Péizǐ yányī 裴子言醫
Master Pei’s Words on Medicine by 裴一中 Péi Yīzhōng (hào Zhàoqī 兆期, fl. late Míng — early Shùnzhì period, native of Wǔyuán 武原 / Hǎiníng 海寧, Zhèjiāng).
About the work
A four-juǎn medical-philosophical and clinical-theoretical treatise by Péi Zhàoqī 裴兆期 — the late-Míng / early-Qīng Hǎiníng physician already represented in the present division by KR3eq040 Yányī xuǎnpíng 言醫選評 (the recension selected and commented by Wáng Shìxióng 王士雄). The present Péizǐ yányī is the unabridged-original recension of Péi’s Yányī corpus, containing the full four-juǎn text without Wáng’s editorial selection. The work opens with Máo Yījùn’s 毛一駿 preface (a ChǔJìnglíng 楚競陵 / Húběi friend of Péi’s), praising Péi’s clinical skill across the liùjì sìjiā 六技四家 (the six techniques and four schools of classical medicine) and emphasizing the Wùlǐlùn 物理論 maxim that the physician must be rénài 仁愛 (benevolent), cōngmíng lǐdá 聰明理達 (intelligent and reasoning), and liánjié chúnliáng 廉潔淳良 (incorrupt and pure-hearted). The Zhào preface 趙序 cites Péi’s signature four-part aphorism: “xué bùguàn gǔjīn, shí bùtōng tiānrén, cái bùjìn xiān, xīn bùjìn fó zhě, ān néng yán cǐ?” 學不貫古今識不通天人才不近仙心不近佛者寧能言此 (“without learning that traverses ancient and modern, without insight that connects heaven and man, without talent approaching the immortal, without a heart approaching the Buddha — who could speak this?“) — a maxim that became proverbial in late-Qīng / Republican Chinese medical literature.
Prefaces
The hxwd _000.txt opens with two prefaces:
- Máo Yījùn preface 毛一駿 (ChǔJìnglíng 楚競陵 / Húběi), praising Péi’s clinical breadth and the work’s distinctive aphoristic-philosophical method.
- Zhào preface 趙序, citing the famous four-part aphorism and connecting Péi’s work to the broader Confucian-medical rénshù 仁術 tradition.
Abstract
Péi Yīzhōng 裴一中 (Zhàoqī 兆期), late-Míng / early-Qīng physician of Hǎiníng 海寧 (Zhèjiāng), is the author of the medical-philosophical Yányī corpus surviving in two recensions: the present unabridged Péizǐ yányī and the Wáng Shì-xióng-selected Yányī xuǎnpíng (KR3eq040). The work is distinguished by its methodological aphorisms on the physician’s clinical responsibility rather than by doctrinal-clinical specifics. Doctrinally a moderate inheritor of the Zhào Xiànkě 趙獻可 Yīguàn 醫貫 warming-tonifying line (see KR3eq048 for the late-Qīng Xú Língtāi rebuttal of Zhào’s school), but transcending doctrinal partisanship in his broader reflection on the integration of Confucian moral cultivation with medical practice. The composition window 1640–1660 reflects the late-Míng / Shùnzhì (順治十四年丁酉 = 1657 by internal evidence in KR3eq040) timing.
Historiographical significance: alongside KR3eq040, the Péizǐ yányī is one of the most useful single texts for studying the late-Míng / early-Qīng Confucian-medical aphoristic genre — the literature that articulates the rénshù moral framework of physician practice independently of doctrinal-school partisanship. The four-part aphorism is one of the most-cited single passages in the late-Qīng / Republican Chinese medical-popular-press literature. Not in CBDB.
Translations and research
No substantial European-language translation of Péi-zǐ yán-yī located. For the broader late-Míng / early-Qīng Confucian-medical aphoristic genre see Charlotte Furth, A Flourishing Yin (California, 1999); for the Yán-yī xuǎn-píng see KR3eq040.