Yánjīng yán 研經言
Words Studying the Canon by 莫枚士 Mò Méishì (míng Wénquán 文泉, 1837–1907), with prefaces by 陸懋修 Lù Màoxiū (1879) and 陸心源 Lù Xīnyuán (1871) of Guīān 歸安; first printed at Lù Màoxiū’s Shìbǔzhāi 世補齋 (1884) and again at the Shàoxīng Medical Society’s Yīxué cóngshū 醫學叢書 series (1916) under the editorship of 袁焯 Yuán Zhuó of Jiāngdū.
About the work
A four-juǎn collection of approximately 150 short essays on the classical Chinese medical canon. The work is the principal achievement of Mò Méishì’s late-Qīng kǎozhèng yīxué (philological-medicine) programme — applying the QiánJiā evidential-research method (xiǎoxué 小學, Shuōwén 說文 and Yùpiān 玉篇 philology) to the textual problems of the Shānghán lùn 傷寒論, Jīnguì yàolüè 金匱要略, Cháoshì bìngyuán 巢氏病源, Wàitái mìyào 外臺秘要, and Qiānjīn fāng 千金方. Mò’s editorial method is yǐ jīng jiě jīng 以經解經 — using the classical canon to interpret itself — combined with rigorous xiǎoxué philology that resolves long-standing textual cruxes: distinguishing the graphs shàn 疝 vs tuí 㿗 on Shuōwén evidence; resolving diān 癲 vs xián 癇 on Yùpiān evidence; identifying xiékū 邪哭 as 風癡 (madness from wind-illness) by reference to 巢元方 Cháo Yuánfāng’s Bìngyuán (Zhèng jí fēngchī 證即風癡); identifying suānxiāo 酸消 as the correct reading for suānxiào 酸削 by reference to the Zhōulǐ; identifying jiāolóng 蛟龍 as a graphic corruption of lóngyǎo 龍咬; and identifying róuchì 柔痓 as the correct reading for the malignant cold (èhán 惡寒) symptom. Each essay is a discrete textual-clinical philological intervention of two to four pages.
Prefaces
The jicheng.tw text opens with three prefaces and Mò’s self-preface, in this order: 袁焯 Yuán Zhuó (1916, signed Bǐngchén shǒuxià Jiāngdū Yuán Zhuó 丙辰首夏江都袁焯) — the Shàoxīng Medical Society editor’s account of his discovery of the work through 楊霽青 Yáng Jìqīng of Dāntú 丹徒 and his role in its serialisation in the Yīxué fúlún bào 醫學扶輪報 and Shénzhōu yīyào xuébào 神州醫藥學報 journals; 陸懋修 Lù Màoxiū (1879, signed Guāngxù wǔnián jǐmǎo sānyuè Yuánhé Lù Màoxiū 光緒五年己卯三月元和陸懋修) — the Yuánhé Wēnbìng-school physician’s encomium on Mò’s philological method, with a note that the work was completed in stages over Mò’s career; 陸心源 Lù Xīnyuán (1871, signed Tóngzhì shínián qīyuè Yúdì Lù Xīnyuán 同治十年七月愚弟陸心源) — the Húzhōu textual scholar’s preface dating Mò’s mature work after the Tài-píng-era disruptions (jìzāo duōgù 既遭多故 “since I suffered many disturbances”) and confirming Mò’s jǔrén status and his decision to refuse official career in favour of medical scholarship; and the author’s self-preface, signed Tiáochuān Yūsǒu 苕川迂叟 (“Foolish Old Man of Tiáo River” — Tiáoxī being the conventional name for the Húzhōu / Guīān region) — Mò’s own account of his composition history: he records that during the Xián-fēng-era exile at Shànghǎi (1855–1862, Xiánfēng zhī jì bìkòu Hǎishàng 咸豐之季避寇海上) he saw the epidemic-mortality during the Tàipíng war and turned definitively to medicine, beginning with the Shānghán lùn and Jīnguì yàolüè and continuing through the Shénnóng běncǎo jīng with a xiàozhù 校注 critical apparatus. The composition window of the Yánjīng yán essays is bounded by Mò’s exile-return (1862) and Lù Xīnyuán’s 1871 preface.
Abstract
Mò Méishì 莫枚士 (Wénquán 文泉, 1837–1907), jǔrén of Guīān 歸安 (Húzhōu, Zhèjiāng), is treated more fully in person note 莫枚士. The Yánjīng yán is his foundational scholarly contribution alongside his KR3ed081 Jīngfāng lìshì 經方例釋 (c. 1885) and the parallel critical apparatus on the Shānghán lùn, Jīnguì yàolüè, and Shénnóng běncǎo jīng mentioned in the self-preface. The composition window 1862–1871 reflects (a) the Shànghǎi exile-period turn to medicine and (b) the Lù Xīnyuán preface terminus. The work circulated initially in the Sūzhōu — Húzhōu kǎozhèng yīxué circle, was given a wider print at Lù Màoxiū’s Shìbǔzhāi in 1884, and entered modern Chinese circulation through the Shàoxīng Yīxué cóngshū 1916 cut (Yuán Zhuó’s editorial work) and subsequently the jicheng.tw digitisation.
Doctrinal-methodological significance: the Yánjīng yán is the most successful single application of late-Qīng evidential-research method to Chinese medical philology. Mò’s praise of 葉桂 Yè Tiānshì’s Línzhèng zhǐnán 臨證指南 (as “especially fine on wēnrè and spleen-stomach”), and his correlative criticism of the 黃元御 Huáng Yuányù / 陳念祖 Chén Niànzǔ doctrinaire archaising line (“a one-sided clinging to antiquity that erases the contributions of the worthies”), set the standard for late-Qīng jīngfāng scholarship’s adjudication between fidelity to the classical formulary corpus and openness to the Wēn-bìng-school refinements.
Translations and research
No substantial European-language translation of the Yánjīng yán located. The work is discussed in modern Chinese-language medical-bibliography reference works including Zhōngguó yījí dàcídiǎn 中國醫籍大辭典 (Shànghǎi, 2002) and Pán Guìjuān 潘桂娟 et al., Zhōngyī yīxué shǐ 中醫醫學史 (Beijing: Rénmín wèishēng chūbǎnshè, 1999). For Mò Méishì’s broader programme see person note 莫枚士.
Links
- Mò Méishì (zh)
- Lù Màoxiū — person note 陸懋修.
- Kanseki DB
- 研經言 (jicheng.tw)