Jiànshū lù 建殊錄
Records of Extraordinary Establishments [of the Master’s Cures] (Kenshuroku) by 吉益為則 Yoshimasu Tōdō (1702–1773), case-records compiled by his pupil 岩恭敬 Iwami Kyōkei (fl. mid-eighteenth century).
Catalog dynasty correction: catalog meta records no dynasty; both authors are Japanese Edo-period figures. We catalogue under 江戶.
About the work
A one-juǎn clinical case-record compilation by Iwami Kyōkei (岩恭敬) recording the most striking and didactically valuable cases of his teacher Yoshimasu Tōdō 吉益東洞 (1702–1773), the founder of the Japanese radical kohōha 古方派 (“Old-Formulas”) school of medicine. The work was published in 1763 in Kyoto as part of the Yoshimasu-school’s textual programme — the doctrinal manifesto being Yī duàn 醫斷 (KR3eq054 Idan, recorded by Tsuruoki Genitsu 鶴沖元逸) and the case-illustrative companion being the present Jiànshū lù. The preface explicitly contrasts Yoshimasu’s kohōha programme against the Jīn–Yuán Zhāng Yuánsù 張元素 dictum “Yùnqì bùqí, gǔjīn yìguǐ; gǔfāng xīnbìng bù xiāngnéng” 運氣不齊古今異軌古方新病不相能 (“the cosmic yùnqì are not unitary, ancient and modern follow different tracks, ancient prescriptions cannot match modern illnesses”) — the standard gosehōha 後世方派 defence of post-Hàn formulary innovation — and rebuts it by demonstrating Yoshimasu’s clinical success with the Shānghán lùn and Jīnguì yàolüè formulas across the entire range of contemporary disease presentations.
Prefaces
The text opens with the friend’s preface to Iwami’s compilation, attributing to Yoshimasu the maxim “hé bìng bùkě yù?” 何病不可愈 (“what illness cannot be cured?“) — i.e. all clinically tractable disease is curable, and what is not curable is simply the mìng 命 (fate) of the patient at the end of his allotted lifespan.
Abstract
The Jiànshū lù is the canonical case-record collection of Yoshimasu Tōdō and the principal evidentiary text for the radical kohōha claim that Shānghán lùn / Jīnguì method alone suffices for the entire field of clinical medicine. The cases — selected for their didactic value rather than systematic coverage — demonstrate Yoshimasu’s clinical method of (a) systematic abdominal palpation (fùzhěn 腹診), (b) correlation of abdominal findings with Shānghánlùn / Jīnguì formula-indications, and (c) willingness to use the most “drastic” Shānghánlùn prescriptions (大承氣湯, 桃核承氣湯, 十棗湯, etc.) on the basis of clear fùzhěn indications regardless of conventional contraindications. The composition window 1750–1763 reflects Yoshimasu’s mature Kyoto practice (after his 1738 move from Aki) and the 1763 publication date. The work entered Chinese circulation via the late-Qīng / Republican-era Kōkan igaku sōsho 皇漢醫學叢書 (1936) repatriation programme; it is preserved digitally at jicheng.tw.
Historiographical significance: alongside KR3eq054 (Tsuruoki’s Idan), the Jiànshū lù is the canonical text-pair for the Yoshimasu Tōdō kohōha programme. Where Idan states the doctrine, Kenshuroku demonstrates its clinical application. The Chinese repatriation of these texts in the late-Qīng / Republican period is one of the principal vectors for the late-twentieth-century Chinese reception of the Edo Japanese Kampō / kohōha clinical tradition. Yoshimasu Tōdō is the most-cited Japanese physician in the modern Chinese Shānghánlùn commentary literature. Yoshimasu Tōdō is not in CBDB (Japanese figure).
Translations and research
No substantial European-language translation of the Jiàn-shū lù located. For Yoshimasu Tōdō and the kohōha see Yakazu Dōmei 矢數道明, Kinsei Kanpō igaku-shi 近世漢方醫學史 (Tōkyō: Meiji Shoin, 1971); Susan Burns, Kingdom of the Sick (Hawaii, 2019); Daniel Trambaiolo, “Translating the Body” (Princeton diss., 2014); on fù-zhěn see Eric Marié, “L’examen du ventre dans la médecine japonaise” (École Pratique des Hautes Études).
Links
- Person notes 吉益為則 (= Yoshimasu Tōdō), 岩恭敬 (= Iwami Kyōkei).
- Related: KR3eq037 吉益為則 Gǔshū yīyán; KR3eq054 Idan (吉益為則 Yoshimasu’s doctrine, recorded by 鶴沖元逸 Tsuruoki Genitsu).
- Kanseki DB
- 建殊錄 (jicheng.tw)