Tuīqiú shīyì 推求師意
Probing the Master’s Meaning attributed to 戴思恭 Dài Sīgōng (zì Yuánlǐ 元禮, c. 1324–1405) — the principal pupil of Zhū Zhènhēng 朱震亨 — and recovered and edited in 1534 by 汪機 Wāng Jī (zì Shěngzhī 省之, hào Shíshān 石山, 1463–1539) of Xīníng 西寧 and 王諷 Wáng Fěng (the Yùfēngzǐ 玉峰子) of Yùfēng 玉峰.
About the work
A two-juǎn (上 / 下) collection of doctrinal expositions of 朱震亨 Zhū Zhènhēng (Dānxī)‘s clinical method, attributed by the mid-Míng editors to Dài Sīgōng (Yuánlǐ) — Zhū’s principal pupil — but possibly representing a longer chain of post-Zhū discipular elaborations. The title’s tuīqiú shīyì (“probing-and-seeking the master’s meaning”) refers to the yì 意 (semantic-clinical intention) that the master Zhū had communicated yǐnér bùfā 引而不發 (drawing-the-bow-without-releasing) — i.e. without explicit doctrinal statement, leaving it to the pupils to qírú 躍如 (leap-as-the-doe) into clinical understanding. The work assembles Dài’s reflections on the principal Zhū doctrinal positions (yīn-supplementation, fire-clearing, the critique of Héjì júfāng) with substantial elaborations that the editors regard as Dài’s authentic transmission of Zhū’s clinical method beyond what survives in Zhū’s own writings.
Prefaces
The jicheng.tw text opens with two prefaces from 1534 (Jiājìng jiǎwǔ 嘉靖甲午): Wāng Jī 汪機 of Xīníng 西寧 (signed Jiājìng jiǎwǔ qīyuè wǔrì Xīníng Wāng Jī Shěngzhī xù 嘉靖甲午七月五日新安汪機省之序; “Xīníng” / “Xīnān” — the two are interchangeable) — Wāng’s account of his discovery of the manuscript at “Liǎnzhī míngjiā” 斂之名家 (the “famous-family of Liǎn”, a Sūzhōu-region collector), his recognition of Dài’s authentic Dānxī-school voice in the manuscript, his decision to bring it to print at the request of two patients Xiàng Yíyǐjiù 項恬以疚 of Xiū 休 and Chén Zǐjué 陳子桷 of his own Shímù 石墅 village; Wáng Fěng 王諷 (signed Jiājìng jiǎwǔ jìqiū zhī wàng Yùfēng Wáng Fěng zhuàn 嘉靖甲午季秋之望玉峰王諷撰) — a longer doctrinal-historiographical preface that frames the work as the proper transmission line Zhū Dānxī → Dài Yuánlǐ → Wāng Shíshān → Wáng Yùfēng, identifying Dài as the only one of Zhū’s pupils who míng huì 冥會 (mysteriously-comprehended) the master’s clinical intention rather than merely his words. Wáng’s preface positions Wāng Jī as the principal mid-Míng inheritor of the Dānxī tradition through Dài’s intermediary transmission.
Abstract
The attribution of the Tuīqiú shīyì to Dài Sīgōng (Yuánlǐ, c. 1324–1405) is the mid-Míng editorial attribution supplied by Wāng Jī and Wáng Fěng in 1534. The text itself is dateable to the period between Zhū Zhènhēng’s death (1358) and the 1534 Wāng edition; modern Chinese reference works generally accept the post-Zhū but pre-late-Míng dating bracket. The composition window 1370–1500 follows this bracket, with the latest defensible date the late fifteenth century before the manuscript reached Wāng Jī’s hands. The work is part of the discipular literature that organised the Dānxī school doctrine into a transmittable mid-Míng tradition, alongside (a) Zhū’s own Gézhì yúlùn KR3e0060 and Júfāng fāhuī KR3e0061 / KR3eq002 / KR3eq027 — see below; (b) Wāng Jī’s parallel Yīdú 醫讀 and Shíshān yīàn 石山醫案 (the yīàn preserved in KR3ed018); and (c) the broader mid-Míng Dānxī-school yīhuà.
The Dài Sīgōng / Yuánlǐ attribution is doctrinally important because Dài is the only Zhū pupil whose work attained substantial independent canonical status in the post-Yuán Chinese medical tradition. He served as imperial physician at the Hóngwǔ and Yǒnglè courts and was responsible for the medical-imperial transmission of Zhū’s school into the early-Míng official medical institution. Wāng Jī’s 1534 cut is the standard recension; the jicheng.tw text follows it. CBDB does not record Dài Sīgōng (limited early-Míng coverage of non-degree-holding physicians); the standard lifedates c. 1324–1405 follow the modern reference works.
Translations and research
No substantial European-language translation of the Tuīqiú shīyì located. For Dài Sī-gōng’s broader medical career and the early-Míng imperial-medical institution see Joanna Grant, A Chinese Physician: Wang Ji and the Stone Mountain Medical Case Histories (Routledge, 2003), which is the principal English-language scholarly engagement with the mid-Míng Dānxī-school transmission represented by Wāng Jī.
Links
- Dài Sīgōng / Dài Yuánlǐ — see person note 戴思恭.
- Wāng Jī / Wāng Shíshān — see person note 汪機.
- Kanseki DB
- 推求師意 (jicheng.tw)