Yīxué fā míng 醫學發明
Insights for the Advancement of Medical Learning by 李杲 Lǐ Gǎo (Dōngyuán 東垣, zì Míngzhī 明之, 1180–1251).
About the work
A short single-juǎn clinical-doctrinal treatise — one of the principal vehicles for Lǐ Dōngyuán’s mature spleen-stomach (píwèi 脾胃) doctrine, alongside his more famous Píwèi lùn 脾胃論 (KR3eb016) and Lánshì mìcáng 蘭室秘藏 (KR3eb015). The work covers Dōngyuán’s clinical doctrine of nèishāng 內傷 (internal injury) as the principal cause of disease and the consequent therapeutic programme of bǔ tǔ 補土 (supplementing the earth) and shēng yáng 升陽 (raising the yáng) through characteristic Yì-shuǐ-school formulae — the Bǔzhōng yìqì tāng 補中益氣湯, the Shēngyáng yìwèi tāng 升陽益胃湯, the Diàozhōng yìqì tāng 調中益氣湯, and others. The work is shorter and more aphoristic than the Píwèi lùn and is typically read as Dōngyuán’s compact didactic summary of his clinical doctrine, suitable for memorisation by the apprentice physician.
Abstract
The hxwd _000.txt is empty (header only); the body of the work opens directly in _001.txt. The work is one of the canonical “Yìshuǐ school four works” — Píwèi lùn, Nèiwài shāng biànhuò lùn 內外傷辨惑論, Lánshì mìcáng, and Yīxué fāmíng — attributed to Lǐ Dōngyuán himself, with editorial intervention by his disciple 羅天益 Luó Tiānyì (the compiler of KR3er052 Wèishēng bǎojiàn). The composition is conventionally bracketed within Dōngyuán’s mature period (post-1230, after his flight to Shāndōng in the Mongol-Jīn warfare and his settled clinical-pedagogical practice in Dōngpíng 東平 and Bózhōu 亳州); the secure terminus ante quem is Dōngyuán’s death in 1251. The work circulated continuously through the Yuán, Míng, and Qīng and is preserved in the Hǎiwài huíliú zhōngyī gǔjí cóngshū through Japanese collections.
Translations and research
For the Yì-shuǐ school and Lǐ Dōng-yuán’s spleen-stomach doctrine see Yu Yong 余瀛鰲, Lǐ Dōng-yuán yī-xué quán-shū 李東垣醫學全書 (Zhōng-guó zhōng-yī-yào, 2006); Volker Scheid, Currents of Tradition in Chinese Medicine 1626–2006 (Eastland, 2007); Paul U. Unschuld, Forgotten Traditions of Ancient Chinese Medicine (Paradigm, 1990), discusses Dōng-yuán as the principal Yì-shuǐ figure. No comprehensive European-language translation of the Yī-xué fā-míng located.