Shíliáo fāng 食療方
Prescriptions for Food Therapy extracted from the Yǐnshàn zhèngyào 飲膳正要 (KR3eo040) of 忽思慧 Hū Sīhuì (Yuán imperial dietetic physician).
About the work
A one-juan extraction of the food-therapy prescription material from the larger Yǐnshàn zhèngyào (KR3eo040) by Hū Sīhuì — the principal Yuán imperial dietetic compendium. The extraction proceeds by food-class (Plant-class, Animal-class) and within each class lists named fāng with specified ingredients, the primary syndrome treated, and the preparation method.
The opening Luóbo zhōu 蘿蔔粥 (“Radish Congee”) is canonical: five large radishes, boiled, the juice expressed, combined with three hé of glutinous rice, cooked into congee — for xiāokě, shéjiāo, kǒugān, xiǎobiàn shǔ 消渴、舌焦、口乾、小便數 (the diabetic complex with parched tongue, dry mouth, frequent urination). The work continues through Xiǎomài zhōu 小麥粥 (wheat congee, for the same complex), Mǎchǐcài zhōu 馬齒菜粥 (purslane congee, for beri-beri and edema), Gěfěn gēng 葛粉羹 (kuzu starch soup, for stroke), Jīngjiè zhōu 荊芥粥 (schizonepeta congee, for stroke), Mázǐ zhōu 麻子粥 (cannabis-seed congee, for stroke with constipation), Èshí cài 惡實菜 (burdock-leaf cooked with butter, for stroke with dry mouth), Liánzǐ zhōu 蓮子粥 (lotus-seed congee, for restless mind and senses).
Prefaces
The 漢學文典 reprint preserves no separate xù; the work opens directly with the Dìyī lèi 第一類 (“First Class”) of plant-based prescriptions.
Abstract
The Shíliáo fāng is an editorial extraction drawn from the Yǐnshàn zhèngyào (1330) of Hū Sīhuì — the chief dietetic physician of the Yuán imperial palace. The Yǐnshàn zhèngyào is the most important Yuán-era dietetic-medical text, integrating Chinese dietetic medicine with the Mongol-Yuán imperial dietary tradition (sheep-meat preparations, fermented mare’s milk kǒumǐsi / qūmí 曲蜜, butter dishes, kebab-style preparations) and with Persian and Arabic culinary borrowings introduced through the Yuán’s continental administrative reach. The Shíliáo extraction concentrates the more strictly therapeutic portion of that compendium — congees, soups, and preparations specifically prescribed for named syndromes, rather than the imperial-cuisine recipes.
The textual logic — “if food does not avail, then drugs” — is the same Sūn Sīmiǎo principle that animates the entire dietetic-medical tradition (see KR3eo038).
The dating bracket 1325–1330 reflects Hū’s documented composition of the Yǐnshàn zhèngyào, which was completed in Tiānlì 3 = 1330 and presented to the throne in that year. The Shíliáo extraction itself may post-date the parent work, but no separate compositional event is recorded; the present record assigns it the same date as its parent.
Translations and research
- 忽思慧, Yǐn-shàn zhèng-yào, ed. 張秉倫, 方曉陽 (Hé-féi: Ān-huī kē-xué jì-shù chū-bǎn-shè, 1989); ed. 劉玉書 et al. (Běijīng: Rén-mín wèi-shēng, 1986).
- Paul D. Buell and Eugene N. Anderson, A Soup for the Qan: Chinese Dietary Medicine of the Mongol Era as Seen in Hu Szu-Hui’s Yin-shan Cheng-yao (London: Kegan Paul, 2000; rev. ed. Leiden: Brill, 2010) — the standard English-language scholarly translation and study.
- Susanne G. Knaul, “Hu Sihui”, in Iiyama Tomoyasu et al. (eds.), East Asian Knowledge in Crisis (forthcoming).
- 馬繼興, Zhōng-yī yào-shàn yán-jiū 中醫藥膳研究 (Běijīng, 1990).
Other points of interest
The Shíliáo extraction’s strict focus on therapeutic dietary prescriptions makes it more directly useful as a clinical reference than its parent volume, which interleaves imperial-court cuisine with therapy. The extraction is one of the more accessible entry-points to the Yuán dietary-medical tradition.
Links
- Parent text: KR3eo040 飲膳正要.
- Kanseki DB
- 食療方