Dōngyuán shìxiào fāng 東垣試効方
Tested-and-Proven Formulae of Dōng-yuán formulae of 李杲 Lǐ Gǎo (zì Míngzhī 明之, hào Dōngyuán 東垣, 1180–1251, Zhēndìng 真定, Héběi), compiled and edited by his disciple 羅天益 Luó Tiānyì (zì Qiānfǔ 謙父, 1220–1290).
About the work
A nine-juǎn late-Jīn / early-Yuán formulary, comprising the shìxiào 試效 (“tested-and-proven”) prescriptions of the great Sì dàjiā 四大家 master Lǐ Gǎo (Lǐ Dōngyuán), as compiled by his foremost disciple Luó Tiānyì (Luó Qiānfǔ) from formulae Lǐ had actually employed in his clinical practice. The work is one of the principal direct witnesses for Lǐ Dōngyuán’s clinical method, alongside the canonical Píwèi lùn 脾胃論 (1249, Lǐ’s doctrinal magnum opus) and the Nèiwài shāng biànhuò lùn 內外傷辨惑論 (1247, the foundational treatise of his school).
Lǐ Dōngyuán’s clinical-doctrinal signature — the píwèi nèishāng 脾胃內傷 (“internal injury to the spleen-and-stomach”) doctrine — argues that the principal cause of disease is the yīnhuǒ 陰火 (“yin-fire”) that arises when the spleen-and-stomach are depleted by overwork, hunger, anxiety, or sexual excess; the formula Bǔzhōng yìqì tāng 補中益氣湯 (the “Replenish the Middle, Augment the Qì Decoction”) is the signature treatment and is given in the present work with detailed dosage and indication notes from Lǐ’s own usage.
Luó Tiānyì’s compilation method, as explained in the prefaces: he kept a continuous record of Lǐ’s prescriptions during his student years, with month-by-month additions; he supplemented these with the lùn 論 (doctrinal discussions) Lǐ had given for each, producing the final unified work.
Prefaces
The hxwd _000.txt carries two substantial prefaces:
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Xù yī 序一 by Wáng Bówén 王博文 of Dōnglǔ 東魯, Tōngyì dàfū Yānnán Héběi dào tíxíng àncháshǐ 通議大夫燕南河北道提刑按察使, dated Zhìyuán shíqī nián suì cì gēngchén qīngmíng hòu èr rì 至元十七年歲次庚辰清明後二日 = Yuán Zhìyuán 17 / 1280, two days after the Qīngmíng festival. Wáng identifies Lǐ Dōngyuán’s clinical method as having four parts: míngjīng 明經 (knowing the classics), biémài 別脈 (distinguishing pulses), shízhèng 識證 (recognising patterns), chǔfāng 處方 (composing formulae). He notes that this Yuan-Yuan reprint was prepared by the Imperial Physician (Tàiyī) Luó Qiānfǔ.
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Xù èr 序二 by Yàn Jiān 硯堅 of Mángchéng 邙城 (modern Luòyáng region), dated Zhìyuán sān nián lìchūn hòu wǔ rì 至元三年立春後五日 = Yuán Zhìyuán 3 / 1266, five days after Lìchūn. Yàn Jiān provides the most substantial doctrinal commentary on the work: Lǐ’s clinical method was deliberately not formula-bound (bù jū yú fāng 不拘於方), and Lǐ explicitly cautioned Luó against teaching the formulae alone — instead requiring his students to master the Běncǎo materia medica first, and only afterwards to study formula-composition. Yàn notes Lǐ’s other works (Yīxué fāmíng 醫學發明, Píwèi lùn 脾胃論, Nèiwài shāng biàn 內外傷辨, Yàoxiàng lùn 藥象論) and warns that the Shìxiào fāng should be read together with these doctrinal works — not as a standalone “formula-only” reference.
Abstract
The 1266 Yàn Jiān preface is the date of the work’s editio princeps under Luó Tiānyì’s supervision, fifteen years after Lǐ Dōngyuán’s death (1251). The 1280 Wáng Bówén preface is for a Yuán-court reprint after Luó had been appointed Imperial Physician. The composition window of the underlying formulae is Lǐ’s mature clinical career, c. 1230–1251.
Lǐ Gǎo (Lǐ Dōngyuán, 1180–1251) was a jìnshì of the Jīn court who turned to medicine after the Jīn collapse (1234) and became one of the principal JīnYuán physicians; the Sì dàjiā (Liú Wánsù, Zhāng Cóngzhèng, Lǐ Dōngyuán, Zhū Dānxī) designation places him as the third of the four. CBDB has Lǐ at c_personid 0006782 and Luó at c_personid 0006783.
The work was transmitted in multiple YuánMíng recensions and is part of the standard Lǐ Dōngyuán corpus. The hxwd recension descends from a Japanese reprint of the Yuán editio princeps line.
Translations and research
For Lǐ Dōng-yuán in English see Charles Furth, A Flourishing Yin (California, 1999); Volker Scheid, Currents of Tradition (Eastland, 2007); and especially TJ Hinrichs, “The Medical Transforming of Governance and Southern Customs in Mid-Imperial China” (Cambridge, 2024). The principal English translation of Lǐ’s clinical work is Bob Flaws, The Treatise on Spleen and Stomach by Lǐ Dōng-yuán (Blue Poppy, 2004); no full English translation of the Shì-xiào fāng specifically located.
Other points of interest
The Shìxiào fāng is one of the principal sources for the formulary composition of Lǐ Dōngyuán’s school and is the textual basis for the standard modern editions of the Píwèi school clinical formulary. Several of its signature formulae — Bǔzhōng yìqì tāng, Shēngyáng yìwèi tāng 升陽益胃湯, Qīngshǔ yìqì tāng 清暑益氣湯 — remain in active clinical use today.