Yījīng mìzhǐ 醫經秘旨
The Hidden Purport of the Medical Classics nominally attributed to 盛寅 Shèng Yín (zì Qǐdōng 啟東, 1375–1441, Sūzhōu); actual author 江之蘭 Jiāng Zhīlán (zì Hánzhēng 含徵, early-Qīng, Shèxiàn 歙縣).
About the work
A one-juǎn short treatise of about ten topical essays on Nèijīng therapeutic-principle passages — fact-on-the-ground identical with the first ten essays of KR3er103 Yījīn yī fá 醫津一筏 (1662) by Jiāng Zhīlán of Shèxiàn. The traditional attribution to Shèng Yín 盛寅 (the early-Míng Imperial Physician of Sūzhōu, 1375–1441), purportedly composed at his Dòngtíng 洞庭 lakeside retreat and presented under the date Yǒnglè shíyǒu liù nián mùchūn shànghuàn 永樂十有六年暮春上浣 = Yǒnglè 16 / 1418, late spring third month — is a textual fraud. The text was extracted from Jiāng Zhīlán’s Yījīn yī fá in the late Kāngxī or Yōngzhèng era and re-attributed to Shèng Yín. The substitution was unmasked by Gāo Sīqián 高思潛’s 1925 kǎo (philological investigation) for the Sānsān yīshū 三三醫書 edition (cf. KR3er103).
The catalog acknowledges the suspect attribution by writing yuántí Shèng Yín 原題 盛寅 (“originally attributed to Shèng Yín”). The Sìkù quánshū zǒngmù tíyào committee had already noted irregularities in the attribution.
The content — the standard Nèijīng therapeutic-principle essay on zhìbìng bì qiú qí běn 治病必求其本, the eleven illustrative examples (yǐ hán zhì rè, yǐ rè zhì hán, yǐ bǔ zhì jī, yǐ yìqì zhì mǎn, etc., and the seven fǎnzhì 反治 paradoxical applications), and the analytic exposition — is unambiguously identifiable with Jiāng’s known authentic work.
Prefaces
The hxwd _000.txt carries:
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Chóngjiàodìng xù 重校訂序 by Gāo Gǎo 高杲 of Jiāshàn 嘉善 (Zhèjiāng): a re-collation preface dated only “by hòuxué Gāo Gǎo shí 後學高杲識” without further date. Gāo regrets the corruption of late-Qīng medical practice and praises Shèng’s text (whose attribution Gāo accepts) as a yīdài yùyī zhī liánggōng 一代御醫之良工 (“a great Imperial Physician of his age”).
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Zàidìng tící 再訂題辭 by Xiǎolán 曉瀾 (hào unidentified), dated Dàoguāng bǐng [shēn] zhòngqiū shànghuàn 道光丙[?]仲秋上浣 = Dàoguāng 16 / 1836 mid-autumn (the cyclical character of the second binom is partly obscured but plausibly bǐngshēn).
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Yuán xù 緒原 — the work’s authorial preface, signed Gūsū Qǐdōng shí 姑蘇啟東識 (“the Sūzhōu Qǐdōng identifies”), dated Yǒnglè shíyǒu liù nián mùchūn shànghuàn 永樂十有六年暮春上浣 = Yǒnglè 16 / 1418 late spring. This is the fraudulent attribution.
Abstract
The actual composition date follows Jiāng Zhīlán’s 1662 Yījīn yī fá. The fraudulent ShèngYín attribution dates from the early 18th c., circulated under the title Yījīng mìzhǐ in successive Qīng reprints (including the 1836 Dàoguāng bǐngshēn re-collation here represented), and was definitively unmasked only in 1925.
Shèng Yín (1375–1441), the early-Míng Sūzhōu Imperial Physician (Tàiyī yuàn yùyī 太醫院御醫) and a documented historical figure, did not compose this work; he was associated separately with the early-Míng court medical-academy curriculum. His being chosen as a plausible authorial cover suggests the forger had specific knowledge of Sūzhōu medical-historical reputation. (Note: the early-Míng Shèng Yín is distinct from the Yuán Shèng Yín of similar dates whom CBDB also has, and the Gūsū Qǐdōng signing position of the spurious preface explicitly identifies the early-Míng Sūzhōu figure.)
CBDB has Shèng Yín at c_personid 88775 (early-Míng, Sūzhōu).
Translations and research
For Jiāng Zhī-lán’s authentic Yī-jīn yī fá and its philological recovery see KR3er103. The fraudulent Yī-jīng mì-zhǐ attribution is itself a useful case-study in late-Imperial textual misattribution; it is briefly discussed in Wú Yī-lì 吳逸力 et al., Xīn-ān yī-jí kǎo 新安醫籍考 (1990s).
Other points of interest
The fraudulent attribution to an early-Míng Imperial Physician (rather than to the obscure provincial physician Jiāng Zhīlán) doubled the work’s commercial appeal in the 18th-c. medical-book market — a notable case of late-Imperial book-trade prestige-arbitrage. The work continued to circulate under the Yījīng mìzhǐ title (with the spurious Shèng Yín attribution) into the early Republican period, when Gāo Sīqián’s 1925 Sānsān yīshū re-attribution finally restored Jiāng Zhīlán’s authorship.