢學文典 reprint provides convenient single-volume access to the Shízhì extract, which had to be sought within the much larger Qiānjīn fāng in the WYG transmission (KR3e0013). The dating bracket 650–659 reflects Sūn’s documented composition of the Bèijí qiānjīn yàofāng in the second half of the 7th century.
Translations and research
- Sabine Wilms (tr.), Bèi-jí qiān-jīn yào-fāng (Eastland Press, multiple volumes 2008–2021) — partial translation including the Shí-zhì chapter.
- Catherine Despeux, “The Body Revealed: The Contribution of Forensic Medicine to Knowledge and Representations of the Skeleton in China”, in Francesca Bray et al. (eds.), Graphics and Text in the Production of Technical Knowledge in China (Leiden: Brill, 2007) — for the broader Táng medical-knowledge context.
- 馬繼興, Sūn Sī-miǎo yī-xué quán-shū (Běijīng: Zhōng-guó zhōng-yī-yào, 1996).
- 嚴世芸 et al. (eds.), Sūn Sī-miǎo yán-jiū jí-chéng 孫思邈研究集成 (2009).
- Paul U. Unschuld, Medicine in China: A History of Pharmaceutics (Berkeley: UC Press, 1986), on the Táng pharmaceutical-dietetic context.
Other points of interest
The principle that dietary therapy precedes pharmacotherapy — articulated by Sūn Sīmiǎo and codified in this chapter — is the doctrinal centre of the entire late-imperial yǎngshēng tradition, including specifically Chén Zhí’s Yǎnglǎo fèngqīn shū (KR3eo001) which explicitly cites it as its theoretical basis.