Jiāyòng liángfāng 家用良方
Good Formulae for Household Use compiled by 龔自璋 Gōng Zìzhāng (zì Yuèchuān 月川, of Rénhé 仁和 / Hángzhōu), edited and published by 黃統 Huáng Tǒng (zì Bóchuí 伯垂, of Fèngchéng 鳳城 / Shùndé 順德, Guǎngzhōu).
About the work
A six-juǎn mid-Qīng household-formulary, completed and published Xiánfēng 1 / 1851 in Běijīng. The work is one of the most successful 19th-c. Chinese popular medical handbooks, conceived as a jiǎn ér yì xíng 簡而易行 (“simple and easy-to-apply”) reference for non-specialist households needing immediate clinical guidance, particularly in remote rural areas without resident physicians.
The compilation has a remarkable multi-stage history, recounted in detail in the prefaces:
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Origin (1843 / Dàoguāng guǐmǎo): Huáng Tǒng was visiting his father, who held office in Hángzhōu (Wǔlín 武林), during the autumn of 1843; he developed zhì 痔 (haemorrhoid) symptoms and was confined for nearly two months. During the confinement he read medical books and copied out the simple, easily-applied formulae, accumulating over 700.
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Hangzhou collaboration (1843–1845): After recovery he consulted Gōng Yuèchuān 龔月川 (shēngyuán of Rénhé) — son of Gōng Dǐān 龔砥庵, a hereditary medical family. Gōng had been compiling his own family-medical work, and the two combined their materials to produce a unified six-juǎn recension. The work was then reviewed by Chén Yǐngquán 陳穎泉 and others.
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Cantonese revision (1845–1849): Huáng returned to Guǎngdōng (Cantonese place of origin) with Hé Zǎopíng 何藻屏 (a xiàolián skilled in medicine), who undertook a further revision.
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Beijing imprint (1851 / Xiánfēng 1): Huáng, then a Hànlín (he became jìnshì of Dàoguāng 30 / 1850, registering at the Hànlín yuàn), arranged the editio princeps publication in Beijing with the assistance of his fellow Cantonese officials and ad hoc disciples (Tán Xiānyíng 譚仙瀛, Lián Xiǎoyún 連小雲, Yún Xiāng 雲湘, Xīn Gāng-shang 辛綱裳, Lí Dūnfū 黎敦夫) and the patronage of his classmate Lài Xuězhōu 賴雪舟.
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Cantonese reprint (1856 / Xiánfēng 6): Luó Yèxiáng 羅葉祥 (a Cantonese connection-by-marriage to Huáng’s family) reprinted the work in Canton, with a postface noting that “the imprinted blocks were held in the capital, but my Cantonese region had limited distribution.”
The work is organised by clinical category, with each entry giving the formula composition, dosage, and brief diagnostic-pattern indication. The emphasis is on jiǎnbiàn yì xíng (“simple and convenient”) rather than systematic doctrinal exposition.
Prefaces
The hxwd _000.txt carries three substantial prefaces and one postface:
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Xù by Jì Zhīchāng 季芝昌 (of Jiāngyīn 江陰; jìnshì of Dàoguāng 12 / 1832, later xuéshì of multiple provinces), dated Xiánfēng yuánnián suì cì xīnhài mèngchūn 咸豐元年歲次辛亥孟春 = Xiánfēng 1 / 1851 first month. Jì Zhīchāng identifies Huáng Tǒng as a student he had recommended from the Wùxū 戊戌 = 1838 Lǐbù examination.
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Xù (self-preface) by Huáng Tǒng (zì Bóchuí 伯垂, of Fèngchéng 鳳城 = Shùndé 順德, Guǎngzhōu), dated Xiánfēng yuánnián suì zài xīnhài xiàzhì qián yī rì 咸豐元年歲在辛亥夏至前一日 = Xiánfēng 1 / 1851, day before summer solstice.
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Xù by Luó Tíngyǎn 羅停衍 of Shùndé, dated Xiánfēng yuánnián suì zài xīnhài xiàzhì qián sān rì 咸豐元年歲在辛亥夏至前三日 = Xiánfēng 1 / 1851, three days before summer solstice. This preface gives a learned philological survey of the medical-bibliographical tradition, surveying Sīmǎ Qiān, Gān Bǎo zhìguài legend material, Sùwèn, Língshū, the Jīnguì, the Sì dàjiā, and identifying four characteristic flaws of late-Imperial medical practice (hàoqí, jiànpiān, nìgǔ, shīxīn) which Gōng’s work corrects.
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Postface (xù) by Luó Yèxiáng 羅葉祥, dated Xiánfēng liù nián suì cì bǐngchén duānyáng hòu wǔ rì 咸豐六年歲次丙辰端陽後五日 = Xiánfēng 6 / 1856, five days after Dragon-Boat festival. Luó arranged the Cantonese reprint with the support of Huáng’s fēngwēng Àilú xiānshēng (Huáng’s father).
Abstract
The 1851 dating of the editio princeps is established beyond any doubt by all four paratexts. The work circulated very widely in the late Qīng and was a standard household reference; multiple reprints (1856 Cantonese, post-Tàipíng reprints, late-19th-c. lithographic) are documented.
Huáng Tǒng (zì Bóchuí 伯垂) is a documented Qīng official: jìnshì of Dàoguāng 30 / 1850, Hànlín shùjíshì 庶吉士 thereafter, and later xuéshì of Jiāngxī. Gōng Zìzhāng (zì Yuèchuān 月川) is less prominently documented but came from a Rénhé hereditary medical family of the late Qiánlóng / Jiāqìng era.
Translations and research
No European-language translation of the Jiā-yòng liáng-fāng located. For the household-formulary genre see Angela Ki Che Leung’s various articles on late-Imperial medical popularisation.
Other points of interest
The work was one of the most widely distributed Cantonese household medical handbooks of the late Qīng — Cantonese expatriate communities in Southeast Asia and North America carried copies in their household trunks, and a fair number of 19th-c. overseas Cantonese-community medical practices can be partly reconstructed from this transmission.