Zhèngzhì zhǔnshéng · Lèifāng 證治準繩·類方
Plumb-Line for Pattern-and-Treatment — Categorical Prescriptions by 王肯堂 (撰)
About the work
The Lèifāng 類方 (“Categorical Prescriptions”) is the prescription-volume of 王肯堂 Wáng Kěntáng’s encyclopaedic Zhèngzhì zhǔnshéng — the second-completed of the six sub-works, finished in Wànlì 26 / wùxū (1598), one year after the foundational Zázhèng zhǔnshéng (1597). It is structured as a prescription-companion to the Zázhèng doctrinal volume: where the Zázhèng zhǔnshéng sets out the diagnostic-and-treatment framework for the various clinical categories, the Lèifāng gives the matching prescriptions arranged by clinical category and explained by ingredient logic.
Abstract
Wáng’s prescription philosophy in the Lèifāng — as in the rest of the Zhèngzhì zhǔnshéng — is deliberately ecumenical: each clinical category carries HànTáng classical prescriptions ( Shānghán / Jīnguì, Qiānjīn / Wàitái ), the Sòng official compendia (Héjì júfāng, Shèngjì zǒnglù), and the four-great-masters of the JīnYuánMíng (Liú Wánsù, Zhāng Cóngzhèng, Lǐ Gǎo, Zhū Dānxī, with Míng-era extensions from Xuē Jǐ), and Wáng’s own clinical selections, without partisan ranking. The work thus serves both as a teaching collection and as a reference for prescription history within each clinical area. The structural alignment with the Zázhèng zhǔnshéng makes it possible to cross-reference doctrine to formulary directly; this was the principal innovation of the late-Míng formulary genre and the model for 吳謙 Wú Qiān’s Shānbǔ míngyī fānglùn 刪補名醫方論 (in the Qīng Yīzōng jīnjiàn, cf. KR3eu018 / KR3eu030).
Composition window 1598. For the parent compound work and the broader transmission see KR3eu011 and the canonical Sìkù entry KR3e0078.
Translations and research
- Volker Scheid. 2007. Currents of Tradition in Chinese Medicine, 1626–2006. Seattle: Eastland Press.
- Wú Wéi-jiā 吳唯佳 et al. (eds.). 1999. Wáng Kěntáng yī-xué quán-shū 王肯堂醫學全書. Beijing: Zhōng-yī Gǔjí.